Apr 8 - Tuscaloosa, AL and Lake Lurleen State Park

  Early morning hike, before it got too hot and humid.  Walked the road down to the fishing piers, about a mile each way.  Then, as is now becoming our regular schedule, we packed a lunch and went to "work" at our mobile office location in town. 
  I finished sewing the first of two face masks last night.  Had to redo it a few times to get it to work the way I wanted.  We stopped at Walmart to get some elastic for the ear pieces, and, of course, they were all out.  I ended up finding some rope ribbon, that worked well.  I researched online for a pattern and the type of material to use.  It's interesting that the CDC is now saying you should wear them out in public when social distancing is difficult, but you can't buy them anywhere. 
  Last night we watched one of the DVD's Peter purchased from the discount bin at Walmart.  He got 5 different James Bond 007 DVD's.  So far, we watched Sean Connery and now Roger Moore.  What to do without the internet!

Morning hike at Lake Lurleen photos:

Face mask finished photo:

Apr 7 - Tuscaloosa, AL and Lake Lurleen State Park

  Even though it was overcast, we went for an early morning walk, down the road to the lake and picnic areas. About 1.5 miles, round trip.  Nice walk, although whenever I stopped, my face was surrounded with little flying bugs.  Note--there were NO bugs around Peter's face.  I was even wearing my Permethrin-infused hat, that is supposed to deter bugs.  We stopped for a few minutes and sat on a hanging swing overlooking the lake.  Really nice.  I am very grateful that we are self-distancing in this beautiful local.
  We packed a lunch and headed into our "mobile office".  It has  now been raining steadily all day.  I'm glad we found our office location under a very large, covered roof.  We can sit and work on our computers and be completely dry. 
  Today's challenge:  the electric pilot that lights the gas stove just stopped working.  The gas continues, but the electric start doesn't even click, like usual.  I was able to use a match to light the burner, so could use the stove, but was very nervous about it.  I called Tiffin this morning, and he said it should be fine to use a match.  He also said they are trying to arrange a time soon for those of us that need to bring in our RV's for service to come in.  They have had so many cancellations, that they closed the shop.  Now, they are trying to figure out how and when to reopen.  Hopefully, soon.  We will drive the RV the hour to get there, spend the night in their campground, and have them service it the next day (they open up at 7:30am and close at 3:30pm).  We will return to Lake Lurleen afterwards.
  Since we are now stationed at Lake Lurleen for the whole month, I decided to post some photos of how we "live" in our RV.

More Lake Lurleen-this morning's hike-photos:

Our RV campsite photo:

Our inside the RV living space photos:

Apr 6 - Tuscaloosa, AL and Lake Lurleen State Park

  We have decided that it works best to hike in the mornings, and go into the "office" late morning and early afternoon, taking our lunch to eat there.  That way, we hike while it is still cooler in the mornings, and get home early enough for me to cook dinner.
  So we did the Ridge Trail again.  This time going a mile in and a mile out, but starting from the other end of the 4 mile loop trail.  It's only April, and already the high today is mid-80's.  The trail had some plant identification signs that finally told me what some of the greenery is -- large leaf magnolia and Newport azaleas, just staring to bloom.  On our walk, we were startled by a long, black snake.  What fun.
  We set up in our "mobile office" by the WinnDixie grocery store.  Nice shade, nice light breeze, and relatively cool.  Got an email from one of the charities I work with, saying they were really thankful that I sent them a heads-up email from Peter describing the forgivable payroll protection loan that is currently available.  It will help them cover payroll for a couple of months, at least.  It's nice to see us doing good, even in these difficult times.
  We stopped at Walmart on the way back to pick up Peter's drugs.  Thought I'd might find a face mask there, but instead found empty shelves --just like everywhere else.

Morning hike on Ridge Trail photos:

Big leaf Magnolia plant

Today's "mobile office" photo:

Walmart shelves for face masks, sanitary wipes, and paper towels photo:

Apr 5 - Tuscaloosa, AL and Lake Lurleen State Park

  Now that we have decided to stay at Lake Lurleen State Park for the entire month of April, as it is a great place to self-isolate,  we have begun to explore the best flow of the day.  Today we needed to do laundry, badly.  So we found a good one, that limits the number of people inside at a time, and won't let you remain inside while your clothes wash or dry.  They also won't let you fold your clothes inside, and wipe down the equipment regularly.  Even so, we wore our disposable gloves.  We found a nice shady spot across the street, in an empty parking lot to wait. 
  I had done some research online about how to make your own face masks, since you can't find them in any stores around here.  So, I started hand sewing two.  We'll see how they come out. 
  We went back to the RV for lunch and returned into town to set up our "mobile office".  Our requirements are shade, isolation, and near a public bathroom.  We found an empty strip mall near the WinnDixie grocery store.  It has a large covered patio on the front and the side, so was perfect for our needs.  We set up our camp chairs, our collapsible table and opened our computers.  Voila! Our home office.  It worked perfectly for us.
  I did my family Hangouts call.  It is really, really nice to be able to "see" everyone, including my newest granddaughter, whom I haven't even met yet.  We did take-out dinner, and then played a game of Fox and the Forrest, a two-player card game that Aaron & Anica gave us for Xmas.  Very interesting and challenging--a twist on the usual trick-taking games.

