When Staying Safe Means Staying Home

Staying Home By Shelly Wilfong

For the past six years, my family has been part of an intergenerational mission trip to an orphanage outside of San Jose, Costa Rica. Each one of us makes a unique contribution to the team. My mother serves as a translator and helps the local women prepare meals for the mission team. My teenage daughters engage with local youth through sports and lead arts-and-crafts. The able-bodied among us take on more physical challenges like building a septic system or erecting a cinder block fence. Team members with specialized skills, from bread baking to hairdressing, share what they do best with the local community.

This year, COVID-19 wrecked our Spring Break travel plans. The first sign of trouble came when my physician husband announced he had concerns about my mother’s traveling. Although she is healthy, my mother is over 70, and COVID-19 can be deadly for older people. She reluctantly bowed out of the trip, but the rest of us still planned to go. In the week before departure, fellow team members became increasingly concerned about various health ailments, the possibility of having to self-quarantine upon return, and the uncertainty about shifting international travel policies. Our church and the orphanage ultimately decided to postpone the trip.

A new destination emerged quickly, and my family rented a house in the Texas Hill Country. Avoiding air travel seemed to be a wise choice, and I could visit the many nearby Texas wineries. This plan was disrupted when, once again, my husband advised my parents to stay at home. My daughter had just returned home from her 8 th grade trip to Washington DC, potentially exposing her to COVID-19 as well as the typical germs that are prevalent this time of year. A person can transmit COVID-19 before experiencing any symptoms, and the safest bet is to keep high-risk individuals away from potential sources of infection. Between the germs my children bring home from school and travel and those my husband brings home from the hospital, my parents’ biggest health risk factor is spending time with us.

Common safe travel tips include thorough hand washing, use of disinfecting wipes to clean shared surfaces, and “social distancing,” allowing space between parties in restaurants or transportation. Conscientious travelers should always cover coughs and sneezes and stay home when sick. These precautions may not be enough to ensure personal safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, for people in high-risk categories because of age or preexisting health conditions, traveling may not advised.

My daughters and I will be spending Spring Break in the Texas Hill Country as planned, but it will be a girls’ trip. My husband will remain in Dallas to help manage his medical practice’s coronavirus response, and my parents are staying home to practicing extreme social distancing. Sometimes, the best way to stay safe is to stay home.

The self-imposed quarantine will allow my mother additional time to practice Spanish in preparation for our next trip to Costa Rica. Others that find themselves at home may want to spend time researching potential vacation destinations, taking an online language class, or tackling a travel memoir. These enriching activities will make future travel more enjoyable.

My family is sorely disappointed about our cancelled trip to Costa Rica and our reduced headcount for the Texas Hill County road trip. We anxiously await our next opportunity to travel together safely. Intergenerational travel brings special rewards, and we look forward to resuming our memory-making as soon as possible.

For more information on assessing your risk for travel and other tips for staying safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, visit the Center for Disease Control and Prevention at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

All Photos ©Shelly Wilfong

Being chased home by Blinky, Inky, & Company By Therese Iknoian and Michael Hodgson

Staring incredulously at our phones on Thursday morning, we were jolted fully awake with the text message, "Are you stuck in Germany for the next month? Trump just suspended all flights from Europe."

Once we got past the stressed strings of overnight texts from well-meaning friends and family in the United States—and the U.S. government issued some clarifications after an unclear statement March 11—we realized we weren’t facing No Entry signs. U.S. citizens would be allowed in, so we made our decision: We'd stay put in Germany. We actually spend quite a bit of time in Western Europe and, specifically, based out of Germany, which to be honest has always felt like a safe haven. And as veteran travelers, we're used to adjusting our plans and finding humor in just about any situation. So, carry on we would.

Despite our decision to stay put, however, this was starting to feel very different. Travel plans had started to collapse around us starting the night before our February 28 departure when we heard the ITB international travel show in Berlin, which was our first stop, was canceled due to the risk of spreading coronavirus (COVID-19). Then, upon arrival, we found out our next stop, the TBEX travel blogger conference in Sicily, was also canceled. With one big POOF there went another two weeks of our trip!

