Wednesday 1Apr20 Appalachian Trail
Day 76
Woke up at 8 to a cloudy morning. It rained off and on most of the night but just a light rain. After breakfast Wiggin and I walked down to the river for a bit. I saw a woodpecker fly by and land on a dead tree. Shortly after he disappeared into a hole in the tree. I watched for quite a while and he would occasionally poked his head out and dropped something from his beak. I assume it was wood and he was in the process of enlarging his cosy little home on top of the world.
Around 11 I got back on the road headed to Knoxville Tennessee. The was a place where I-40 crossed the Appalachian Trail. Luckily there was an exit at this intersection which I took. I left the dogs in the van and hiked a ways up the trail. There was actually a sign saying the entry point was closed due to the Coronavirus. That makes absolutely no sense.
This was the second time I have been on the Appalachian Trail. Some day I hope to hike the length of the trail. Said to say that will have to be after both Wiggin and Pete are gone. Neither one are up to it anymore. But that's ok we have hike a lot of trails together. They both went the last time Zack and I packed into the Wind Rivers for several days.
Back at the RT I drove on to Knoxville. Once there I drove to a Sam's Club and parked. I made lunch and then watched a little TV. Later I went in the Walmart that was next door. The backup inverter I have will not power up. That Walmart didn't have the one I was looking for so I drove to the next Walmart West on I-40. They did have the inverter but apparently it isn't powerful enough for what I need. The project I'm working on is converting Sonny 8MM tapes to digital format. I brought with me 50 or so tapes, my Sonny Camcorder, a 30 year old e-Machine laptop with a FireWire port, a new HP laptop and a solid-state external hard drive. All of these items have their own AC power supplies. I also have an HP printer that needs AC power.
My main inverter is permanent connected to the battery but I turned it off several weeks ago to conserve battery power. The the inverter draws some power even when all the previous listed ac powered items are off. The inverter is a bit difficult to access but I think that is the best option.
After feeding the dogs I watched a little TV "Green Acres" and just snacked on some Bold Chex Mix before crashing for the night.