To quote the Grateful Dead, "What a long strange trip it's been". Our itinerary changes daily as states continue to close their parks. We are still in South Carolina but this is our last campground and SC parks are now closing. They have had self registration with no park employee contact at the last several parks. Our reservations in North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee were cancelled. The only state on our way home that still has open parks is Kentucky. We will stay there 2 days to break up the trip and then make a big press for home, staying in rest areas if need be. Luckily, we have our own bathroom and kitchen on-board as well as plenty of food so will not need to interact with anyone or anything other than a gas pump (with glove on, of course!) Parks have been quiet with very few people on the trails and those we do see have been politely keeping their distance.

Spring is when the Redbuds bloom!

Nobody allowed on the beach!

Rochelle is going to stock the pantry and refrigerator so that we can all quarantine together (she is working from home) for 14 days.
We were trying to get 100 Geo-caches this year but will probably fall a couple short since we are shortening our trip.
I wrote the above a few days ago. We reserved a campsite at Devils Fork Park in South Carolina originally because it had beautiful waterfalls and high gorges only accessible by boat. But, of course, we had to cancel the boat trip. We left that South Carolina park early when we were told that we weren't allowed to walk on the trails. They continued to allow big congregations at campfires, boating and fishing! Of all of those activities, I think trail walking is probably the safest! No boat trip, no hiking = we're outta here!
North Carolina really didn't want us! So, we sailed right through it!

On the way to our next park on way home we stopped at Cumberland Falls to break up our drive. It reminded me of Tahquamonon Falls without the tannin.

Cumberland Falls, one of the top 10 waterfalls in the nation.

We actually only stayed one night in Kentucky. Apparently, social distancing has not made it here yet. One lady asked me where I was from and when I said Michigan, she asked if we had the virus there. I tried to explain to her (from a distance) that it was everywhere. Duh! Then, she told me that Jimmy Buffett had died from it, which turned out to be untrue. Apparently it was another singer!
Anyway we made it home safely after a long 12 hour drive the last day. We are currently quarantining in the driveway in the RV to protect Rochelle. We have had little to no contact with people in the last two weeks other than as safe as we could make it grocery shopping and keeping a 6 foot distance when outside.
We did have enough toilet paper to last for the whole trip and a few rolls left over which is good since there is still none to be had locally. We traveled 5100 miles in 16 states, wore the tread off the bottoms of both of our shoes while walking 376 miles, found 98 Geo-caches and arrived home 12 days earlier than planned. At least most of the snow is gone at home but it's damn cold!
Until next year.....

Camping and traveling in these new times is certainly different! Going to the grocery store, doing laundry and getting gas are all fraught with peril. We are very careful with sanitizing and distancing but certainly enjoy our time in campgrounds by ourselves much more. It is much easier to practice social distancing while hiking and geocaching!

We have been in South Carolina for the past week. First in Edisto Beach on the ocean and now at a campground mid-state on a large lake. There had been a lot of rain this spring so trails are still pretty flooded causing us to find ways around or get wet feet!

Lots of boardwalks over swamps this year

I've seen better bridges!

This stairway ends in the water.

Our last beer at an establishment before everything closed.

Edisto Beach-pretty deserted

Enjoying the wind and waves, Edisto Beach

Our current campground is mid-state on a large lake and was pretty deserted when we got here but is now filled up for the weekend by many people who obviously do not believe any of the warnings since they are gathering in large groups to eat, party and make campfires. Looks like fun but not very wise!

We, on the other hand, went for a hike/geocache walk and walked much further than intended, nearly 10 miles. Other than my knees, we felt surprisingly okay except we wished we would have taken more snacks and drinks since the temperature got up to 84 and we were gone nearly 5 hours!

When we had the place to ourselves

Once the crowds arrived, we spent our time on the trails which we had all to ourselves. Never saw another person while on the trails!

I-95 bridge in the distance

We continue our slow journey home, staying to ourselves as best we can and sanitizing well when we must interact with the public. We have already had two changes to our itinerary due to closures and hope there aren't many more. If there are no additional closures we should be home in less than 3 weeks. And, due to Denny's excellent preparation, we have enough RV toilet paper for the rest of the trip. I'm not sure there will be any when we get home, though!

