We just got back a couple days ago from Chattanooga where we attended the Lookout Wild Film Festival (LWFF). It was iffy on whether they would hold it in person or go virtual. They postponed it from the initial date in January. Last year they held it over several weekends in the summer outdoors in a public park. This was the tenth year. We attended in 2020 right before the pandemic kicked in and when we were still living in across the border in rural North Carolina.
We travel at least half the year and lived on the road with no house, no basecamp, for about five years. When people ask us where we liked visiting the most it used to confound me because nothing jumped out. I thought about it and realized it was serendipity that determined our favorites. It was in meeting certain people, getting lucky with being in the right place at the right time, attending events, volunteer gigs, seeing unusual wildlife (albino deer, and squirrels). Even though we found out about the LWFF when we were living in a cabin (our base camp) in the Southern Appalachians and had sold our 38 foot fifth wheel and bought a slide-in camper, it is still one of the best experiences we've come across in our adventures.
We moved to the Mid-Atlantic from the Southern Appalachians in February last year or we'd have attended the weekend showings of the 2021 LWFF in Chattanooga. This year we were watching the weather, prepping to drive. We looked over campgrounds and also discussed the possibility of stealth camping or National Forest camping with no amenities. We have a generator. Sleeping in a camper is always more cushy than in a tent on the ground so even if we couldn't use water due to cold, it was still a possibility. We could wash up each day using the gallon jugs of water I take when we travel in the winter. But we opted for three nights in a campground with a shower house.
On the way to Chattanooga we dodged the weather. The fastest way there would have been through DC and down the Appalachians on I-81 to I-40 to I-75 but a storm of freezing rain or snow was coming northeast up the range so we went the long way, due south then cutting west and circling through Atlanta before vectoring to Chattanooga. We drove a fish hook, basically. It added a few more hours but we didn't have to worry about being in the mountains in snow, sleet, heavy rain, black ice. And we made sure we had time to negotiate nature. On route, we stayed a night behind a Cracker Barrel in Greenville, South Carolina. We had left on Thursday to give us all day to drive, plus all day Friday since the film fest didn't start until Friday evening. Breakfast Friday morning was, of course, at the Cracker Barrel and I also bought a Harry Potter puzzle for my daughter, the Harry Potter fan (but really, who isn't, it seems?), and a little yellow rain slicker, size 2T for our newest grandson, from their always fun gift shop.
We stayed at the Chester Frost Park campground in Hixson, Tennessee. I'd researched campgrounds before we came and this one had the right price (less than $30 a night with electric), bathrooms and showers that were rated decently, and beautiful views of the Chickamauga Lake. I love me some good sunrises. It was cold each night, dipping below 30, but we had heat. The campground was quiet and not overly lighted. We chose our spot right in front of the bath facilities, being practical. We fly on the cheap. If we were fussier and had a bigger budget we'd have stayed a a nice hotel in downtown Chattanooga. But we live small and are cheap about certain things. But we are free. We don't work and haven't for ten years now.
We attended all five sessions of the LWFF to include the time lapse films Saturday and Sunday that start at 12:30. I love the photography, the scenery that the filmmakers chose for these. I sit there like a happy child and take it all in. The only film we didn't attend was probably their feature film, The Alpinist, on Saturday night, but we'd very recently seen it - and thought it was great - but just didn't want to sit thought we'd get back to our campground, get a good sleep and go exploring Sunday morning.
We had many favorite films. I love the diversity of the choices made by the selection committee. I actually started my favorites but ended up with almost all of them and felt bad about leaving out the few others because I liked them too and they all had their place in this festival. I am so happy to see films about diverse people in nature, having adventures, and films about non-white people, disabled people and people from other countries. I love that we had some political/environmental topics too though some people may get edgy about that. It's part of the world we live in and frankly, has always been. Let's examine it in a respectful way, I say, and apparently LWFF is also doing that.
In 2020 when we attended the LWFF there were several things going on in the lobby of the Tivoli, a beautiful vintage theater and part of the fun of the LWFF. What sticks out in my mind the most is the free s'mores buffet. Who'd have ever thought of that? Well whoever did think of it, I bow in reverence. It was one of the best foodie experiences I've ever had. To have all that melted goo in a bowl was just disgustingly wonderful. This year things were paired down due to covid. That's OK. I appreciate when events and groups are paying attention to public health and science.
We hope to join the movie selection committee for future festivals. Now that we have high speed internet in Delaware, we should be able to screen submissions. When we were in our cabin in the Southern Appalachians we only had our hotspot wifi's and even at that we had to go to the second floor and often play with the device, orienting it this way and that and even going out on the deck with it if it wasn't cold or raining. Sometimes we went into town to the library or a coffee shop or even rented a hotel room to watch campaign debates, sports, or to take Red Cross volunteer courses on-line. Now we can sit in comfort in our "base camp" home in Delaware.
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