Prepping for a Road Trip
/As soon as I got my vaccination, I began to make plans for a road trip from Maryland to Texas to see my parents. During the last week before I was fully vaccinated (i.e., the second week after the second shot), I made hotel reservations as a halfway point, got my car serviced and fueled (it was the first gas I had bought since last fall), and did some grocery shopping to stock up supplies for my husband at home and purchase what I would need for the road. It was the first time I had shopped in the store for months! I got there a few minutes after sunrise and stopped to take a picture before I went into the store.
I was appreciating the springtime in our neighborhood too. The maples are going to seed. The tree in our back yard looks golden compared to the spring green of the tulip poplars of behind it. Soon the leaves will dominate, and the maple will look green too…but I’ll be in Texas by the time that happens. It felt odd to realize I would not be at home for over a month after not traveling at all for over a year.
My plan for the road trip was to minimize interactions with people along the way which meant carrying enough food and drinks in the car…lots of hand sanitizer…a supply of masks. The drive would be a pretty one with trees and wildflowers along the interstates, but I was more anxious than usual because of the impact of the pandemic. I was not the only one that was getting out for the first time in over a year…and it was hard to predict how the places where I’d stop along the route through Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas would be. Would people wear masks? Would the rest stops all be open? Would they be crowded? Would the motel indeed be as I expected…with minimal interaction to get checked in?
Stay tuned for a post in a few days about my road trip….