For the last 10 days we have been in Georgia. Temperatures have been above normal and the parks are lovely. They also have a robust geocaching program, and we now have over 600 lifetime finds.
All parks have some flooding as evidenced by this trashcan which I doubt belongs in the water by the dam.

We did quite a bit of walking and only got caught in one rainstorm. The rest of that day I spent sewing. The following day was bright and sunny and so, on another walk, we happened upon this vine which was nearly the size of a tree and twisted upon itself looking like a very thick piece of rope art.

The Georgia state reptile is the gopher tortoise and Reed Bingham State Park had a trail full of tortoise gopher burrows. Despite walking the trail several times, we never saw one. But we did see this guy using one of the burrows.

Next, we stopped off for a few days at Fort McAllister State Park where we visited the fort one day and went into Savannah another day. The fort was a confederate civil war fort.

These pointed sticks were supposed to slow down any invaders who made it to shore.

Cannonballs were heated in this oven so they would set ships on fire. Also, the cause of many soldiers burns.

Underground hospital where soldiers were treated for burns and malaria.

It was both of our first times visiting Savannah which is lovely. We made use of the Hop On/Hop Off bus and did a lot of walking through the many beautiful flowering squares in the historic district.

The fountains all had green water for St. Patrick's Day

The city was getting ready for St. Patrick's Day. They have the second largest parade in the country, after New York City. It was later cancelled due to Covid-19 and there were a lot of angry people. It is their largest income producing time of the year.

There were many sets of these "historic stairs" leading from the waterfront to the town. All labeled "very steep, use at your own risk".

People must have had much longer legs in the old days. I had to use the handrail to haul my fat butt up these steep stairs!

This was the home of cotton in the south. The cotton gin was invented here by Eli Whitney.

It is also the birthplace and home of Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts. We walked along the riverfront, stopped in for a beer and made it home before dark. We have been trying to eat in due to the corona virus and being vigilant with hand sanitation while not letting it keep us from still doing things.

Our beer joint

Moving on to the Florida panhandle, we finally had a couple of days of shorts weather! The first campground we headed to was Topsail State Park. Unfortunately, it was only available for one night. We would have loved to stay longer because it was beautiful! It was a short walk to the gulf and it's white sugar sand beaches or you could ride one of the trams provided. The sites were large and fairly private. This will definitely be on our radar for another stay!

Miles and miles of white sugar sand beaches

The park is a combination of a resort purchased by the state and a nature preserve. In our short stay we managed to walk a few trails, go to the beach (very windy that day!) and even find a couple of geocaches! There are a few small lakes in the park and of course waterfowl.

A ring necked duck

Next up, Torreya State Park where we had planned to stay several days but we didn't like it at all so moved after one night. Moving nightly,we truly feel nomadic! The park was small and cramped and the sites had very deep sand. 90% of the trees had come down in 2018 during Hurricane Michael and most of the hiking trails were closed due to the mess in the woods. The only thing good about this park was that a folk singer who was staying there gave a free concert that night in the hall!

We found a small private campground near Tallahassee. It was bit nicer than Torreya and near friends vacationing nearby that we were able to meet for dinner in Tallahassee. Good Mexican food, 2 for one margaritas and friends. Triple bonus!

With Gayle and Steve Grice

From there, it was on to southern Georgia where we had one and half terrific weather days before one and a half days of rain. Last year when we were in southern California they had unusual high rain and  flooding. This year they are having a drought. Fast forward to this year where we seem to have brought the flooding and rain with us to the gulf coast. Watch out Florida, we are headed your way next year! I did manage to get a lot of quilting done.😀
Reed Bingham State Park in Adel Georgia has a lake, many trails with boardwalks through swamps and forests, geocaches and supposed wildlife (we haven't seen any yet but we've been inside for the last two days).

 There was a lot of flooding, by the dam especially, but we were impressed by how quickly everything drained after rains. We did get caught in one rainstorm. We get bored if we are stuck inside for too long so had ventured out for a walk...

Dam view from the bridge

In dryer times I assume you can actually use this trash can....

Today, 3/6, has dawned bright and sunny. Time to get dressed and go for a walk! Maybe we will actually see those gopher tortoises their literature brags about!