Camping with Friends: Edgar Evins

Last year we realized that we had several friends who had campers and we started camping with them semi-regularly. Besides the mutual love of camping, we all have similar age kids (mostly boys) which makes these camping trips a lot of fun.

In March we started planning out our camping season with them, adding in dates we were all available through the end of summer. Coronavirus quickly put a dent in our carefully made plans. First, with Rock Island closing and refunding us our reservations. Talk about a bummer.

Anyways, as our state opened back up, we revisited the idea of camping again and were able to tentatively pencil in some new weekends. Last weekend marked the first of such camping trips for this year.

Our family was actually supposed to go to Rock Island for the first part of the week since Daniel had onsite work at the Rock Island Dam. Unfortunately, due to circumstances outside of our control, we ended up missing that portion of the trip. Click here to read why.

Thankfully we were able to still join our friends at Edgar Evins for the weekend. We had six little boys running around, ranging in age from one to eight. They had a blast. The parents all had a good time too.

We had late night meals, chats around the campfire. The boys did a little fishing in the lake. We took a hike down to Cummins Falls, where all of the boys were troopers. It was just such a good weekend.

This was our first time to camp at Edgar Evins. All of the sites are on elevated decks and some of the sites had pretty steep angles for trying to park a camper. I would suggest making sure you read about every site to make sure you reserve a level one if you are planning to camp here.

Before leaving, we scoped out the sites that are on the water and hope to come back and snag one of those in the future.

I am so thankful we were able to get back to camping. Next week we will be heading to Florida to see my family again and then camp at the beach. We cannot wait!

One Second Every Day: June

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A post shared by Cheree Moore (@mo_haus) on Jul 1, 2020 at 6:28am PDT

This captures one second of each day in the month of June. June was a month of holding life in tension. Tensions came to a head after the murder of George Floyd by a policeman which led to protests worldwide and in some cases rioting. Online people shouted each other down telling others how they should be reacting on social media. In real life I checked in with people I personally knew who were hurting. I talked to my kids. I had hard conversations. That will continue. On top of this, we are also still dealing with the fact that Covid-19 cases are on the rise where we live. Mental health suggests we have to find better ways to cope. And so we are holding all of this in tension. We are choosing to meet with small groups of friends outside. In juxtaposition to these heavy things we took a quick weekend trip to Florida to see family. We managed to do our annual rafting trip on the Hiwassee with friends on Father’s Day weekend. We also did our first camping trip of the year and hiked to the beautiful Cummins Falls. The kids have biked their hearts out and have continued to sleep in cushion forts and play well together. Daniel spent four nights fixing our SUV after a mechanic broke a bolt on a control arm. Living with and having to fix other people’s wrongs, that seems to be a theme right now. 

A Case of the Mondays

We were supposed to leave to go camping yesterday.

Daniel had to give a presentation for work about the Rock Island Dam today and will be doing an onsite visit of the dam tomorrow. We thought this would be a perfect time to hit up the Rock Island campground as a family.

However comma, things have not gone as planned.

On Monday Daniel took our SUV to get a tire rotation and alignment. These are the only things he pays other mechanics to do for us. Generally he does all of our mechanical work. This is a blessing and a curse. Anyways, the mechanic who worked on our car managed to break a bolt on the control arm. They told Daniel he would have to pay for the new bolt AND the time involved for them to fix their mistake. An unknown amount of time because they couldn't manage to remove the bolt that they broke.

Instead of paying an obscene amount for them to fix something they broke, he had them put the wheel back on and he drove it home.

So instead of packing up and finishing fixing our camper slide, he spent the rest of Monday taking the wheel off and searching for the parts he needed to fix it.

Tuesday he went to the funeral of his Grandmother's husband, Mr. Ralph. With the pandemic still going on we didn't think it made sense to take the kids, so I stayed home with them. We thought he could pick up a needed part in Manchester after the funeral (Chattanooga didn't have any parts we needed). However, Manchester did not actually have the part in stock, even though they said they did on the phone.

Faced with the dilemma of not being able to fix our SUV, Daniel called places from Murfreesboro to Knoxville trying to hunt down the part. A shop in Knoxville had it, for a better price AND the tech there gave Daniel more pertinent information about the needed part.

