Day 2, April 17, Happy Easter!!

April 17, 2022

Happy Easter! Our internet is extremely spotty: for all intent and purposes nonexistent. If we lay down in the bed and hold Patrise’s phone near one of the windows, we can get limited service for a while, before buffering kicks in. (See one of the pictures below.) That is how we watched Easter Sunday service occuring at our home church, First Congregational Church of Atlanta. We watched after a morning breakfast of oatmeal with butter, sugar, craisins, and pecan pieces.

After watching the church service, the mountain air was so cool and inviting, that both of us lay down to sleep some more: Patrise on the bed and me on the sofa. I tried to read for awhile, but that was of no use. So, I stopped fighting, and went along with what nature intended. Zzzzzzzzz, Zzzzzzzzz, Zzzzzzzz.

About an hour later, we awoke, got cleaned up and dressed for the day. Then we took a short hike to see the lake and walk a trail alongside of it. As it so happened, there was much more to see and do in this park than we realized. There was a father and his four little children – all under the age of seven or eight, to guess at the oldest child’s age – taking their turn at fishing; there was a mother with her three kids eating KFC, near paddle boats. Also, near the dock with the paddle boats, were canoes and kayaks. We assumed all were for rent, but the station was closed for Easter, so those activities were not going to be possible.

As we continued to walk along the trail and into another part of the park, we discovered a putt-putt golf course, which was open and free. We played putt-putt, and my wife was beating me handily before we quit. There was a party of five relatives in front of us, and they were a bit slower, as they enjoyed themselves, talking and joking with each other. They were Hispanic and speaking in Spanish, but some things are universal: like the brother teasing the sister who had hit the ball five times and still could not get past the first obstacle on the hole. Eventually, we decided to stop play after the 14th hole, so we could return to our RV and have lunch.

Lunch was Skyline chili, after which Patrise worked on plotting out more of our route, or at least as much as she could do without having access to the internet. (To think, just a scant 20 years ago – actually more like 15 years ago, since the iPhone was first launched in 2007, after which apps and internet use really exploded – we were not using the internet for much of anything: maybe for some emails at work, and those were the really sophisticated workplaces.)

Later in the evening, we began gathering wood, to build a fire in the firepit at our site. We added a lot of small kindling wood, some wood chips we brought with us, and lots of leaves. No lighter fluid, because we had none at the house to pack. (We have to get some additional grocery items tomorrow, so lighter fluid and charcoal will be on the list of items.) Meanwhile, as we are working to get a decent fire started, the couple at the site over the hill from us drove by. The lady asked we want some lawn chairs. We replied thanks, but no. We had lawn chairs; we just chose not to pull them out of storage. Patrise asked her, if they had something start fire with. She replied they did and would offer us some. Therefore, I walked over to their campsite to get the materials they were offering, while they drove ahead. Their names were Robert and Donna, and they were from Knoxville. Robert works at Home Depot, and so he had a small storage box of fire-starting materials. Donna gave me a bag to put the materials in, I thanked them for their generosity. After a brief conversation about our respective vehicles and how long we had been RVing (5 years for them, virgin voyage for us), I departed and returned to our site.

Meanwhile, Patrise had started to get the fire going real well and had put the seasoned pork chops on the grill plate over the firepit. Once the chops had a good color on each side, we placed them in the oven inside the RV to finish cooking, while the greens, okra, and sweet potatoes were heating. Now you know our Easter Sunday dinner. It was as fine as any we might have had at hom

We played two games of 500 (card game) after dinner while tasting some more of Valinda’s delicious carrot cake and drinking coffee. Now, Patrise is reading, while I complete today’s blog entry. Tomorrow we will pull up stakes from Fort Mountain and take a leisurely drive to Chattanooga, where we will stay with our cousin Angela for two days. Once we arrive in Chattanooga, we have a long “short list” of things to do, including getting Doug a haircut. We will also be able to get wifi, so that we can do a detailed update on the route for the next week or so, and so Doug can update the blog entries.