We had plans for our 27th anniversary in April. Concert tickets were purchased and dinner plans were being thought about and then COVID-19 happened. The concert got postponed indefinitely and well dinner happened at home since all the restaurants were closed.
We decided that since the governor said we could get outside and social distance we’d look for something different to do. We thought about local parks, but we had done that recently and ended up hiking farther than we had planned. LOL!!
So I came up with the idea to visit the covered bridges in Blount county. We had never seen one before so we looked up directions and off we went.
The first one we went to was Horton Mill bridge. I had found an article that said there was a parking area and from what it said we thought it was going to be on the opposite side than the way we were headed in so Jeff studied the map and we made our way to the backside of the bridge. Guess what??? The parking area was actually on the side we were first on, so I had to drive across the bridge while Jeff closed his eyes. The plan was to not have to drive across being the age of the bridge and every thing. But…..plans change. We decided that the only way to get across was to just do it!! They didn’t have it blocked off so we assumed it was safe to drive across. Thankfully you couldn’t see outside so you couldn’t really tell how high you were.
We made it to the other side, parked and then got out to take pictures. I would have really liked to have gotten a picture of the bridge from the water level, but there wasn’t a place to get one so I did the best I could.
We had to do a short hike so we made sure to watch the ground to be sure we didn’t see any snakes and to watch for roots that were all around.
After we finished at the first bridge we did a google search that told us the one a little farther from home was actually closed. So we didn’t hunt that one. We opted to go find the one that was in the direction of home which was Swann Covered Bridge.
We got there and again we had to drive across to get to the parking. We found a spot on the side of the road and went exploring.
This one was a little different in that it was set up for people to use. There were lots of cars there, but I guess they were socially distancing since we only saw a few people actually at the water. There were sandy banks, a beachy area. I’m sure that the sand wasn’t native to Blount county. LOL! There were kayakers on the water, some just enjoying the beachy area and some that had been swimming.
One thing that we noticed here is that there was tin on the sides of each end and it was only open in the middle. I assume this was meant to keep people from climbing up and jumping off.
There were “no parking” signs at the houses on each side of the bridge. That area probably gets really crowded during the summer.
After checking out the 2nd one we made our way back home and enjoyed an anniversary meal at home.
Here’s to a different kind of anniversary than we had planned.