Mobile Office in Tuscaloosa, AL photos:

Sunset at Lake Lurleen State Park photo:

At home in the RV photo:

Apr 4 - Gordo, AL and Lake Lurleen State Park

  We went for a 2 1/2 mile hike on the Ridge Trail this morning.  A very nice 4 mile loop trail through the woods, following the hillside ridge.  We only walked a mile in and turned around and came back, as we needed to get back into town for the internet, for another Peter post.  But it was a lovely hike.
  We have decided to stay here at this State Park campground for the entire month of April.  It is very isolated, is a beautiful area, has lots of hiking trails and places to hang out around the lake, with very few other people around.  It feels very safe.  The only down side is the lack of any internet, which makes us drive into town and hang out there, in and around the car. 
  Tiffin has rescheduled our Tiffin RV service twice now, and they aren't saying yet when they will reopen.  Hopefully before the end of the month.  If so, we will drive the RV up there, spend the night, and return the next day after servicing it.  They are only an hour or so away.  By the end of the month, we will have a better sense of what our return route should look like.
  Instead of going into Tuscaloosa, we decided to drive north a bit and find a "mobile office" spot in the smaller town of Gordo, AL.  So we are hanging out in the CVS parking lot, with great internet, and a shady tree. 
  Researched how to make your own face mask online.  They say the best fabric is a polypropolene reusable grocery bag.  Cotton, apparently, retains moisture, and thus grows bacteria.  The grocery bag does not.  How to sew from an RV -- an interesting challenge.

Lake Lurleen Ridge Trail hike photos:

Gordo, AL "mobile office" photos:

Apr 3 - Tuscaloosa, AL and Lake Lurleen State Park

  We went into town fairly early so Peter could whip out a hot Forbes.com blog post on the new Corona virus-related tax issues.  We found a spot in a shaded parking lot behind the Publix supermarket and set up our "working mobile office".  I sitting outside on my camp chair with my collapsible table, and Peter sitting in the passenger seat in the car.  We brought our "picnic lunch" to eat while "at work".   We picked this spot because it has access to a bathroom.  We stay away from other people, put on our disposable gloves to go into the store, and wash hands a lot, or use our hand sanitizer drops.
  We just read that now the CDC is recommending the use of face masks when out in public.  However, they are just not available in the stores--CVS, Wallgreen, Publix, etc.  I will need to research how to make our own.
  When we got back to the RV, we went for a short walk down to the lake and the picnic pier, and sat and read for a while.  Made dinner and we watched a DVD.

Lake Lurleen State Park Picnic pier photos:

Lake Lurleen RV campsite photos:

Apr 2 - Lake Lurleen State Park hike and Tuscaloosa, AL

  We went for a delightful 4 mile hike this morning.  The trail hugged the lake and went out to the dam.  We sat on the dam and read for about half an hour, then returned.  What a great trail, and what a nice way to spend the morning in our "social isolation" mode.  The weather was sunny and cool, the air was clean, with a mild breeze.  We keep deciding that perhaps this is a really good place to wait out the Covid-19, at least for a while.  Not sure that Massachusetts is a better place to be right now,
  We also got a call this morning from Tiffin, saying that our rescheduled appointment needed to be cancelled.  Did we want to reschedule?  But they aren't able to say yet when they would be reopening.  Should we extend our stay here for the month of April, and hope to get the Tiffin serviced?  The service center is only an hour or so away from here.  But, if we do that, we need to reschedule our remaining stays home--and many States have closed their State Parks, and VA closed the RV parks for reservations of less than 14 days.  What to do?
  The park is so nice, we are considering extending our stay.
After lunch, we drove back into Tuscaloosa, and found a more remote parking lot by the river, and set up to work on the computers.  I worked on tax returns, and more Estate phone calls, catching up on the blog, and trying to look at new routes home.
  Returned to the Park for dinner.  It is actually quite nice not being connected to the internet for a change. 
 
Lake Lurleen State Park Lake trail photos:

Our "office" in Tuscaloosa photo: