Canceling Trips In 2020

I have several trips planned for this year however I’m going to cancel them all. Local unrest makes me not want to leave the house for extended trips and most of the places I was planning on visiting are currently not open.

Instead I’m doing several home projects. I may not leave the county but at least I’m getting things done.

How have your plans changed?

 

not for me, I already had cabin fever. Difficult work year last year (not problems, just lots of hours with no opportunity to take vacation time) means I already had a couple weeks of vacation I didn't use roll over to 2020.

Make no mistakes, I've got full respect for the Corona's, and the best of wishes and prayers for those effected by that. OTOH, I don't get out to attend large social gatherings, I'm getting away to get away from everything and be alone in nature.

 

I’m all for getting away it’s the things I leave behind that keeps me home. Plus I do have plenty to do at home like finish my backyard campground.

In the summer I often will camp outside and only come in the house to shower in the morning.

 

We missed 3-4 trips in the spring we had planned. Went out last week for 4 days. The place were at was the perfect place to go. McCormick County only has 5000 people and they haven’t had a case for 2 weeks. We had planned on branching out of the South this summer but that will have to wait until next summer. Probably going to head to Black Rock Mountain State Park in Georgia. Only 1.5hours from home and with its 4000 ft elevation, it will get us away from the heat of S.C. Right now we can camp during the week when it is less crowded so we’ll probably find one other place to go before school starts back.

 

We have canceled all of our trips for the year, too. I am more concerned about COVID than protests, though. I just don't see a way to travel that doesn't have an inherent risk of coming into contact with COVID.

 

Are there still protest going on?!? I don't know, I try to keep from watching the news. I thought that the protests died out when the whole corona thing caught its 2nd wind.

 

Protests are still going on. With the exception of a small handful of states, COVID didn't catch a second wind; we never got the curve down in the first place.

Be safe if you are traveling. Gas stations, public restrooms, and restaurants pose some of the highest risks of infection.

 

I had to drive to Texas from Wisconsin and back by myself towards the end of May. Fourteen hour drive each way - took me 16, w/stops. Traffic was light. Made lunch & dinner ahead and packed in cooler along with drinks for both ways. Had gloves for getting gas & paid at pump; wore mask for rest areas/restrooms, used sanitizer on hands and sanitizing wipes on credit card and car (door handles, steering wheel, window buttons, shifter, etc.). Only stopped where rest areas or places with restrooms had few cars/people. Rest areas were all exceptionally well maintained. Some had staff cleaning after each bathroom use.

Then had to drive to Utah from Wisconsin and back, by myself, in June. Twenty-two hours - took me 23, both going & coming. Took the "less traveled" route across SD and Wyoming. Not a lot of traffic either direction. Packed 2 days of food & drinks each way. Stopped halfway in Rapid City. Same precautions as Texas trip.

If you choose to do it or have a need to travel, plan the areas you will be traveling in/to/stopping at and know their risk of the virus. I did 2 trips...both were going from an extremely low risk area to a very low risk area. The key is to assess the risks, make your decision, plan accordingly, keep yourself safe, and be prepared for anything.

Betsey

 

I had a trip planned from Ft. Worth to the Seattle area for my little sister's wedding.......as I just looked at the date, I realized that I would have left today! She is rescheduling the wedding for next summer, so I'll likely book most of the same places that I had reserved for this trip. I was going to spend a week driving up, a week there, then a week driving back. I was really excited about the trip and taking my dog to some really cool places. I hope everything pans out for the journey next summer!

I've been dying to get the camper out...it's been in the garage since Superbowl weekend

I did book a trip in late Sept for a campsite I found on Hipcamp. It's it's own site, right on the Gulf Coast. There's electric and water, but no toilet...so I purchased one of those little fold up poopers with the double doodie bags. That should be interesting!

 

We have 3 postponed weddings this year which will now happen next year. The furthest one was in Seattle in October. NH to Seattle would have been our first long haul. So that will take place next year and this year we will take baby steps to Illinois and Wisconsin In September. We had hoped to visit the Michigan UP coming in from the northern route via Canada but it looks like that will be out of the picture. The border is still closed to at least August 21 and I don’t think I want to be one of the first US tourists in Canada in early September. We have been backyard camping so far, which in our yard is pretty nice. Heading up on Sunday to NH mountains for 3 days on a river. Then in August 4 days on the coast of Maine.

 

A bottle of red wine. And electric hookups are available. ;-) Ask Evan as he and family spent a few days with us when they came East. When we bought the lightly used 560, we had never even seen a CampInn in person. All my knowledge came from this forum and the website. So when I found out Evan was headed this way we opened our yard to him and he gave me the Gary and Cary owners class. We are members of Boondockers Welcome so have had several visitors parked in our driveway. No teardrops, other than Evan, though. Teardrops will get a special pass to the water view site. The Bellamy is a tidal river just about 5 miles inland from Portsmouth NH and Interstate 95 and an hour north of Boston so we get several folks going to or coming from Maine and the NH White mountains.

