In February we listened to some news reports and felt compassion for the folks in the nursing home in Washington state and in China. Yet we enjoyed the beach in TX, then made our way to Saguaro National Park, AZ (see desert people blog of 3/5 ) followed by a visit to Chiricahua National monument where I blogged about the Coatis (3/8). The plan was to spend a slow few weeks crossing the country next, eventually landing in Clarksville, VA by 3/25 in time for dental cleanings and some prep time for a 3/30 start date of Terry’s summer project - hiking the 2190 mile Appalachian Trail (AT). I was going to start with him and hike for 7-10 days but not spend the whole six months hiking. I would just pop in on sections and hike with him. Yet as we moved east, in early March, our plans began to change. We didn’t have a lot of personal contact with folks since we like to find off-the-beaten path places to camp and hike. And we thought we’d drive a couple of days, then stay somewhere a few days, steadily moving east. We found a nice free campsite in a town park in Haskell, TX where we had water and electricity and warm weather right beside a ball park where Terry watched (through the fence) a couple of innings of HS baseball. There was a running track around the park with a lagoon stocked with fish, and I took a nice run trying to get in better shape for hiking. And then there was the Titus County Fresh Water Supply area in TX with free camping on the lake where pelicans, blue herons, egrets and other wildlife fish and nest. We stayed there two nights. With the exception of one person, we didn’t come into close contact with anyone at these places. The one person we did come into contact was a water supply ranger who has each camper fill out a form to put in the windshield (you can camp free for 10 days). Terry used his pen for that. We didn’t think too much about that, until 48 hours later. We could have enjoyed this beautiful spot longer, but the ranger warned us that the next few days heavy rain was coming, so we just stayed the two nights. Our last night at the water supply area, President Trump addressed the American people. I didn’t watch much of it (was on the phone with a friend), but I did begin to understand that life was changing for everyone on Mother Earth. I felt things shifting but couldn’t quite grasp how or what things they were and what the future would look like. It wasn’t something visual yet. At that point there were no mobile testing sites with lines of cars, nor signs in the windows of businesses, nor face masks and gloves popping up on my social media feeds. You hear people talk about something being palpable. And that word to me conjures up the feeling someone has in a horror movie scene - as the music takes an ominous turn, the darkness descends and the hair bristles on the back of the actor’s neck...the shift is palpable. It’s a feeling in the air, but you’re not seeing the monster still hiding in the trees. These couple of days as a new reality took hold, to me there was a palpable shift.
AT A CROSSROADS We longed for the days of sauntering through the woods on a hike: listening to songbirds, gazing at blossoming tree buds, catching a quick glimpse of a deer or rabbit skittering by, hearing our boots crunch leaves while Rocket chases a squirrel up a tree. So we decided to head towards good hiking in TN and set our sights on Big South Fork Recreation area - one of the first places we hiked and reveled in our new found semi-retirement on this RV odyssey which began June 2015. We traveled on the Natchez Trace through Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. We found another great free camp spot at mile marker 385 and took a hike with Rocket to Meriwether Lewis’ gravesite. But then Terry started having sciatica, and we decided to take scenic routes and get home to mom, sooner than planned. When Terry told me he needed to give his body a short respite from hiking, I was relieved on one hand. I felt the need to get settled and see where this paradigm shift was headed. And I wanted to be in VA with mom. Our goal to arrive by 3/25 had given us a good two week period of little close personal contact with strangers and possibly infected surfaces. I thought if we had picked up the virus in AZ, NM, TX or MS, we would have the two-week period of possible contamination behind us and therefore not endanger mom. An accelerated path to Clarksville meant we’d only have six days of diligent hand washing and conscious effort to limit close contact. Well as I write, we’ve been with mom seven days and have another few days before that two-week period will end. I didn’t really think I could have gotten the virus from touching the telescope at the Tucson Mt park star party I attended with 15 others. And I didn’t really think Terry picked up the virus from the ranger’s pen. Or that when we bought our toilet paper at Walmart in Mississippi, that the guy who sneezed next to me had infected me. BUT it could have happened that way. We could have been walking around carrying that virus and transmitting it to others. I’ve read about the R Naught and exponential growth of this virus (see chart numbers in box). The chart I saw a week ago suggested for every one person infected, that person will infect three more people each, so that by the time that cycle happens 15 times, over 14 million people will have contracted this virus. That’s just 15 cycles too...perhaps with proper measures we can get that number decreased. A scientist I heard the other day suggested the R naught is 2.5. Nonetheless, the numbers of infected are and will be staggering. And unless you’re in complete denial or living in a cave, we all know this will change our world forever, and it will have profound effects on life as we know it in the near and likely distant future. | Scientists measure the spread of an epidemic by a number called R0, or “R naught.” That number is calculated this way: for every person who develops the illness, how many other people do they give it to before they are cured (or dead) and no longer infectious? The R0 for coronavirus appears to be a number close to 3 – an extremely frightening number for such a deadly disease. |
Thankfully, none of us (Terry, mom, me) has any symptoms. We have spent most of our time in the house or walking the dog. Terry and I have been to the store and to the car repair shop - wiping car surfaces and washing our hands long and hard. And we’ve enjoyed our dog walks and runs/bike rides. We recognize Terry can’t live his dream of hiking the AT this Summer. Hikers are being discouraged from hiking the trail for several reasons: hostels and outfitters for resupplying food may be closed; trail angels who provide rides into towns will not be volunteering; shelters on the trails where hikers sleep make close contact the norm. BUT we want to get out and experience nature since there are so many things we can/should no longer do. So we may pack our car with extra food, hike a section of the AT for a few days then return to the car. We’ll take the stored food from the car and hike the opposite direction on the trail for a few days and turn around and hike back to the car. We’ll sleep in our tent and avoid the shelters, take our hand sanitizer and keep our distance from other hikers. We think the risk of infection will be low, and it will be a nice change from sheltering in the house. It will be just a short spell on the trail, something to make we feel like we still have control over our movements. That is if there’s no lock down before we get started. I hope that my next blog can be interesting and informative, perhaps even inspiring - in light of all the gloom that exists since COVID-19 came into our lives. And I hope and pray that those reading this will remain virus free and safe and healthy - wherever you are.