Nearly Contactless Travel

During this time of COVID-19, Steve and I have been very careful. We wear masks when we leave the house, we require his business clients to wear masks when they come in the house, we shop only when necessary and have been very much at home since mid March. So, I am still kind of surprised that I recently decided to travel to north Florida . . . but I’m not going to feel guilty about it.

A friend who recently passed away left word to “take the trip” . . . entirely unrelated to my trip, but his words were part of my decision to travel, even as I feel that I should have stayed home. When my friend Sharol posted pictures of some pitcher plants with a reminder that their bloom is peaking now, we put our heads together to plan a safe-as-possible trip to see these amazing plants. I’ll talk more about them in another post, but for now I’ll just say that they are spectacular and worth putting effort into visiting while minimizing the risks to ourselves and others.

I know that Sharol and I put each other and our families at risk by traveling together. We both watched our temperatures carefully before our trip and would have cancelled the trip if we had any concerns. There is a possibility that one of us could be sick and not know it, but we are both fairly confident that this is not the case, and each of us (and our immediate family members) were willing to take the chance. Here are some of the safety measures we took in planning this trip.

• Sharol booked an AirBnb where we could stay without having to meet the owner (although we did meet her in the driveway since the apartment was attached to her home). We were the first to rent it since the state re-opened. If you are interested in traveling to the Forgotten Coast and want to stay near Carabelle, St. George Island, or Apalachicola, I highly recommend checking out Taradise in Eastpoint (I am not being compensated for this endorsement, but Tara was a lovely host and the apartment had so many thoughtful touches that I know I’ll return).
• It had a full kitchen, so we were able to bring in all our groceries to avoid eating out.
• Visiting pitcher plants is an activity that does not appeal to everyone. They don’t grow in town, and you have to work to find them. We suspected that we would be the only people in the areas where we planned to go, and we were right. At one site we visited there was evidence of other people having been there recently, but they were gone by the time we got there.
• We planned that the only thing we would need to buy on this trip was gasoline, paid for at the pump. As it turned out, we made one stop at a convenience store to buy bottled water and ice cream bars (the water was a necessity and we would not have bought the ice cream had we not stopped for water). There was one other customer and the cashier in the store. They were not masked, so this introduced an element of risk that we did not plan for, but we were able to observe social distancing.
• We had an ample supply of fabric masks — enough to allow for several masks a day for each of us. We agreed in advance that we would not wear them in the car but would wear them for any other human contact where social distancing could not be observed.

I know that many people will disagree with our decision to travel, but I honestly feel okay about the level of risk we took — and I do acknowledge that there is a chance that we have put others in peril if one of us is unknowingly sick with COVID-19. We are comfortable that the risks to ourselves and others are no greater than they would be had we stayed at home.

I would be very interested in a discussion of how to travel as safely as possible (or even why travel should be avoided at all cost) if you’d like to comment. I moderate comments and will not approve anything rude, but am open to disagreement and criticism that is meant to make lives better. Have you traveled recently? What steps have you taken to maintain the safety of others and yourself? Let’s talk about it!