Covid-19 and Uncertainties while RV’ing
The grandest part of our RV expedition was to include enjoying and exploring Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington. This is not to diminish our excitement at visiting dear friends in other areas on the eastern seaboard and in Texas, but visiting with friends has its own specialness, something that’s different from exploring the great outdoors. And so we relished every minute of our time with friends, and then took a deep breath and exhaled everything into the wide open spaces of the west as we finally arrived in west Texas.
From Texas we made our way into New Mexico to enjoy the wonderment of White Sands State Park, and then finally….Arizona! And all along we heard of the increasing numbers of Covid-19, the warnings of a pandemic, and we continued on our way. We read reports, tried to stay informed by listening or reading politically unbiased news reports (not that easy to find these days), and our eyes widened, not in panic, we aren’t panicky types. But now we have alcohol for cleaning our hands in the car, wipes for disinfecting everything, and there is a lot of hand washing going on.
We have enjoyed the great outdoors of Arizona, so grateful to be able to breathe the fresh air, and give ourselves a break from thinking about the fast changing reality of our entire world and life as we know it.
Our RV needed a service and some repairs, so we have been super fortunate to have some extended time with Lisa and Tom. One evening we enjoyed a dinner together on the patio of a restaurant (with the dogs), and were graced by a spectacular sunset, but there was only one other small table occupied and we were sobered again into the reality of how businesses are closing. It hasn’t taken very long for that to happen everywhere.
And it didn’t take long for us to start thinking about our future plans of driving into California and up the west coast…and how that didn’t seem like such a great idea. And then there was the decision to head home, and then we changed our minds thinking we could still travel and stay out in the country, away from cities, in our self-contained unit, and finish out our trip the way we had originally planned. And then we changed our minds a couple more times.
We have finally been given the go-ahead to pick up our RV tomorrow. The decision was made to remain here in Arizona for about a week, and then make a decision about heading to the west or east coast.
Supplies needed to be stocked up so off we headed to the grocery store. It was like entering the twilight zone, seeing all those empty shelves. We won’t starve, but we will be eating stuff we don’t necessarily eat all that often. And tonight we will soothe our souls with Talenti gelato. Also, we are the lucky ones…we have plenty of toilet paper. While driving back to Tom and Lisa’s house a couple pulled up next to us in their convertible. What we saw was a sign of the times. We laughed…we could also just as easily have cried.
So we are given this opportunity to practice flexibility, to experience joy even while we experience concern and sadness, to be quiet and read, play cards and talk to each other. Nothing is for sure. We forget that. And now we are well reminded.
