Escaping COVID-19 at Whitetail Pines

It's the 2020 Pandemic, Terri and I are a couple of weeks into the no travel order and the walls of our house in Clarksville are closing in.  We decided to escape to our hunting cabin called White Pines near the Tennessee River.   Which is exactly 50 miles from our front door.  Here we can socially isolate and have space to roam.  Although it is only 36 acres it lies within a gated community of roughly 6000 undeveloped acres.

I have a lot of annual maintenance to catch up on.  Terri has some sewing projects to work on.  There are a number of things that I have been putting off, like hanging a screen door, cleaning water collection and diverter filters.   I have also developed a mouse problem in the cabin.  Sometimes when you build something the mistake doesn’t have consequences for a couple of years. I have to close up the openings below the two sinks in the cabin.  Recently they have become a mice playground.

So we decide to head to the hills for 5 days or so.    The daily drone of the pandemic news is much less apparent here.  No cable TV to flick through.  So the first couple of days is getting the cabin projects completed while Terri catches up on her English paper piecing quilt project. The world is passing by on the outside with little notice.  So now we can get out in the woods and do some walks.

Well, the day started out with a good breakfast. Then a walk in the woods to look for Mushrooms. No mushrooms but a good look at the woods in the spring. The wildflowers are in bloom and the muscadine vines are leafed out. Here we sit on a woodland bluff above the Tennessee River which has been damned about 70 miles to the north creating Kentucky Lake. Back at the cabin, we have some visitors, 5 big whitetail does. And of course, our 14-year-old cattle dog who rides now as much as he can.

So in a few days we will have to head home to catch up on things there.  Cut grass, get garden beds ready maybe get a local motorcycle ride in.   We are dreaming of the day when travel restrictions are lifted.  We are already making plans to get away and head west.  There are more roads to travel than there is life to live.  So I'm anxious to get started.

A Walk in Greer South Carolina

I'm sitting here in my man-cave under self-quarantine,  going through photos on our trip to Charleston, SC.  On the way there we stopped and did the American Volkssport Association walk in Greer SC.   We did this walk a couple of weeks ago on 20 March just as the stay at home orders were starting to ramp up.  Greer, SC sits in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains is home to BMWs only North American car factory.  It seems to be a town that is on the rise both economically and culturally.

In all, it was a great walk although a bit strange.  The streets were deserted in the downtown, but the road construction in the center of town was still ongoing.  The plan is to do this walk again once they finish the streets.  We were able to stop for lunch to get takeout.  We then ate at some outdoor tables in the center of town.  During that time the town was erringly deserted.   It seemed like a different world.

 The start and stop point runs through Greer City Park near the new city hall.  This above-average city park was full of life compared with the rest of the town.  People were out enjoying the day,  the water fountains and paved walking trails that are in the park. One of the pavilions had a wedding picture event with the couple using the park as a backdrop for there wedding pictures.

At one time Greer was the border between the Cherokee nation and the colonial Provence of South Carolina. After the Cherokee War of 1759-1761 until 1777. 

This was an awesome walk with a hint of instability in the air.  It's going to be a tough time for our nation in the coming months if not years.  We will get through it.  My father always told me when you get lemons, make lemonade.  So in the coming months, once the stay at home orders are lifted, there might be some great opportunity to get out there and walk.