Back in Tennessee

I arrived at the cabin in Tennessee, about 30 minutes away from Johnson City, and almost immediately started to unpack. It was becoming a routine. The cottage was much smaller than the house in southern Kentucky, but I expected that. It had a living room and kitchen combo, a separate bedroom and a bathroom. Everything was covered in wood paneling, which added to the rustic feel of the whole place.

Living room - the couch was to be covered as it smelled like a wet dog

Kitchen/coffee bar

Kitchen and the hallway to the bedroom

Bathroom

Bedroom (the sheets were on, but I changed them to my own)

Sink across the bathroom

View from the hallway

Right away I noticed that the place was not very clean. Luckily, I brought my vacuum cleaner with me as I always do. I didn't have a vacuum bag, so the next day I was planning to go back to my storage and Knoxville to pick up a spare as well as a few other things. I was quite excited to do that since I haven't seen my things in over a month. I also scheduled a hair appointment. Coming back to the civilization felt really nice. 

After getting situated, I remembered that the listing for this Airbnb advertised a pond. I was determined to find it. The cottage was surprisingly close to the road, so there was a lot of traffic noise, but the back of it was in the wooded area. To get to that wooded area you had to pass a large field of grass. I wasn't really thrilled about it since the tick season was just getting started. Nevertheless, I decided to check out that pond and walked towards it. It turned out to be a nice body of water, although it was so far away from the cottage that I didn't anticipate that I would be spending much time there. 

I also saw a pathway into the woods and sent the host a message asking if it was part of their property and whether I could walk there. The host responded that it was and I could. It was about half a mile trail in the woods, although it wasn't overly peaceful as the noise from the highway on the other side was quite noticeable. 

The following day I did go to get my haircut and highlights done, although I was quite disappointed with both. I headed next to my storage. I was really excited too I get a few things like a nail polish and extra snacks from my there, but opening the boxes trying to find things was a challenge even though I carefully wrote on the side of the boxes what was in them. I also grabbed some of my dresses as the warmer season was coming. I headed to the post office and got a few pieces of mail from my PO Box and then stopped by my friend's house to get a package that was waiting for me there. It was an exciting day. 

I noticed that every time I moved to a new place the first week there creates this unusual high, excitement about the newness of the new location, new things. It doesn't last too long - after the first week it's long gone as I get back into the routine. I wondered to myself if this is what I'm looking for, that first week. This is when I do the most hiking and exploring. It fades away as the month progresses. I found it to be beneficial to create a list of things to do and places to see in the area I'm in during this first week and spread the activities throughout the month. 

Indeed, this first week I took a day off and spent some time in Knoxville going to the farmers market, hiking my favorite spots where I used to live, as well as going to the doctor's appointments. I also caught up with a friend of mine and picked up a few books at the library. I finally started going to the gym which was about 30 minutes away from the place I was renting, but that distance seemed doable given the fact that I haven't been at the gym in awhile. It felt good to get back to my usual physical fitness, or at least some of that. 

The second weekend I went to check out Jonesborough, a small and quaint town about half an hour away from my Airbnb. It had a farmers market where I picked up a few things and reminded me of Asheville, North Carolina. It was quirky, but not too quirky. I stopped by at the local grocery store Earth Fare in Johnson City where I bought a few specialty items. I found cheese that my friend and I bought back in California on our Marin County retreat. It brought back good memories. I also met with a group of people for a drink at the local brewery in Johnson City. These were also remote workers, but they were not traveling like I was. I missed the social aspect of traveling. 

I also went on a hike the Pinnacle Mountain Tower Trail, one of the longest hikes I've done this year. It felt good being able to do that. I climbed the first set of stairs to the tower top and decided not to go any further because of my fear of heights. I thought this view was good enough...

The Airbnb itself was not as great as I hoped it would be. The traffic noise and some pests in the cabin were making the whole experience just good, not great. As it got warmer and warmer, I started finding ants in the kitchen and bedroom. I contacted the host twice who merely gave me some traps that did not attract anybody or anything, including ants. I would discover an ant a night in my bed. It was not terrible, but not a pleasant experience either. I had to keep the fan on for white noise as the traffic continued through the night, albeit at a smaller scale. 

On a good note, the Internet was fantastic and I got to watch TV quite a bit after work. I also had some visitors in the form of a couple of birds that started nesting on top of the light on the porch. It was amazing watching them build their nest overtime.

Birds nesting

In the Airbnb listing, the porch was a huge sell, and for some reason I thought that it was screened, but I ended up not spending much time on it at all as Carpenter bees were all over it. I also didn't walk too much in the backyard as I found a tick on my clothing one time I decided to venture out there. Luckily, it was not yet embedded in me. Did I mention the fruit flies? I don't think I did. Somehow there was an infestation of fruit flies, possibly when I left a few bananas out for a day. I would not be able to get rid of them until the end of this day. It was an annoyance, but certainly part of living in the country I guess. I was getting sick and tired of bugs.

The air conditioner in the cabin was not that great either. It was a wall unit in the living room, and the bedroom did not have anything, so it got pretty hot at night when the weather was in the 90s. I was lucky to have access to the laundry machine which was not typically offered to guests for a short stay. Finally, there was plenty of privacy in the cabin as the host lived on the other side of the hill. The property was gigantic, so I saw him only once or twice. He was one of those people who preferred to stay away from the guests, so we didn't interact much. I was not too thrilled about his handling of the ants, but again it was a shorter stay, so I didn't mind it. That's another aspect of renting Airbnbs only for a month. Even if things are not great, you know you can move on to the next one that might be better. I think that's what I mostly dislike about renting a more permanent space. You're kind of stuck there for a long time.

The proximity to Knoxville allowed me to take care of a few doctors appointments and tests, but certainly burnt a lot of gas as Knoxville was about an hour away. There was not much to do in the immediate area, but there was access to everything within half an hour. As always, during the 2nd week of my stay there it almost started to feel like home.