Thankfully Daniel's dad was available to drive up to Knoxville to get the part. Yesterday was a busy day and Daniel didn't get to work on the car at all. This was probably for the best because it poured rain for most of the day. He did manage to finish his presentation that he had to give this morning.

That brings us to today, Wednesday. We were supposed to leave yesterday to go camping, and here we are praying that Daniel can get everything fixed. Otherwise he will be driving to his worksite tomorrow and camping at Rock Island will be completely cancelled for our family. Which is a bummer.

On top of that, I ran some errands today and things were just not wanting to go my way. First, I loaded up recycling only to realize our recycling center doesn't open until 11:00 on Wednesdays. So I drove off the mountain to Hixson to return some library books and pick up holds that will expire soon. However, I made the mistake of leaving my wallet and library card at home. I had my card number in my phone, but the library refused to give me my books without ID. I feel like if I had walked inside (if the interior of the library was open), they would have lent me the books because I am there all the time and the librarians know me. But with a call-in from curbside service, they refused. I redeemed the day a little by grabbing Chick-fil-a for lunch before heading home.

I have packed as much of the camper that I possibly can so that we can leave as soon as (if) Daniel gets everything fixed. At this point I'm hoping, but not holding my breath. Fingers crossed we can at least meet up with friends on Friday for the second part of our camping trip at Edgar Evins...

CVSD: Day 102 (Father's Day weekend)

Friday was the 100th day since we started social distancing. This is a weird time, because cases are going up in our state, while life is simultaneously becoming more normal. It's like we all just hit this wall where fear became less of a focus. We can't live in the state of flight or fight forever, so here we are.

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Social distancing and quarantine started for us 98 days ago. During that time, the kids have slept in a cushion fort (mostly outside on our deck 78 of those nights). We are slowly entering back into a semblance of “normal” life. That includes celebrating with friends. I am so grateful to get to spend an evening with friends tonight. We have missed seeing so many, and it felt good to hang out, even if was in a driveway. #summer2020 #mohaus2020

A post shared by Cheree Moore (@mo_haus) on Jun 19, 2020 at 9:23pm PDT

Friday night we went to a friend's house for an outdoor, (somewhat) socially distanced birthday party. Reality suggests that when we are with people, we kind of naturally fall into old habits and routines. I am not sure what to do with this. Every time we interact with someone new, I am a little on edge for the following 5-12 days. But with each encounter, and each passing day, the fear becomes less of a factor.

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Annual float trip on the Hiwassee with friends today. This year we bought kayaks and tubes and are looking forward to more float trips (hopefully more often!). #summer2020 #annualhiwasseefloattrip #mohaus2020

A post shared by Cheree Moore (@mo_haus) on Jun 20, 2020 at 3:07pm PDT

Saturday we went with friends to do our annual rafting trip on the Hiwassee River. The river was packed. This year we bought our own kayaks (us) and tubes (our friends), so we didn't have to shuttle with strangers. It was so fun to do a normal adventure, celebrating the dads.

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Church outside today. It was so good to see so many people we haven’t seen in the last three months. #summer2020 #clearcreekchurch #mohaus2020

A post shared by Cheree Moore (@mo_haus) on Jun 21, 2020 at 8:56am PDT

On Sunday, for Father's Day, our church met in the field behind the building for worship. Everyone brought their own camp chairs and communion. Those who were smart brought umbrellas or pop-up tents for shade. It was so good to see so many people who are important to us. I did hug a few people. I really needed those hugs, but today I have been feeling a sense of guilt and praying that no one gets sick.

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This man is such a good dad to our boys. From going on adventures as a family to teaching our boys how to do things in the garage, our family is blessed. Happy Father’s Day Daniel! #fathersday2020 #summer2020 #mohaus2020

A post shared by Cheree Moore (@mo_haus) on Jun 21, 2020 at 9:53am PDT

We are supposed to go camping starting tomorrow. Unfortunately Daniel took our SUV to get tires rotated and balanced and the mechanic broke a bolt on one wheel and was unable to remove it. Daniel brought it home and is attempting to fix it here. On top of that he needs to finish up something on the camper slide, finish a presentation for work for Wednesday, AND we had a death in the family last week and funeral tomorrow morning. Life is feeling a little complicated in that regard at the moment.

