Casey, Julia & Molly: Coronacation 2020

July 16, 2020: After a very unusual start to the summer of 2020 that included a lot of time in Florida and a family reunion on Squam Lake, we headed out as a family of 5 for our annual summer excursion. With Europe off the list this year, RV's sold out around the country and National Parks filled with non-mask wearing Americans, we decided to head south to one of my best friends' family ranch in Alabama. We left on July 16th and our first stop was in Philadelphia. We wandered around the Independence Hall area, saw the Liberty Bell through glass, checked out the old, cobblestone alleyways, and ended our visit at Pat's King of Steaks where the whole family tried cheesesteaks.

After Philly we drove southwest into Virginia and hopped onto the northernmost entrance to the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. This ridge-top drive took us up into the Blue Ridge Mountains and the temperature dropped 20 degrees. That was just what we were looking for to have a comfortable sleep in our tent. The kids hung their heads out of the windows enjoying the vews and twists and turns of the scenic road. We saw very few other cars and felt like we had the place to ourselves. We camped at Lewis Mountain campground. The campground was pretty full but we had a good spot. Casey, JJ and James set up the tent while Molly and I got some water boiling on the camp stove for Ramen dinner. We tucked into the tent. The campground had tons of warnings about bears and the camp hostess, Susan, went to great lengths describing the local bear's ninja-like ability to sneak up on us and steal our dinner if we dared turn our back on our picnic table. We weren't too scared. For some reason, in campgrounds, we have a false sense of security in numbers. We had a so-so sleep.

July 17th, 2020: We woke up and packed up our campsite and continued south on the Skyline Drive. We drove to Salem, Virginia and went to Roanoke College (Alma Mater of Uncle Mark and Jen and future home (next month) of cousin Tierney). We snuck into Tierney's dorm and had a picnic outside of it. It is a beautiful campus and we are excited for her. We headed south towards Bristol, TN/VA with no real plan. We had a very short pit stop in Bristol before heading to South Holston Lake looking for water and relief from the hot weather. We didn't know what to expect but immediately found a beautiful lake and a fun rope swing and bridges to jump off of. It was awesome and right up our alley. This type of thing is what we often remember most from our road trips. Unexpected and unplanned adventures that we stumble on that turn out to be so much fun. After a few hours of swinging, jumping and swimming, we headed south again to the base of Mount Mitchell. Mount Mitchell is the highest peak east of the Mississippi and we planned to hike it the next morning so we went in search of a place to camp as close to the base as possible After a long winding way back into the woods the campground was full, so we camped in a random spot in the woods nearby that someone had clearly camped in before. It was cool weather and quiet, but we heard noises and everyone thought they were bears and all the girls were crying and terrified. I was too but James and I had to play it cool for the kids' sake. But it was hard.

July 18, 2020: We woke up as early as we could and broke camp quickly. It was a Saturday and we had heard this hike was pretty heavily trafficked, so we wanted to get a parking spot and get on the trail as early as possible. We got a parking spot easily, got ourselves squared away for the hike and set off at 7:50am. It was 6 miles from the car to the summit and luckily there were very few people on the trail with us. We hiked at a pretty steady pace. James, Casey and JJ were in the lead with Molly and I lagging a little behind. The forest with thick and lush, rhododendron bushes were everywhere and huge! Often times the trail was covered over like a tunnel. Molly and I were dazzled by the mica on the ground, the tunnels overhead and the mushrooms everywhere. We felt like little hobbits. After the long hike in almost seclusion, we came out on top to a place where tourists could drive to the top and hike the last 100 yards to the summit with us. It wasn't great because it was crowded and most people were not wearing masks. We hid off to the side to rest and eat lunch. We grabbed a quick photo with the summit sign and skedaddled down to get away from the coronavirus crowd. We wore our masks around our necks and masked up any time we passed other hikers. The hike took us 3 1/2 hours to get to the top, we stayed up there for probably 20-30 mins, and the descent took around 3 hours. All total the round trip 12 miles was 7 hours and 10 minutes. The descent felt like it took forever. There was a thunderstorm, rain and our feet were killing us. We were happy to be down. We went to the grocery store and pigged out on chips and ice cream to celebrate our hike. After we drove 40 minutes into Asheville and spent the night with our friends the Cassidys. They are such awesome hosts and greeted us with pina coladas and a hot tub. We hung out on their deck, ate homemade pizzas and the kids played. We turned in early because we were all pooped!

July 19, 2020: We had a great sleep in beds and were treated to pancakes and eggs for breakfast. The girls played all morning while James and I did some work with Heather and Jimmy. Casey helped measure some roof beams and we spread mulch. Around noon we said our goodbyes and did a long push to Alabama. We had a long drive but it went fairly smoothly. When we got to Camden we loaded up on groceries at the Piggly Wiggly and got to the ranch around 8pm central time. All we did was wipe the groceries down and go to sleep.

July 20, 2020: First day at Galio. James and I set an alarm for 6:30 and ate a quick breakfast and went down to meet William by 7 at the barn. We found him on the way down digging out a beaver dam from under a bridge. The dam was causing water to spill over the roadway and needed to be dealt with. Next, we fed the horses and the bird dogs. The rest of the day was spent working on replacing the dock that goes out into the pond on the property. The boards are all rotting. The kids helped use the drills to remove screws and we had to get the old rotted boards out of there. We were only working on the first section that is farthest out into the water. Once, when trying to pry up a stuck screw I popped it loose and dropped the crowbar into the water. I jumped in to save it but had to swim in some mucky water where we know a 6 foot alligator lives. It was a little scary. We worked until noon and broke for lunch. Then we continued to work from 1-3pm. It was hot but not too bad. I was imagining it to be much worse. I went for a second quick swim when William dropped his glasses into the pond. We got a good amount of work done on the first day of the project. Later we hung around, the kids drove the polaris, we baited the pig trap and then we headed home for dinner and showers and an early bedtime.

July 21, 2020: Today Julia and Molly joined us for the 7am feeding of the horses and dogs. There's not much to it, but the kids can help with the kennels, cleaning bowls, delivering food, hosing out the poop, etc. Today we had to hit pause on the dock building because some more pressing projects needed doing. First of all, William drove the tractor to remove a tree that had fallen and was blocking the road. Then we had to go out to a sunflower field to build an electric fence around it. The deer are eating all of the sunflower plants and William needs them for the dove season. While he was at the store buying what we needed for the fence, James taught all of us to drive the riding mower. He learned to use one at Geordie's house in VT and we had fun learning. It is harder than it looks! Once William got back we headed to the field to build the fence. We drove posts into the ground, attached clips to each post, then ran the electric wire around the perimeter. William rigged it all up to the electricity and that was that. After lunch, we cleaned out the stalls of the barn and used a leaf blower to clean the whole place. We cleaned all the horses and dogs water buckets. After that, we were finished working for the day. The kids are painting some wood blocks to make name tags for the bird dogs kennels. We headed back to the house and had dinner.