HUNKERED DOWN

Just wanted to do a quick post and let everyone know whats going on.  For the last several days I have been hunkered down at home and practicing social distancing.The weather here has been pretty nice so I have been able to get out an walk the trails and take a few hikes. And I have even ventured out to some local cemeteries to shoot some footage for my Tombstone Tourist YouTube Channel.

All of the restaurants in the area have closed their dining rooms but many are offering carry out and delivery so in an effort to support them, especially the smaller locally owned businesses I have tried to get to go orders from those that offer them a few times a week. If you are in the same situation, please consider tipping a little extra if you can afford it. I know these are uncertain times but the fact is there are a lot of food service workers and small businesses that are really facing a very, very trying time.

As I said earlier I have continued with my daily walks around the neighborhood and along the Huckleberry Trail.  The Huckleberry runs by the New River Valley Mall and several of the restaurants there are offering take out so I have made it a point to time my daily walk for around lunch time. I have really enjoyed purchasing a to go lunch at some of the restaurants and carrying it back to one of the benches along the Huckleberry and enjoy having a very nice picnic lunch. Yesterday, my lunch from one of the local small businesses cost me $10.81. I managed to tip an additional $10.00, just because I could afford it. The young lady who delivered my food really made a point of thanking me and telling me how much they all appreciated it. Having lunch outside on a nice day has been a nice distraction from all of the doom and gloom that is dominating the news media.

Like most places schools are closed and kids are staying home. A number of the children here in the community that I live in have been taking an hour or so each day and drawing pictures and writing notes that a lady here has delivered to a couple of local nursing homes.  These simple pictures and notes brighten the day of the nursing home residents who no longer can visit with each other or received visits from their family.

Several of us adults have also joined in by writing brief notes and inserting a favorite bible verse. Our latest effort included over 120 notes and pictures that were taken to two different nursing homes in the area.  They were dropped off in a drop box in front of the buildings and the staff sorted and delivered them to the residents.  My neighbor who delivered them told me this morning when I was out for my daily walk that she go a call last night from one of the nurses telling her just how much this small gesture meant.  She said every room she entered the first thing out of the residents mouth was "look what I got today." The smiles and tear of happiness meant so much.

Right now I have absolutely no travel plans, everything that I have had in the works has been cancelled or at best delayed.  With that being said, I still want to take a few little day trips as the situation will allow.  With spring fast approaching, a nice drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway may be something to consider in the days ahead.  The parkway also has a number of really nice hiking trails that will allow me the opportunity to shoot some new video footage and some spring photos.

Also I am very close to the Appalachian Trail and several other hiking trails so the opportunity to get out while still practicing "social distancing" is still available. But for the most part I am hunkered down and staying close to home.

On March 10, I traveled to Roanoke to pick up my sister at he the Roanoke Airport. She flew out a week earlier to Dallas for a visit with my niece who lives in the Garland area.  Since then I have only been out and around other people a couple of times. Once to Kroger's and once to Food Lion.

Yes, people here in the NRV were panic buying and hoarding supplies. The shelves at Kroger's were mostly cleared of meat, bread, milk, pasta, and soup just about as fast as the employees could put out the stock. I may be wrong but people are loosing their ever loving mind.  Yes I wiped down my shopping cart with the disinfectant wipe that I round at the entrance and I washed my hands when I got home.

One thing that I have found is that the Food Lion that I can walk to, is most of the time better stocked than Kroger. Both times that I have been to Food Lion, they had a better selections of the basics like meat, bread and milk. With that being said, I didn't buy more than I normally would. I didn't go overboard and over buy like so many other folks area doing. I talked to one of the managers at Food Lion who side that their supply truck are continuing to run and if people would take a step back and return to buying in normal amounts and stop panic buying then they could catch up most of their stock would return to normal.

As for the China Virus here. There still has not been a confirmed case here in the NRV. Yesterday the first case was confirmed in Roanoke but so far nothing west of Roanoke. So for now we are good. I am more concerned about the economy than I am about the actual virus. But time will tell, and we will see where all this goes.

For now I am Hunkered down, editing videos and Photos while taking my daily walks. Just like traveling, we will see what's around the bend.

SHAMELESS PROMOTION OF MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL

This is going to be a relatively short post dealing with a little shameless self-promotion. A few years back I started a YouTube Channel with the intention of documenting the interesting places that I find during my travel adventures. Over the years I have also made a few videos dealing with Trains, especially the 611 Steam Locomotive, and places that I have visited

Over the years some of my most popular videos have been my visits to cemeteries and for that reason I have created a playlist call the Tombstone Tourist. In my Tombstone Tourist videos on my YouTube Channel I visit cemeteries in an effort to locate the graves of famous and notable people. Or maybe some not so famous people who have an interesting story to tell. Over the the years I have visited the graves in a number of states and have created a series of video that are in a Playlist called the Tombstone Tourist on my YouTube Channel. 

Early on many of the "videos" are really slide shows of photos that I have taken and up loaded in a video format on YouTube. Over the years I have gotten better equipment and there are more and more actual videos on the channel. Sometimes when I get to the location that I want to film the weather just doesn't cooperate, especially when it is windy. I don't have all the fancy mics, and noise reduction software that a lot of the more accomplished YouTube Bloggers have. For that reason a lot of the early videos were unusable and I either had to discard the video or just use the photos that I took during the visit. I also don't have (but want to get) one of the video stabilization tripods that will eliminated the shake when I am walking. 

Anyway,  I hope you will stop by my YouTube Channel and take a look. Maybe you will find something interesting. If you do, please give me a thumbs up on the videos that you like and if you are really like my channel please subscribe and ring the bell so you will can be notified when I upload new videos. 

Here are a few video links that will give you some Idea of when you will find on my Channel.