So, we simply adjusted plans. We'd now have more time to explore Berlin and the surrounding area and perhaps pop off to Poland or Austria! AND we still had a consumer show called Berlin Travel Festival on the weekend and the concurrent Travel Massive blogger forum. Ah, not so fast: A day later, that too changed. Seems travel festival staff had had contact with someone in Berlin who had tested positive for COVID-19. Just like that, the festival and blogger forum were canceled. Carry on? We're travel professionals…. Of course, we'd carry on….

Meanwhile, panic buying settled into Germany, too— dry goods like pasta and flour were being rationed in stores. Toilet paper was simply non-existent. Hand sanitizer? Ha ha; dream on. We were toe-tapping and fist-bumping instead of shaking hands at a few spontaneous meetings in Berlin. We slathered ourselves with hand sanitizer we had brought from home and washed our hands more frequently and longer than we can ever remember.

It was when European Union borders started shutting down around us—Denmark, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic—that our plans to carry on began to crumble. With the situation changing minute-byminute, we began to feel like we were being chased by Pac-Man’s Blinky, Inky, Pinky, and Clyde ghosts. One wrong turn, and we’d get eaten.

Despite being longtime, savvy travelers, we now had this unsettled churn in our stomachs and a nervous addiction to neverending news feeds and updates. It was time to head home to California. We hadn’t fallen prey to panicked dashes to airports 24 hours earlier, but it was time to find our safe haven —this time it would be in the foothills of California. In California, we could better monitor the situation, self-quarantine with our dog—and of course plan our next travel adventure. Stop traveling? Heck no. Crawl into a dark closet? Nope. But for the next few weeks we would enjoy the outdoors. California would be our safe haven. And then we’d carry on and travel. We always do.

How Ya Gonna Keep ‘em Down on the Farm, After They’ve Seen Par-eee? By Diane Dobry

When I am working, I love sleeping late, making my own hours, and sitting in my pajamas all day in front of the computer writing. Some days I’m obligated to go into an office, but I frequently even complain about that and have been known to say, “I wish I could just stay home all day, every day, in my pajamas.” And then I tell myself, “Be careful what you wish for.”

While I am a homebody to a great extent, I also love traveling abroad, exploring new cities and cultures, and living, at times, like a local in my favorite home away from home—Hungary—with side trips to other countries nearby whenever possible. In December, while planning my next trip abroad, I was contacted unexpectedly by a dear friend I had known 25 years ago in New York City. He now lives in Alicante, Spain, in a large flat overlooking the Mediterranean. “Come and visit me,” he offered. “I will be your tour guide.”

I had been looking at cruises, since I have an eating issue that requires me to have a limited diet, and in my experience, cruises were the most flexible when it came to preparing meals for their guests. The only other alternative, I thought, would be to stay with my friends in Hungary, where I would have access to their kitchens, and I could make my own meals. But I had never been to Spain before, and Alicante sounded lovely. Here was a friend offering me a place to stay with wifi, a kitchen, a ride to and from the airport, and shops in walking distance. It was the perfect plan.

Originally I thought of traveling in March, when I could possibly go to the TBEX conference for travel bloggers in Sicily for a few days first. But, again, my food limitations weighed on me, so I messaged him in February, after several online conversations, and told him I could come in June and then go to Hungary in July to stay with my friends there. No reply.

This friend has a daughter living in northern Italy whom he visits for a week or two each month. As I began to hear stories about COVID 19 hitting Italy, I sent other messages asking if he and his daughter were okay. I still heard nothing back and did not see him on social media. I still don’t know anything about their situation.

I hope he and his family are well. Currently, the whole idea of a trip to Europe is moot for the time being. The Hungarian friends I had planned to visit in July are on social media sending messages warning friends to “Stay home!”

