Friday March 20th 2020

The day began sunny and cool. The temperature managed to reach the high sixties before a layer of clouds arrived to slow the increasing warmth. It also managed to obscure any chance at a sunset.

All of my days this week have begun with the President’s task force briefing on the TV. It’s on at 9AM in this time zone. In so many ways it is a depressing start to the day. They provide one or two new pieces of information and over an hour of low value “discussion”. Not long after they get finished the 11AM local news come on and repeats the information with a twist based on the “discussion”. I’m not sure if the reporters are committed to providing information or providing tabloid level sensationalized “news”. As I said, I find it depressing.

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To get away from the TV, I took another short hike today. There were fewer people on the trails, but the day use area of the state park still had lots of cars. Perhaps many people were on different trails. The wildflowers are still pretty, but the yellow brittle bush blossoms are starting to fade. The mount of yellow is going down.

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There was a great deal of turnover in the campground today. Most people stop here for one to three days. They are from all over the United States and Canada. Tonight there was even a foreign language speaking family in a rental motorhome on a site nearby. I don’t know if they are US residents, stranded travelers or something else. They just stood out as unusual in these times. One aspect of social distancing in the campground is that conversations between campers are getting more limited and are taking place at closer shouting distance than conversation distance. I’ve exchange hellos with a few neighbors, but not much else.