Travel during the times of COVID-19 is virtually impossible, especially outside one’s own country’s. Every country has closed its borders to outsiders except for essential traffic – truckers moving essential goods and people in essential industries who work across borders (think of the 1,500 Canadian nurses from Windsor Ontario who work in Detroit area hospitals). Virtually all hotels are closed. Restaurants have only take-out. But I crossed into the USA before the border closed and no interstate borders have controls in the US. Other than having to self-isolate, I should have no issues crossing back into Canada.
But travel is not impossible – and I think I am doing it while not increasing my risk. The only way I can imagine it happening is the way I am doing it. I am traveling in a truck and camper that is little different than if I were self-isolated in my home back on Vancouver Island. I have my own very comfortable bed, a complete kitchen (stove, oven, refrigerator with a relatively large freezer and fridge, microwave), complete bathroom (with an enclosed shower supplied by a hot water heater – I take infrequent showers using the “navy” technique), lots of water, solar power and a complete entertainment system using Sirius Satellite Radio, CDs and a TV. I play a tremendous amount of bridge online and have an endless supply of reading on my Kindle. I have no need for a camp ground.
I am as self-isolated as anyone living alone, buying groceries once a week and going for a daily walk. Anyone living with someone else, walking a dog, jogging or certainly continuing to work is at more risk than me. That includes most anyone reading this. I would not take this supposed increased risk if I were not doing it so safely. I am over 65, male, blood group A and smoke more than I should – all factors that increase my risk of death or at least significant disease. From what I have read, COVID-19 has particularly severe symptoms that seem to last 3 weeks, again something I don’t want to experience. I don’t think I would do well if I got COVID-19. If you need a ventilator, the risk of dying is very high – in the 70-90% range – and I don’t want to die unconscious, intubated and with no human contact. At any rate, no travel insurance covers issues related to COVID-19 since travel advisories were issued.
Buying gas. I need to do this more often than when at home. But I have developed a technique almost devoid of risk. I leave my keys in the truck, put my credit card in the same back pocket and don my mask, a bandana. I then potentially contaminate myself by going inside the gas station to prepay using tap on my credit card – all US gas stations require a 5-digit zip code to pay at the pump that I don’t have. I then fill up and return inside to use the bathroom and wash my hands and then touch nothing. Back inside the truck, I use a sanitizer on my hands.
Buying groceries. This is not as thorough, as it isn’t for the rest of you (who knows who stocked the shelves or picked your groceries and then delivered them to your home?). But most grocery stores limit the number of customers inside. I wear my bandana and use my own shopping bag. I suppose there is risk from contamination from the people who stock shelves and do the checkout (all have plexiglass screens). After stocking up for as long as I can, I pay with tap and bag my own groceries. The onIy thing I need more often is milk that I buy at gas stations. I don’t bother sterilizing the food as I think it must be impossible to be completely thorough.
My biggest issue is keeping my electronics charged – I rely mostly on the inverter in my cab as the one in my camper seems to have difficulty staying on unless my solar panels are in complete sun. I am using two computers to be able to last through the night.
Another issue is a phone. I have a phone but without a local SIM card and thus have no easy access to data. I have a Vodafone Ireland SIM and that gets me access to data obtained over wifi networks.. I rely on the wifi in fast food outlets which is very easy to mooch and ubiquitous. My phone was purchased in Europe and incompatible with North American networks. I am too cheap to buy a new compatible phone and phone/data plans are very expensive, especially as I have almost no need for a phone to make calls as I use Skype, Messenger and FaceTime to communicate with anyone. Unlike in Europe or Asia, it is not possible to buy data separate from phone. I need to download offline maps from Google Maps to be able to navigate.
Purpose of travel. I have been traveling for 14 years and have difficulty staying at home for more than a few months. This is no real excuse but it keeps me sane. I have now been to 132 countries and in most of these, as many regions and “sights” in each country as possible. I rarely return to see the same country as my travel in each country is very complete – I would wager that I have seen more of most countries than 90% of it its citizens.
I long ago abandoned guide books and now use a travel website called Nomad Mania to guide where I go and what I see. It is a way to keep track of the 193 UN countries, their 1281 regions and the 47,000 sites listed in the Series. If you see even half of them, you are seeing most countries quite thoroughly. In the NM site, I am the 3rd biggest traveler in Canada and 9th in the world in the Series.
Almost all sights are closed – museums (the bulk of NM sites), most national parks, aquariums, planetariums and most everything with a door that can be locked. As a result I am seeing only those places that are still possible: “collecting” regions not previously visited (19 in the US and 3 in Canada), XL areas (a NM listing containing remote areas), cities, villages and small towns and the areas in the Series: waterfalls, rivers, lakes, road systems, religious monuments, monuments, pedestrian bridges and several of the places in the “Bizzarium” series as they often are outside. I do miss world class museums after seeing “thousands” of museums all over the world that are amazingly redundant in their displays.
And travel is very easy. There is little traffic except big trucks and parking my large rig is the easiest it has ever been. I sleep where ever I find myself and take frequent daily naps to prevent driver fatigue. I am in no hurry as I now have 3 months before I need to be in the West Kootenay of British Columbia to enjoy where I lived for 40 years. I spent a week in Beaumont Texas to clean, wax and repair all the problems after having not used the camper for 3 years.
After close introspection, I believe I have made a wise choice to travel. While all the rest of you are self isolated in your homes learning to bake bread, improve your cooking and doing all the things you could never get around to before (all admirable), I am out and about. A few of you have called me out and I respect that. You may think I am an idiot but I would love the debate.
Cheers Ron