Coping with the Pandemic 2020

Well, it certainly has been a year that prompted a lot of adaptations.  Gretchen and I cannot stay home very much, we like to be on the go!  We could not go on our summer camping trip to Nova Scotia so we needed to plan things closer to home.  

We camped locally, our first trip was to the Shenandoah Valley.

We did get to boat on SML!

And hang out with Captain Bender!

August 1st was our 50th wedding anniversary!  Wow, it has been a fantastic adventure Gretchen...and there is more to come!

We needed a pandemic project to give us a reason to get out of the house and change our daily routine. Luckily, with the camper we can go on trips and never enter any buildings except grocery stores.  So, we decided to do YouTube videos of Virginia bike trails.  We focused on southern Virginia trails.  We spent five weeks camping and biking. To date we have nine videos on our YouTube channel.

We decided this summer we wanted a bigger camper; one with more creature comforts for aging travelers.  Necessities included a permanent bed, dry bathroom accessible while traveling, a slide out and dual axels.  The Bishops always extol the virtues of their Lance campers, so we went to look at them.  When we looked at other campers, none compared to the Lance.  So we decided to do a pandemic purchase, a Lance 1685!

But the pandemic spending was not at an end! We needed a vehicle with a bigger engine to pull the camper.

Since September, we have gone on several week long trips to video bike trails, camped with the Bishops, our “Lance Buddies” and visited the kids and grandkids over Thanksgiving. Gretchen and I absolutely love our new camper. we highly recommend pandemic spending!

 

 

Finally, during our home stays, we were able to have socially distanced picnics with our close friends and neighbors and took day trips to local sites.

James River State Park

New Riverside Park Overlook

Tantivy Farm

Large bear at Peaks of Otter 

Picking Pumpkins at Smith Family Fun Farm

Emma, Will, Nick, Audrey, Katie and Henry

And most importantly, at this writing Gretchen and I are healthy; looking forward to a COVID vaccine and a less intense 2021!