The coronavirus has changed everyone’s life. We’re living with our new normal as it exists within that change.
Living With Our New Normal
When we started our trip to Texas at the end of February, the coronavirus was just a news story. It didn’t really impact us or our thought of traveling in our motorhome. Wow, how things have changed!
On The Way To Texas
We left on February 21 with the intent on taking our time traveling. We generally didn’t drive more than 4 hours a day. That usually meant that we got into a park, set up, and had time to relax. We traveled down through California and entered Arizona to sunny skies. Pleasant temps and relaxation was the norm. We stayed in Tucson for 5 days with more than a little downtime. Mike had a case of food poisoning which ended up in the emergency room. No mention of Coronavirus and anything out of the normal.
On to the Houston area and spending time with son, daughter-in-law and granddaughters during their spring break. Mid week all hell broke loose. So to speak. The Houston Rodeo shut down and suddenly spring break was extended for another week. We stayed our planned nine days and left for home.
Our Way Back Home
We spent our first two nights on the road just outside of Fredericksburg, Texas. Businesses were starting to limit times or shut down entirely. The streets of the normally active town were quiet. We ate lunch at a Brewery that discussed taking customers temperatures as they came in. They opted not to.
Living with our new normal on the road started to change dramatically. By the time we got to Tucson on March 19, check in procedures at RV parks were hands off. They were protecting themselves and those staying in RVs. At that point, state parks were closing down and most businesses were closed. We had anticipated staying for several days and moving on to the Lake Havasu area for a week. Things were starting to get very strange. We decided the best thing was to head home, staying one night at each RV park.
Limited Contact With Everyone
In our motor home, we are totally self contained. We were sheltering in place as we tried to get to Oregon as soon as possible. So was most everyone else who had snowbirded for the winter. We met people (staying 6 feet apart) from Canada, Washington, Oregon, California and beyond. We also met several full timers. They were in the most precarious positions. Having many of their reservations cancelled, they were scrambling to make new ones. The uncertainty of the future was hitting home.
We found most people kept their distance, in RV parks and truck stops where we got diesel every day. And, the traffic was extremely light on the interstates. Mainly us and the trucks.
Living With Our New Normal
We were very happy to finally get home a week ago. And, we had stocked up before we left. So, we didn’t have to go into grocery stores immediately. We could give ourselves and others two weeks before needing to do that. Since we own a small business that we operate at our home, we are used to sheltering in place. Working from home isn’t difficult.
As you can imagine, though, custom metal work is a non-essential expense. We had some initial work when we got home, but it’s been pretty quiet lately. And that’s okay. We will survive this. We’re working on projects that have been sitting around. And, looking at doing spring cleaning. Life will change from this point forward. It will be a new normal. And, we’ll live with it. Hopefully, everyone else will be able to as well.
Stay safe everyone.