July trailer trip: Burnsville/Spruce Pine, NC July 13 - 17, 2020

We decided to do a trailer trip to somewhere fairly close every month until the Covid crisis is over.  Our July trip was to spend time with nephew Paul Bliese, wife Marta, and their daughter Ellie.  They rented a great cabin near Burnsville, NC, and we went to a campground next to the Blue Ridge Parkway in Spruce Pine, NC. The weather was beautiful, much better than the scorching heat in Columbia and Johnson City.  We were able to sleep with the windows open and enjoy sitting outside on the porch of the cabin.

Bear Den Campground had very small, all gravel sites 
and a scary 1 mile gravel road into the campground.
However, it was right on the Blue Ridge Parkway, so it
 was close to lots of things to do--if we were going to do
 things around hundreds of other people, 
which we definitely weren't doing.

Shelby does a selfie with me in the trailer.

View from front porch of Paul and Marta's cabin

Cabin had a great front porch we could enjoy while socially distancing

Paul and Nemo at end of hike on Colbert Ridge Trail.
Alan and I had gone on this trail when we first started 
dating, almost 30 years ago. We remembered it well.

We socially distanced on the hike, too.

This will be the last time we will see Paul, Marta, and Ellie for a while.  They decided to rent a house in Albuquerque, N.M. for a year to get away from the large number of Covid cases in SC and to be with other family members.  We will really miss seeing them.  We have always spent Thanksgiving in Columbia, as well as met them at cabins at various times of the year.  It was sad to not be able to hug them as we were leaving.