The new normal, constant change?

After we left the coast we headed inland to Albany, GA, little did we know it was a hot spot in GA for the virus, not that knowing ahead of time would have changed our plans.  A lot of people don't seem to realize this mode of travel pretty much keeps you isolated.

Our very nice spot in Albany,
well except for the biting bugs:-)

Our next day was short so we decided to deal with the love bug issue before we left.

Before

And after

Next we went farther north to Pine Mountain, GA, near Calloway Gardens, shut of course, for the virus, but we spent 2 leisurely days there.  We, as I said, got the word that Oregon had extended their stay at home until July 6th, so we spent a lot of time on the drive talking about what we might do instead thinking our paint appointment would be canceled.  And we'd have nowhere to stay.  Thought maybe we could find another reputable paint shop somewhere else that was open, or, or, or.  Once we settled into our very nice site at Pine Mountain, I decided that rather than keep guessing, I would contact the Oregon shop directly and find out the real skinny.

We'd highly recommend Pine Mountain!

I called the paint shop and I was told he was open for business, had been open for business, and expected to be open for business, and in fact, he and his family had just taken their motorhome out for a weekend to a private RV park and he had no trouble.  What?!?!  So again rather than speculate we contacted 4 different private rv parks in Oregon, and all said they were open and busy, but had instituted virus protocol, mostly involving a no contact registration and payment.  Oh wow, our trip to Oregon just got reinstated!  On the other hand Karen and Tom had planned to stay in a state park in Indiana to visit family in Louisville and got a call their reservation was canceled due to the state park closing, and then were informed that all campgrounds were closed until the end of May in KY.  There is no consistency from state to state.  We are finding that no matter what you read in the news about the various lock down rules, it definitely pays to call individual campgrounds and get the latest data.

We are now in the Atlanta area for 2 weeks, and our regular campground here on Lake Allatoona is busy and almost full and are completely booked for the Memorial Day weekend.  People are mostly social distancing, but families are out enjoying the fresh air and sunshine, camping together on the lake.  Jan is getting her hair done today, she says yippee, ki yay!!  And both of us have dental appointments, me to get my permanent crown, and Jan to get her implant, and it looks like we'll also be able to get our second Shingrix shot while here.  Life is slowly returning to the valley.  We are continuing to be careful and distancing, as we also know the end is not yet here, if ever.  Keep safe and well.

But life does go on, virus or no virus

Last post from Florida, finally

We have made up our minds to move.  Jan had made a hair appointment for Tuesday, so we planned to leave Wednesday.  Well, on the 1st of May the governor decided not to include hair salons in his slow opening of Florida, so we looked at each other and said, okay, we'll leave Monday instead.  On Friday, we moved a lot more of our stuff, the grill, a bunch of chairs and tables down to our storage unit in anticipation.  Then Saturday morning when Tom and Karen were in the process of leaving, we looked at each other and asked why are we waiting until Monday?  So Saturday we moved our rugs, patio mats, and almost everything else to storage, leaving just the satellite dish for Sunday morning.

We were off Sunday morning.  We have been blessed with very nice weather these last few days, lower humidity, a nice breeze, almost cool in the evenings.  So we will make our way north to the Atlanta area where we will sit about a month while we watch and see how things play out with this virus.  

But before we left we saw a very cool thing.  We have a gopher tortoise preserve in our park, and on most warm days you can see between 1-7 tortoises.  Occasionally they make their way through the park and may come walking through your campsite.  But the day before we left we saw something we had never seen before, a momma laying eggs.

Life goes on, virus or not

I made good use of some of our down time and tied some more flies, we are starting this season with WAY more flies than we ever had before:-)

Clockwise from the front left, scuds, Shiney Hiney caddis pupa, San Juan worms,
and stimulators

Then, of course, since we were getting ready to leave by washing the motorhome one last time, I pull in the front driver side slide and, BANG!  What?  Turns out one of the slide locks that we replaced last year for $1800 broke.  So I had to pull it off, open it up and found the wire that operates the lock had broken off.

This is the pivot that engages the lock when you bring in the slide

You can see the wire that separated

I called the place where we bought it to see if the manufacturer had any warranty, and after sending in a bunch of pictures, they are looking into it.  We're keeping our fingers crossed.  In the meantime I put the now inoperable slide lock back on, we still have the front one, and we are pressing on.

So since we were leaving early we decided to go to Port St Joe, FL to Presnell's RV Park right on the water for one night.  It was so nice to be moving again even with all the uncertainty, and then the love bugs arrived.

Pretty bad

Even worse

We were hoping we'd miss them, but no......  By the time we pulled in, I could hardly see.

But it was worth it.  We got a nice waterfront site.  The campground is busy and full, families having a great time uncooped, but maintaining distance.  It was a nice relaxing evening.

Happy Hour, of course

Capped off with an excellent sunset!!

We had set up an appointment in Oregon to have some paint repair done in mid June, but on the way here we heard their governor just extended their lock down until July 6th!  We have no idea what we will do or whether it might get shortened or what.  We'll keep you posted as we learn more and more.  But for now we are headed to the Atlanta area for a month, and then?????