@NJSue – the way things are going now in the state, that’s nuts. I think the fact that we have gone from the state with the naughty lists, to now being on one, speaks volumes on how we have stupidly let up.
I drove from MA to CO in July. People were wearing masks in most service areas that I stopped. When I stopped for gas in Nebraska, I realized no one was wearing a mask. I decided to defer my bathroom break and remembered that Walmart requires masks in all of their stores. I found a Walmart nearby and went there to use the bathroom and buy some snacks.
Ct might start requiring all travelers to get a Covid test or quarantine…maybe as soon as Monday. The numbers in CT are such that they could end up meeting the criteria for their own quarantine list. Hoping to prevent that.
The way numbers here in MA are rising, it would not surprise me if MA ends up on other states’ naughty lists.
BTW, I love how we are referring to “naughty lists”!!
MADad that’s weird because NJ comes up okay here: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-travel-order#lower-risk-states-
G’day
How is your quarantine stay going? You must be more than half way by now.
I do hope that you have been able to have some (supervised) outdoor exercise time.
Is it welcome home or back? Or simply welcome to Sydney ?
Soon you will be free to enjoy our new normal ??? which is pretty normal compared with so many other places.
Tomorrow morning is half-way for me. Sadly, we don’t get to leave the room at all.
I’m from the US and this is my first trip here so the appropriate greeting is “Welcome to Sydney”, and I thank you for that!
I’ll get a part of one more “normal” day here in Sydney before flying out to Melbourne. Hopefully we will find out tomorrow which of the current restrictions get rolled back there. They had 2 new cases yesterday in Victoria and one today and they are more restricted now than we are in the US.
The impact of the virus here is so different than it is at home. It is really hard for me to wrap my head around case numbers in the single digits. It just doesn’t compute.
Good for you and your fellow Australians for getting to this point!
Didn’t realise you are going to Melbourne after quarantining in Sydney. Yes, the restrictions in Melbourne are much stricter than Sydney/NSW! Will be very interested to hear about your experiences in Melbourne.
My daughter’s try out was canceled for November. There are 6-7 girls in NY, and they are concerned that if they hold the event in NY, no one else will be able to come but if they hold it in a more neutral state (NJ, Conn, Maryland) the NYers won’t be able to return to NY without quarantining, and then might not be able to leave for Thanksgiving.
I think many of the states that are open now will be restricted in 3-4 weeks. One of our counties changed the rules limiting gatherings to 10 people (was 25), is closing bars at 11 pm (was midnight), and asked employers to allow WFH as much as they can (my daughter works in that county and was back to the office). The school district in that county has in-person classes for k-5, and hybrid for middle and high school and that seems to be going well.
re: NJ being on MA’s naughty list - NJ is not on it as of today, but was on it yesterday. How do I know? Because I put my D20 on a train headed up to Boston yesterday morning, came home logged on to NJ.com and saw a headline mentioning that NJ was now on the list for MA. I had a bit of a panic attack, thinking of my D arriving at her hotel and being told she was not allowed out of her room. It really hadn’t occurred to me there would be an issue traveling between the two states, as they’ve seemingly been operating in lockstep for quite some time w/regard to COVID protocols.
I am not proud to admit this, but I texted her and advised her to lie if asked at check in to say where she was arriving from. 
Thankfully, no one even asked, so either the hotel staff didn’t know, or didn’t care.
I am relieved to know that her visit up there is once again “kosher” as of this morning.
Folks traveling to and from NJ and CT to NY State do not need to quarantine. Who told the sponsors that?
However, CT, NY and NJ have the same states on their restricted list and Colorado is on the list for all three. So your daughter would have still needed to quarantine (or get a Covid test with results quickly in CT).
Moving to CT or NJ would have not helped your kid at all, or most of the other OOS kids…but the NY kids would have been fine traveling to NJ or CT…and back.
In terms of travel, I’m seeing less of my friends even trying to plan any travel in 2021.
Bradley Airport in CT has set up a Covid testing site. Travelers coming here can be tested at the airport as they arrive. Once they get negative results, they don’t any longer need to quarantine. So…we are encouraging our OOS kid to make a plane reservation for Christmas sometime.
If today’s traffic on the interstates between PA and VA (and around DC) are any clue, a lot of people are driving places. Even on a basic mid day Saturday in October it was very crowded. We used to be able to count on that time of day/week being relatively light.