 

Yes you could, but for CampInns the lawn by the river is nicer.

 

camping-related COVID risk has to be close to zero, though I agree that there are risks to using public bathrooms/showers. We did a recent (July) camping trip, from SF Bay Area to Glacier and back (two weeks, very little contact with people or indoor spaces). We analyzed the risk and concluded the risk to us and others was nearly zero, provided we took precautions.

For example, we brought a toilet seat (and special bags), so we had our own toilet. We also brought a pop up tent, which we used for the toilet. Although cleaning of rest rooms seems to be excellent, particularly in the parks, we didn't use restrooms that had obvious heavy use. At Signal Mountain campground, for example, the bathrooms were clean, but our campsite was adjacent to the bathroom and I couldn't get passed the heavy use the bathroom got. So, a quick visit to the bathroom was OK, but I would not do a longer visit.

We didn't need to worry about restaurants, since we prepare our own food nearly 100% of the time, when we camp. (Granted, there is the occasional ice cream stop....)

Risk at gas stations is zero, as long as you wash your hands after you use the pump (and before you touch your face). That seems manageable.

Chances are, the risk at your home town grocery store is higher than your risk in Yellowstone.

Oh, we didn't do the Yellowstone geyser boardwalks. Way too crowded for my tastes, and I'm not someone who fears outdoor transmission of COVID. But the geysers simply had too many unmasked people who were way too close to one another. (We did do an 8 am visit to a geyser/pool area, and it was delightfully empty of folks. Plenty of room.

If you adhere to good COVID protocols (Stay the F away from people; wash your hands; wear a mask if you are anywhere near people), you should have a safe camping trip. But if you go camping and then attend small museums/restaurants (indoor spaces) and are close to others, you're likely to have a different result.

My wife and I were very heavily sheltered in place before going on the trip, so I was confident that we weren't harboring any virus. I'd likely feel differently if I were an essential worker and had been in public a lot prior to the trip.

-Al

 

This is solely a "devil's advocate" reply, and is by no means meant or implied to be argumentative, but solely for the purpose of discussion and opinion sharing.

I ponder, is the coronavirus exposure risk, camping or otherwise, 0% or 100%? What I mean by that, is honestly, this virus has encompassed all of this earth, and for some early places (China), its been around closing in on a year.

Myself included, what are truly the odds that almost all of us haven't already been exposed, at least once? Or multiple times?

Regarding protocols and self isolation. I don't work in the health industry, and as such, I'm the last person who should be making any comments, positive or negative there, much like couples with no children giving out child-rearing advice.

Not necessarily by choice, but I've worked from home since 2012. As I hope most of you-all do, I keep a very well stocked pantry + toiletry items (deodorant, tooth-paste, etc). Referencing my comments earlier in this paragraph, I've generally followed the old 1983 movie "War Games" advice, the only way to win is to not play. So specifically, I'm leaving my home even less than normal.

I don't take any of this corona stuff lightly. It affects a significantly small part of the population, but those who are affected, the results are between horrible to death. Nothing I would ever joke about.

I suspect my long time norm of isolation (since 2012) is now the norm for many, at least for the near future.

Still, with my above shared history, I just can't imagine that myself and the vast majority of the population have not already been exposed to the corona virus, probably many times.

 

There are epidemiologists studying this. Research is not completed, but it may be true that most of us have been exposed: But to what degree? They now believe that there may be a number of virus particles that could be inhaled, and if the number is small enough, say between 1 and 100 (walking by someone?), a person may not necessarily become infected.
On the other hand, if the number were over 1000 (sitting next to someone?), a person would become overwhelmed and become ill.
The numbers I used above were used as examples in the article, and they are trying to actually come closer to determining how many virus particles it takes for an average person in good health to come down with this scourge.
Point being, it may not be a binary situation. It might be more like sunburn: How long were you exposed?

 

Hmmmm................

Thank you for your response, this, in particular is something I hadn't considered.

And these were comments by doctors/medical researchers in an official article?

If so, certainly I would fall back and (yet again) revise my understanding.

OTOH, and if not, my initial reaction is somewhat like getting told from a wife or girl friend that they are just a little pregnant.

No doubt, this will all get turned upside down again before its all over. It will probably be an interesting read, 5 years down the road as we all look back on the free time this virus has provided us with rose colored glasses. But right now, I'd really be excited to see the light at the end of the tunnel on this one, with a certain end in sight. I also strongly suspect I'm not alone in that wish.

Stay healthy everyone !

 

Yes, the article was from medical researchers. Even had diagrams of a party of eight in a restaurant, and where the HVAC vents were and who was sick two weeks later. Do you think I can find it? Nope. But there are many other legitimate articles out there which talk about 'viral load', and how it seems to shake out. It seems to not be a simple thing, our immune system.

 

Here is a pretty good discussion:
COVID-19: Transmission Scenarios Explained