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Roses Creek – A Different Kind of Road Trip

Posted on January 1, 2021January 1, 2021 by Easin' Along

Although 2020 was a challenging year, Helen and I consider ourselves as fortunate as ever and remain grateful for our many blessings. We still have our health, our home, a beautiful family, and wonderful friends. We’re also blessed to have a wonderful church family that adds greatly to the joy that fills our lives.

Going back for more years than I can remember, our church members had delivered Christmas gifts to families in Roses Creek, a tiny Appalachian Mountain community where hard times moved in when coal mining moved out. Helen and I have adopted a family in years past, and I usually help with the delivery. I look forward to participating whenever I have the opportunity.

The project gets rolling in early December each year when the project organizer receives a list of family names from the Roses Creek Community Center Director. Church members volunteer to adopt a family and purchase items requested by the Roses Creek Family. Helen and I guessed that our family was a young married couple as only two people asked for gifts. The list included clothing, silverware…and an ax.

Helen shopped for the clothing, and I bought the ax from a local hardware store. Each gift was wrapped and placed in a large bag. Each bag was tagged and taken to the church for delivery.

On delivery day, volunteers gathered at the church and loaded a generous offering of bags and boxes into cars and trucks for delivery. In previous years, this task took place during a weekday with no children involved. Fortunately, we had the help of several children this year, and all were very much into the process and extremely helpful. After Justin led us in prayer, we moved out.

The Roses Creek community is about 75 miles north of Knoxville, within a few miles of the Kentucky border. I led the convoy of about eight or nine cars up Interstate 75. After driving about 60 miles, we left the highway and followed a narrow winding road over a mountain ridge into a valley below. Roses Creek flows through that valley leading to the community center.

In previous years, members of the community welcomed us and offered refreshments after bringing the gifts inside. This year, one person greeted us, wearing a mask, and pointed to the room where we assembled everything. We worked quickly and left. No time for contact, but that is emblematic of the year we’ve lived through.

I always get more out of this journey than I ever put into it. Have a blessed New Year, everyone. I’m Easin’ Along…and counting mine every day.

Fun

White Christmas! From Our Town to Yours…

Posted on December 25, 2020December 27, 2020 by Easin' Along

A most unusual thing happened in an already very unusual year…it snowed for Christmas. I don’t have the actual statistics, but I’m certain that a White Christmas in Knoxville, Tennessee has happened only a handful of times over the last 100 years. In recent years, we’ve seen snow rarely if at all.

Note: Thanks to Donna Connolly of Retirement Reflections, I now have the statistics. I have inserted a link here.

I choose to believe that this is a sign that we’re covering over 2020, and can look ahead to a brighter, better year in 2021.

Despite the challenges, we leave 2020 with a treasure trove of memories and feel extremely blessed for the opportunities we had to travel and enjoy the staggering beauty of our incredible country.

We send our sincerest wishes to each of you for a wonderful Christmas season and the happiest New Year ever. We’ll be Easin’ Along on the road less traveled again in January. We would love nothing more than to have you join us.

Fun

2020 – A Year in Pictures (And a Mask)

Posted on December 12, 2020December 12, 2020 by Easin' Along

Masked up at the Antler Arch – Jackson Hole, WY

What a year this has been! For Helen and me, 2020 falls somewhere in the range between blessed and challenging. We had the challenge of not having the opportunity to share time with family and friends. We miss sharing time with my Mom, who is doing well, especially for someone at the age of 92. Still, she remains strictly quarantined in her retirement home. The care and attention she receives are exceptional, but there are no hugs, and time for visits is divided among all of the other residents. A vaccine can’t come fast enough.

When the year began, COVID-19 was only a rumor about a disease spreading somewhere in China. Little did we know what was to come when we left for Florida on January 1^st. We ignored the stories and had a splendid time with my sister and brother-in-law camping in lake Kissimmee before working our way to Key West, where the food was fantastic, and the weather was even better. We arrived home a month or so later, tanned and rested. The rumors of a disease with no cure persisted and grew stronger.

In March, Helen and I planned a trip, leaving in April, for California to deliver a small trailer to our son. We booked all of the reservations, stocked the trailer with food and other necessities, including a few surprises for the grandchildren. Within a week of the departure date, campground operators began calling to cancel our reservations. A few held out hope but gave no guarantees of being open when we arrived. We had no option but to cancel the trip, and the rumor became real.

By mid-May, we were familiar with this disease’s risks and felt that we could manage a trip to deliver the trailer if we remained cautious. By then, cabin fever had set in, and two RVs sat in storage, unused. Around that time, our son in Charleston called and offered to tow the small trailer as far as Jackson Hole, Wyoming, if our son in California could meet us there and pull it the rest of the way. Suddenly a family vacation fell into place. We accepted the risks, masked up, and moved out.

The trip required some last-minute scheduling, but we managed to secure enough campsites for the family convoy to Wyoming and enough for Helen and me to continue for a delightful journey to the Oregon and California coast. We encountered plenty of challenges and disappointments along the way. Canada shut the doors on our planned week in Banff, and half of Glacier National Park closed as well. Nevertheless, the vast majority of the experience was splendid and proved worthy of the risk. Campground operators have gone above and beyond the procedures necessary to keep their visitors safe. We made it home in September with some great memories and just a few pictures.

We planned a trip to Edisto Beach, SC, well over a year ago for three weeks of pure vacation. By now, we were comfortable traveling and accustomed to the precautions necessary to stay out of harm’s way. Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of other travelers are just as cautious as us. On the road and in campgrounds, we see very few without masks or ignoring social distance restrictions. We reserved a large campsite in Edisto and moved to and from the beach freely. Just like our trip to the northwest, we cooked in, stayed close to our trailer, and shopped only when necessary. Edisto is always fun, beautiful, and peaceful.

We’re home now and planning a month-long trip to Florida beginning in mid-January. Hopefully, we will have at least one dose of a vaccine by then, as will every citizen who wants one. We’re looking forward to Florida as well as another journey west to visit the places closed to us in 2020. As always, we want you to join us for every mile.

Despite the challenges, 2020 was a joyful year for Easin’ Along. We’re very blessed…and so very grateful.