Friday the 13th

Have you seen the commercial for insurance that warns that they can't protect you from becoming your parents? Specifically, I'm thinking of the one where they are at the airport. Overpreparation. I feel called out. 

Sure, we're driving instead of flying, but I've jammed a lot of stuff into a duffle bag, a pretty big backpack and two reusable shopping bags. I'm sure I've still managed to forget something. Oh well. There are very few things I can't just buy on the road. Prescriptions, really, and I am sure I could get those if I have the time and patience. I actually nearly forgot one.

While I've packed nearly everything I could think of that would be useful, I haven't really coordinated some of this with my travel mates. I assume that they are bringing their own clothes, toiletries and phones. But they are a lot like me, in many ways. Do you think all three of us brought a CB radio for the car? Did we all download CW McCall's Greatest Hits for when that CB wakes up? Maybe these things are just what I would bring and the others have packed different road trip toys.

I will say that I've realized that packing for a road trip is a bit different than flying somewhere. A lot of my thinking has been around how do I keep myself from forgetting anything, as we move from hotel to hotel. I don't have to worry about TSA. I don't want to forget my shaped pillow somewhere, though. I bought the ugliest quilted sham I could find at Walmart. Emily just keeps commenting about how hideous it is. I just say "yeah! Isn't it great? It will never get left behind!"

Packing for a pandemic means making sure I have enough masks. I'm also making sure that I've got filters for my cloth masks, as I'm sure we'll be driving through wildfire smoke somewhere. We've also got camp chairs so that we have our own place to sit outside. That is the one thing we coordinated on so we didn't end up bringing 9 chairs.

We leave Friday evening, so I'm staying up way past my bedtime in the hope that I will sleep in. That is often easier said than done. We shall see. I'm 90% packed, so I'll probably call it a night pretty soon.

It's just after 2 am Friday morning. We leave in 16 hours.

Untitled Buddy Road Trip Movie

A few months back, I got a dumb idea to take an epic road trip. Not just a few hours but really put some miles in. I talked to Bryan and Jason to gauge how they felt about a road trip that involved more time in the car than at the destination. I expected them to say that they really weren't interested but they were enthusiastic.

We talked about where we could go, how much time we could take off from work and other responsibilities, and came up with a plan. It turns out that we only have one week plus the weekends. We can take off Friday evening, right after Jason gets off work. Bryan and I will connect and get a ride to Raymond, where Jason works. From there, Jason's 2020 Toyota Corolla will be our steed.

We set the trip for the middle of August to allow for the country to put the global pandemic in the rearview mirror. Vaccinations are available everywhere and infection rates were dropping dramatically. All three of us are vaccinated and have been for some time. That should protect us, if we were exposed, from the severe cases that have hospitalized and even killed so many people. Then July came. Only about half of the US is vaccinated at this point. Cases have been spiking dramatically and people are dying.

This more virulent Delta variant doesn't seem to hospitalize the vaccinated at a higher rate, but does spread much more easily. Even though we are protected, we can't travel with business as usual because that would increase the chance that we spread the virus. What is our obligation to protect strangers that don't "believe" the virus is real? I don't know but kids under twelve and those unable to get the jab for health reasons deserve to be protected.

So, we'll get to see America. The geography, the art, the beauty. But we'll spend less time getting to know the locals than we would have liked. Fully masked with the good masks. We do have some people to visit, but we'll be pretty strategic about that.

So where are we going? Stay tuned. We do have a detailed itinerary but the destinations aren't as important as the journey. It will be epic, though.

It's Tuesday morning. We leave in three days.