Floating the Hiwassee, Father's Day Weekend

This was our third annual float trip down the Hiwassee River with our friends, the Pattens.

In previous years we have gone closer to the fourth of July, but this year we were able to get on the river on Father's Day weekend.

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After several years of doing this trip, we all decided to invest in our own floats. Our family purchased two inflatable kayaks and our friends got their own inflatable tubes.

We met at the take out point next to Hiwassee Outfitters (there is public parking there for the natural area). We left the Pattens mini van there and loaded all of our gear and people into our SUV and made the curvy drive upstream to the put in point.

It took about 20 minutes to inflate everything and get on the river, but it really wasn't too bad considering how long you have to wait for the shuttle.

We had a really great day on the water. The youngest of our group, Simon, got tossed out on two rapids and said he would never do it again, but by the time we left he was coming round.

Now that we have our own gear, we are hoping for more such trips.

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A post shared by Cheree Moore (@mo_haus) on Jun 20, 2020 at 3:07pm PDT

Summer 2020: Florida Cousins

Officially today is the 96th day of social distancing/the worldwide corona virus pandemic comes to Tennessee. However, it is also summer and we trying to have a good summer, while also being cautious. Such is life for the past several months.

Last week my brother randomly asked if the kids and I wanted to pop down to Florida with him for the weekend. This is a trip we try to do once or twice a year to visit our sister's family. Unfortunately we didn't make it down at all last year, and with the corona virus pandemic, I think we all have kind of hit a wall and were craving family time.

Since we are all healthy, I threw caution to the wind (after making sure Daniel was okay with us traipsing about the country in 2020) and we made the trip south to Tallahassee with my brother. Our experience was that traveling during a pandemic wasn't too bad. Though we did have an issue finding open bathrooms for the kids. Fast food restaurants were generally open only for drive through, so we had to hunt for gas stations. Once we even stopped at a Whole Foods (we did buy apples so we weren't just using them for their clean bathroom!).

As for the weekend, we surprised my niece and nephew and the kids all had a blast being together non stop. We took a boat out to Dog Island (a repeat of a trip we did a couple of years ago where we were temporarily stranded and a storm rolled in!). This time, our outing was a little more low key, and the kids had a ton of fun swimming in the Gulf.

Though it was not completely without mishaps. Papa (my brother-in-law's dad) started to take off while we were all on the beach. We were dumbfounded that he might leave us again (like two years ago), but it turns out he was just going to help someone whose boat had drifted away from the island with a young girl on board.

The second mishap was running aground a sandbar on the way back to Carabelle. We missed the channel and couldn't tell it was shallow because the water was so choppy. Thankfully we weren't stuck, but it was a surprise to grind suddenly to a halt.

After boating, we went and grabbed seafood. If you know my brother, you know he needs his raw oyster fix whenever we go to Florida. Jack surprised us as the only kid that tried a raw oyster. He was not a fan. Levi's face sums up how the other kids felt about this delicacy!

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Cannon balls with cousins (and Uncle Mark). #summer2020 #voylesfam #floridacousins #mohaus2020

A post shared by Cheree Moore (@mo_haus) on Jun 14, 2020 at 3:01pm PDT

Back in Tallahassee, the kids had fun doing kid things: bouncy house, trampoline, playing Uno, playing video games, playing tornado... We also went swimming at a neighbor's pool and then the kids did their semi-annual talent show with their Uncle Mark.

I love seeing them all cut loose with the dancing and being silly. I didn't catch this on my video, but my niece, Izzy, is really funny as the emcee. She always has off the cuff jokes that keep us laughing.

Our trip home was uneventful. It was a quick trip, but every time we made a pit stop we were reminded of the pandemic via everyone wearing masks. Our experience while traveling was that every person we encountered was super polite and kind (like extra). Looking forward to seeing family a couple more times as the summer progresses.