A couple of areas where we passed by orchards or vineyards, they were packed.
One can tell Covid is no longer a concern to many. Even FIL, who knows he will almost certainly die if he catches it with symptoms, told us he went to Walmart in order to buy a $1.25 ruler - and then wandered around seeing what other deals they had. He’s also been making sure beneficiaries are on his various assets the past month or so making me think he still knows the risk. He’s just tired of it all - and with BIL coming around anyway without a care anymore even with cases at his workplace, he might feel his trying to be safe is pointless.
DIL’s mom flew in to be with her dad while he’s still feeling “ok” (dying from a kidney disfunction) and said that didn’t feel safe at all. She flew Frontier and Spirit - full planes.
Watching it all happen in my circles and knowing we’re not likely to be a special snowflake, it’s no surprise that we’re gunning for a huge second wave.
At least medical treatment is more advanced now than in the spring.
I wish my family were in Australia or New Zealand.
Our getting together with med school lad in Nov is on very thin ice right now. PA is likely to soon be on NY’s naughty list. VA already is.
We’re a battleground state and everybody + their brother/sister/wife/daughter/son/uncle/aunt/enemy is coming here to try to affect voting and spreading a bit, and then add fatigue, college students, schools back in session, anti-mask idiots, and who knows what. We were doing very well.
I’m bummed.
Pre-pandemic I booked a log cabin in a state park in the mountains near the WV border. It is a 3 hour drive. We wanted to do it last year, as it was near older S’ school and not far from younger S, but nothing was available. So, I booked it for last weekend. H and I drove up Friday night and the kids joined us Saturday. It was wonderful. The weather was gorgeous. The leaves were beautiful.
In general, it felt pretty safe. We had to bring all of our own bedding and linens. Reservations have been modified, so nobody is in the cabin at least one day prior to your arrival. The state park was technically full, but we hardly saw a soul in the cabin areas. Most were in the campgrounds or fishing. We hiked instead and saw a handful people on our trail. We did eat inside one restaurant - my first time. But there were few booths/tables and everyone wore a mask until seated. The food was fantastic, but I guess we will see in the next week if it was truly safe. But I definitely needed that time away.
FYI, Cuomo stated the following about PA today:
“There is no practical way to quarantine New York from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut. There are just too many interchanges, interconnections, and people who live in one place and work in the other. It would have a disastrous effect on the economy, and remember while we’re fighting this public health pandemic we’re also fighting to open up the economy. However, to the extent travel between the states is not essential, it should be avoided." (from CNN)
Up to you how you handle things.
@mom1720 Thank you for that update! It gives me hope. We left the conversation this morning with a “let’s see what happens and play it by ear.” For us that’s been common for the past couple of years with parent health issues and now, Covid.
We will be playing it by ear. We’ve always known if numbers are bad in his area or ours that it wouldn’t happen, but if he comes to our place it’s a non-stop drive so the only risk is him or us, but mostly him since he works in the hospital with people. He’s not going to FIL’s. We’re visiting FIL prior to the lad coming to us and will leave at least two weeks after his visit before returning here.
I’ve been watching the numbers for MD for a week b/c I need to accompany my son to a doctor’s appointment in NY on Friday. I just knew we would be added to the restricted list today and sure enough, MD is on it. We can still go, b/c medical appointments are exempt from the restriction, but dh and I were planning to stay overnight and spend the next day hiking and looking at the fall foliage. Now, however, we aren’t allowed to do that, so instead of NY businesses getting some of our sorely needed money, we will instead drive up there Friday morning, pick up S19 and take him to his appointment, then make the 5 hour return trip home in the afternoon.
I have a question of the restrictions that states are doing with residents of another state.
And since a blogger I follow just spent a week in the Adirondacks. From SC.
It is the honor system? Are Airbnb owners and hotel clerks suppose to decline reservations from those in banned (restricted) states? How is this enforced?
I’m not planning on visiting anywhere, I’m curious how it’s enforced.
Here in Michigan, our local police have been vocal that they will not enforce any restrictions that our governor has or will mandate.
Are NY trees still in the pretty stage? Based upon ours in PA I thought theirs would be done or really past peak by now. I have no idea though - anyone in various areas of NY who can look out their window?
@Creekland it depends where in NY you go. They are just about peak/peaking now in the southern part of the state. Here in MD where we also get beautiful colors, our leaves are still green.
I just texted my son - he said the leaves are still turning where he is in NY.