Covid Traveling

Since the pandemic took hold in March 2020 we have not done much traveling. We had planned to go to Italy again in the Fall of 2020 but fortunately we had not spent any money on the trip yet. We had previously bought plane tickets for a trip to Philadelphia for later in March 2020 but of course that trip was cancelled. The airlines gave us a year to use the tickets but absolutely refused to give any refunds. We did eventually use the tickets but it was not very pleasant flying under the pandemic circumstances. Fortunately it was a less than an hour flight and there were no anti-mask assholes on the plane.

During that summer of 2020 we did get tested and then traveled to the Adirondacks to spend a week at a cabin in Long Lake with the kids where we had a wonderful time. We celebrated Henry's fourth birthday. We did it again in July of 2021. During that first covid summer we pretty much stayed at our cabin and didn't venture into town much except for some lunch on a patio at the Long Lake Hotel. Last year we did get to the Adirondack Hotel for a nice dinner on their patio where we met some very old friends who happened to be camping nearby and stopped in there for dinner.

It was very odd driving across the state on the thruway. Half of the rest stops were closed. There were also hardly anyone on the roads or at the rest stops. We ate our lunch at picnic tables on the road or in the parking lots of the rest stops. We had always ate our lunch at selected restaurants along the way and the past two years has been very different.

The same things were happening on our drive down to Philadelphia to visit Katie. The two winter trips in December were also very strange. We drove to Sean's house for Christmas which was a four hour drive across the state on the thruway. Not a bad drive and the weather was good. Then two days after we got back we had to drive down to Philly again for the birth of our granddaughter who came a couple of weeks early. We had to then cancel our plane tickets for our January 12th flights after we hit the road on December 30th. Now we have a couple of plane tickets that we have a year to use.

We hadn't driven any long distance trip during the winter in decades. We were lucky with the weather and did not have any real snow problems in either trip in either direction. Again there was hardly anyone on the roads again and the thruway rest stops that were open had very people using the facilities. Mostly just the bathrooms. We ate in our car for both trips. The PA turnpike rest stops were very similar but maybe a little more crowded as we got near to Philly. Still not as it usually was. It was all very strange.

We are looking forward to getting on the road again this Spring. We are planning to visit Sean and Ashley for Andrew's birthday on the weekend of April 8-10 and on that Monday we will continue driving another four hours south to visit Kate and the kids for a week around Easter and Passover.

There were plans for a neighborhood reunion party at my friend Tom's house down in Quakertown in May. I'm not sure if that is still going on but we may drive down to Philly again at that time.

We are also looking forward to our week at Long Lake again in the Adirondacks in July. We had been thinking about another Europe trip for the Fall of 2021 to Barcelona and Paris but we will still have to wait and see for that one.

The map above shows the open or closed status for all the NY Thruway rest stops.