I am doing just that. I infrequently go out to the store, since a week before the toilet paper shortage, I did my preparedness shopping, asked my boss that I be excused from going to the office (I am the only one over 60, so I felt it was a fair request), and canceled all social plans for the month. Now, more people are being told to work from home, if possible.

I am home all day, every day, alone most of the time, being uncharacteristically OCD. Not in my pajamas, though. I’ve heard a walk in the Florida sunshine is considered a preventative step against the virus, and I make the effort whenever possible.

So, blame me for this mess and my wish to work from home and not leave the house. But be really grateful that if we must self-isolate, we live in a time when we do not have to be isolated completely—we have Face Time, social media, Netflix, games to play, books to read, and the ability to continue to work in many cases because of technology. And, much of it from a little digital gadget we can carry in our pockets. Thank God for such small favors.

In the meantime, watch House Hunters International, Rick Steves, The Great Courses with travel programs around the world, plan your next adventure or write about those you have already experienced. And, may we get past this danger and be back on the road again, soon.

An Ounce of COVID-19 Prevention is Priceless By Janie H. Pace

Things are getting pretty crazy out there these last few days, with the CDC and local Tarrant County and Dallas County banning groups and meetings of 250 people or more, asking citizens to stay home and avoid large gatherings. School districts have extended spring break for two more weeks through March 27. Churches have closed through the end of the month and will stream services online since a Fort Worth priest became the first Tarrant County patient testing COVID-19 positive after visiting a Kentucky religious gathering. My woman’s club has closed through the end of the month. The Dallas Travel and Adventure Show, scheduled March 28-29, was canceled due to an order by CDC and Dallas County to avoid mass gatherings of 250 or more people. Downtown Fort Worth Inc. postponed its annual meeting and luncheon on March 19. The city of Fort Worth has rescheduled the Main Street Art Festival from mid-April to Labor Day Weekend. Other closings include The Kimbell Art Museum, the zoo, and Billy Bob’s in the Stockyards. American Airlines is cutting flights and allowing unpaid leaves of absence. Our doctor’s office texted to call the doctor’s office first if we have symptoms before we travel to see them. Suddenly, my husband and I must consider where we go and what we do. He is dealing with Significant COPD and is one of those individuals now considered medically compromised. He reminds me that I am also in that group since I have Type II Diabetes. It has me thinking, “How worried should I be?” Upon learning that Viking had stopped all cruises temporarily, I rescheduled our two-week Viking Homeland Ocean Cruise plus the 4-day Iceland excursion from May-June this year to the same time next year with no penalty. Viking provides excellent service. My midday Friday visit to the local grocery store for a few things that normally would have taken me 20 minutes turned into an hour-and-a-half ordeal. Long lines of shoppers looked like they were getting ready for Thanksgiving Dinner with their baskets mounded over with all kinds of groceries, cleaning products, paper goods, bottled water, and more. Some shelves were bare—fresh meats, paper products, cleaning supplies, bottled water, alcohol, hand sanitizer, baby food formula, and Pedialite. That experience was concerning, but I refuse to allow panic to consume me. My husband and I are taking extra precautions for the situation: • We wash our hands more often. • We use hand sanitizer when we are away from home, after using a grocery cart, or after filling up at the gas station. • We cough into our sleeve; we use a Kleenex once and throw it in the trash. • We are careful to avoid large groups of people. • We are doing everything to boost our immune systems. • To avoid the crowds, we order take-out instead of our regular eating out on the weekends. • We have enough food on hand for two weeks. I also have to consider future travel and if it would expose my husband or me to the coronavirus. I have another travel event planned April 28-May 1 from Dallas to Palm Springs for a writing conference. I am waiting to see if they reschedule the meeting because, while the writing conference is important to me, I must consider the “what-ifs.” I can’t expose my husband to the virus. Right now, I’m in a holding pattern. My focus is for both of us to stay healthy and safe, and to take one day at a time. For, in time, this too shall pass. Texas Coronavirus Prevention: Wash your hands like you just got done slicing jalapeños for a batch of nachos and you need to put in your contact lenses. (That’s like 20 seconds of scrubbing, y’all!)