Forty days and forty nights – seems we might have been able to sail around the world in that time (oh, that was 80, sorry)!  The good news is that not spending money on travel means that we have more money to spend on future travel.  The bad news is that the markets have eaten some of our travel money!

We’ve had a number of conversations lately about when and where we’ll be able to go when the time comes.  We were supposed to be on a Southwest US road trip right now.  We have 17 states plus Hawaii left, and have routes mapped out to catch all of them.  The current hope is that we can head to a family birthday/wedding/July 4 blowout in Ohio then extend on into either the Northwest or the Northeast, saving the Southwest until fall or next spring.

Our big issue now is not so much fear of the Coronavirus itself, but what I am calling “Pandemic Panic.”  It’s all the ‘stuff’ that people are going to feel like they have to do to either comply with health department requirements or the expectations of the Perpetually Paranoid.  I’d prefer to not have to wear a mask into a grocery store in North Dakota (not that they are requiring it, this is hypothetical) or a museum in Oregon (again hypothetical) but if the choice comes down to going with compromises or staying home, I think we’ll figure out a way to go.

The October cruise we have booked?  Another story completely.  It depends on many factors: Are the ports in Canada going to open (they are currently closed until July, and the cruise season only goes through October)? Is the port of Boston going to allow cruise ships to take on and discharge passengers? What is the onboard experience going to be like?  We need to send them our money by early July, and I just don’t think we’ll know enough by July to make that kind of commitment.   So October might be the perfect time for another road trip and get our 49th state.  We’ll see! 🙂