The Repetiveness Continues

 By the end of April 2020 the Corps of Engineers in the Mobile district had decided to open campgrounds, albeit with covid-19 restrictions.  The campgrounds were to open in May with shields over the registration windows, just a small slot at the bottom for the gatehouse attendant to pass the camping passes through.  No reservations were done at the window, every camper had to pre-register online and pay in full by credit card, in advance.  The gatehouse attendants had already gone to credit card only transactions last year but this year they were instructed not to even do that.  Paper work would pass one way, from inside the gatehouse to the outside and that was it.

Normally this would be a very busy time for me as I provide tech support for all the gatehouse attendants use of the reservation system.  But with their interaction with the reservation system being little more than checking a box to check people in and check them out, I am not getting any calls at all.

Now that there is a better handle on things the Governor of Georgia has lifted the shutdown on almost everything.  "Main Street" has opened, with restrictions, as have restaurants and even gyms.  I have not rushed out to use the gym just yet, still feels a little risky.  But we have taken advantage of restaurant openings.  We have not had any Mexican food since late February and we hit our favorite spot within a couple of days of opening.  Very limited seating and we had to look up the menu on our phones as well as wear masks any time we were not at our table eating.

For most people reading this post I can imagine you are saying; "Yeah, so?  Might as well be reading about myself."  We've all been restricted in our movements and activity, we've all seen way too much TV, especially covid-19 news and political stuff (well, it is hard to not look at a train wreck).  But this is a blog about full-time living in an RV.  There is no fallback living option, no house to return to, we have to figure out how to make our nomadic lifestyle work in an environment we never thought of building a contingency plan for.

Our plans for 2020 were to be in Georgia for our grandson's first birthday at the end of March and then move west (somewhere where the elevation was above 8,000 ft) and enjoy a cool summer.  We had a few volunteer positions that looked promising, that is until the pandemic hit.  State and federal operations shut down all across the country.  Private campgrounds bucked the trend and most stayed open, however they were inundated with folks like us that had been put out by the shutdown where they were.  It was a  rough few months for some of our brethren to find a place to drop anchor.  We consider ourselves extremely lucky that the Allatoona Lake operation made the conscious decision to leave their volunteers in place to ride out the pandemic.  This has been a huge weight off our shoulders.  We'll gladly bake in Georgia summer heat and humidity instead of being cast adrift.

Fortunately Cyndee and I were able to pick up a few odd jobs to occupy our time.  There were several photography assignments.  The one below was an annual event; Wear Your Life Jacket to Work Day.

Wear Your Life Jacket to Work Day 
photo assignment.

It was weird doing this with a mask on everybody but that is how it was.  And this was only about half the staff.  The others had been furloughed or were on a staggered work schedule.

One of Allatoona's day use parks is Riverside.  It lies just below the dam on the south bank of the Etowah River.  It is also home to one the top ranked disc golf courses in the country.  In June an annual tournament was held and I was asked to photograph the event.  There was not a mask in sight (it was still a little early in the pandemic and recommendations for masks in dispersed outdoor conditions were not being promoted yet).  However gatherings of large groups were being strongly discouraged so the event went to a timed registration, having no more than a couple people at a time at the (outdoor) registration table.  The bar-b-que and picnic were also canceled.  It was a pure disc golf only day.

This simple map belies the ruggedness of the course.

Hole 4
The basket is up the side of a mountain and in the mouth of a cave.

 I took several hundred shots this day, all with a long lens.  Most golfers didn't even know I was there.

You have to be part Billy goat to play this course. 

Up here in North Georgia one is in the worn down section of the Appalachian Mountains, some call it the toe hills.  In fact, the Appalachian Trail terminus is a short drive away.  These mountains may be short but they are mountains none-the-less.  And when you are playing the Riverside Disc Golf course your legs are affirming it is a mountain course.

As time passed Cyndee and I got more opportunities to do work in isolation.  Several things around the project are/were in dire need of a fresh coat of paint.  We got asked to tackle the worst first.

Trail overlook deck, before.

There are a number of trails around the Allatoona project but there is only one that has an overlook with a deck.  For some reason people think this is an invitation to spray paint their satanical beliefs and political commentary over every square inch of deck surface.  We lugged all our supplies and equipment up the relatively short distance to the overlook and put in several hours getting down enough coats of paint to cover everything.

Trail overlook deck, after.

After spending a good deal of time on our hands and knees digging debris out of the gaps in the floor boards and then using a small brush to paint down in those gaps the day had turned from pleasant morning temps to stifling hot afternoon temps.  Even though the walk out was downhill it proved to be tougher than our uphill walk in.  The old knees and back just aren't happy about being abused like that anymore.  But at least we were not sitting in front of a TV.

I guess somebody in the front office liked our deck painting job because two weeks later we were requested to paint all the metal doors on the outbuildings at the Project Management Office.

Cyndee painting one of the three garage doors at the 
Corps of Engineers Project Management Office.

 Paint was peeling pretty bad on all the doors (three 12 x 12 roll-ups, four walk-thrus) so we had to wire brush every surface top to bottom before we could start painting.  But once we got going it went pretty smoothly.  When we were down to our last door our Volunteer Supervisor came out and asked how much we had left to do and when we told him we would be done within the hour he stood there for a moment and said; "Dang, I thought this would keep y'all busy for at least a couple of days.  Now I got to find something else for you!"  But since it had become really hot again we said; "Nah, we're good, unless it is in front of an air conditioner."

So, with the exception of a few brief jobs our next six weeks were a lot like our first ten weeks of the pandemic.  Although we did get a little more organized about our TV watching and got in on some episode 1's of marathons of series we used to watch.