I felt comfortable on my American flight last week. I left from our small regional airport where it was very easy to maintain distance. Everyone wore masks and 23 of the 50 seats were empty. Families sat together and I was able to get a seat with no one else in my row, and both the rows in front and behind were unoccupied. Beverage service only upon request. Deplaning was orderly and distanced and I was happy to see this continue throughout the airport. Everyone I encountered truly seemed mindful of distance. It was a relatively short flight, so I was able to avoid restrooms.
I will add that I booked the flight last minute and knew it was light on passengers. This was a big factor in my decision to fly. I have felt much more nervous in the grocery store these last few months than in the airport/plane.
@coralbrook Your employee can get a same day test here in San Diego if he is willing to pay for it. D2 paid to get tested on Friday since her best friend’s boyfriend tested positive last week and D had seen her friend at the beach before this. D found a drive through testing place at a lab and paid $85 online and went Friday morning and received her negative result by the afternoon.
@Rivet2000 let me know what your questions are on travel to Palm Springs and I can ask my friend.
They drove down from the Bay Area on Sunday. She said they stopped in Kettleman City, approximately 60% of people she saw had masks on. They are staying in Palm Springs proper. She said that restaurant was pretty empty and they sat outside.
@mom60 Thanks. We’ll be traveling from AZ to Palo Alto to move S out of dorm. Making the trip i small chunks so plan on stops in Palm Springs and (probably) Monterey. If you friend has any recommendation on restaurant in Palm Springs that would be good. I think we’re leaning towards take out instead of dine-in or room service.
We had been thinking of renting a house on Cape Cod in late August just to get away (driving trip). We are in a state that is doing well on the numbers, but who knows what will be happening in 5 weeks. Don’t want to go if everything is closed and/or we are expected to quarantine there or when we come back. Thinking of renting something but buying Cancel for Any Reason trip insurance. Most of the rentals do not have covid cancellation policies. If our state and Mass. continue to have low numbers, it would be fine, but then again, totally not sure.
@mom2and I love Cape Cod, but isn’t Massachusetts still “expecting” people from out of state to quarantine for 14 days?
I am not sure what the point is with states that expect or request quarantine periods. Seems to me that they should either “require” them or just forget it.
My cousin wanted a beach vacation (had to cancel their anniversary trip to Hawaii), so she and her husband went to St. John, USVI. Certainly as pretty as the Bahamas, and not a foreign destination.
Surfaces are not vectors for virus transmission. As long as you keep distance for extended periods of time while wearing masks, there is not much risk at the grocery store for shoppers.
I have a report from DD who flew AA from DCA to Santo Domingo thru Miami. She said it was a disaster! No spacing between boarding groups, no floor markings for spacing. FAs did not wear or wore masks incorrectly. Customs forms were handed out at ticket counter with no crowd control done. She flew first class and was handed a paper bag with water and pretzels on first leg and had to request anything on second, which was delivered with no face mask or gloves. FAs gathered to chat in galley with no face masks. Sound s like they have a lot of work to do on their protocols. We’ll see what the return looks like.
Wow, that sounds like a terrible flight experience. @Rivet2000 my friend is on her way home. She said it was really hot but it felt good for her to get out of her house. She felt like everywhere they went the mask requirements were strictly enforced. Lots of hand sanitizer stations and employees wearing masks, Favorite meal was Workshop Kitchen. They had lots of tables spaced out on a large patio. Servers would wait 6 feet away from the table while you put a mask on before serving. She said that they also took their temperature before seating them. Most shops were closed or had limited hours which is probably the case in summer and mid week anyway. Tram was closed due to Covid.
Re National Parks and Utah for @Midwest67 : My D and I just road tripped from Oh to LA (by the way, we rented a Dodge Caravan from Budget, all seats fold into floor, so it was made into a “cargo van” but much comfier and cheaper than a UHaul).
Bryce Canyon Utah was just as crowded as when we were there years ago. The shuttle that allows access to the vast majority of Zion NP is, due to covid, reservation only and sells out about a month ahead (ours was a last minute trip, we did not have shuttle tickets and could not get them. We took one hike that is accessible without the shuttle and did it at sunrise so crowds were light, but driving through both days we could see it was plenty crowded, hotels were 90% booked too. It also seemed just as crowded as when we were there in the summer years ago. We tried to drive to another part of Zion but it was closed to Covid. So…check your park availability and tickets and reserve well ahead of time. All that said, mask wearing was very prevalent and if you are willing to take your time, step aside, etc, we were able to avoid being near people.
As for OH and CA…I live in Oh and D goes to college in CA, so I watch these two states. Interestingly they have had similar paths. To me, OH did start off strong but the reopening was not slow or cautious in reality. It was like 1-2 weeks of limited businesses being allowed to open and then the door swung wide open. Then the protests, (about mask wearing, then about BLM), and I believe protests have contributed to CAs numbers as well. I’m in LA now and despite the news and numbers it seems no more “closed down” than Ohio…except in LA there is no indoor dining allowed, and bars are closed. But people are all over the place shopping. Mask wearing seems high in both places (BTW I’m talking Columbus OH and LA), and OH has mandated statewide masks now.
Everybody and his dog is camping in Utah. The parks did such a great job during the govt shutdown that they will now be victims of their success with very limited medical facilitates in the rural areas.
I have a friend who is still complaining about how many people they let into RMNP, yet she tried for days to get a pass and could only get one for noon. They do limit the number of people getting into the parks, but if you get in at 7 am you can stay all day. Some of the buildings aren’t open, so the ones that are have double the people at them.
Last Sunday the traffic home on I-70 from the mountain towns (Aspen, Vail, Winter Park, etc) was as bad as any ski weekend taking 2-3 hours for what is usually 70 minutes. It’s been hot in the city so anyone who can get away is doing that. Have to say I’m going up this Saturday too but to a private home.
When we visited some of the National Parks many years ago during summer, I think at least half of the visitors were from the EU and China. I was fearing that our parks would be over-crowded since car travel is the transportation of choice, and most other countries and longer air travel are closed to us. But, I was hoping that would be offset by the lack of outside travelers. Guess not.
@orangepurple We live in one of the NE states that was taken off the MA quarantine list a couple of weeks ago. But that can change quickly. In March we went from everything open to stay at home in a matter of days.