Life in the Time of COVID–Travel


Disclaimer:  The COVID-19 posts are obviously not chronological, just incidental.

The spontaneous Garage gathering
The spontaneous garage party
We had just gotten back from our January/February 2020 Maui sojourn and put granddaughter Zoe on the bus for her home in Seattle*.  Earl and I went home to begin planning for a March birthday party and a Spring trip back to Maui.  I was thinking about our charmed, carefree life and then...COVID–19 hit.  The March birthday party went from 15 people to 6, moved from the house to the garage, one guest FaceTimed in, and we were trying to navigate this new environment.
We were prepared to cancel our Spring trip, but surprised when the state of Hawaii closed down to all incomers.  Tourism may be Hawaii's lifeblood, but they weren't messing around or, dare I say, waiting for direction from the federal government.  I thought, "surely this virus would be manageable by Fall."  We all know how that turned out.

The covid-19 test
But finally, we were able to go in early December 2020, providing we could show proof of a negative COVID test 3 days prior to departure.  Not just any test, mind you—it had to be a PCR test approved by both the airline and the state of Hawaii.  Earl was finally able to get appointments at one of two locations.  When they offered saliva tests, we jumped at that, wanting to avoid a reputedly painful nasal swab.  I now know it's not, but at the time, I thought spitting in tube sounded it a lot easier.

Earl had no trouble filling up his spit tube in about 5 minutes.  I was another story.  Unexpectedly, I had no spit.  It took me an hour to fill up the tube with the technician patiently watching me and Earl somewhat incredulous.  What was the problem? Was it poor coordination from my Ataxia?  30 minutes into the embarrassing process of trying to generate enough saliva for the test, it suddenly hit me. I had been taking Oxybutynin for bladder control and a common side effect was that it dried up all secretions.  Unfortunately, it was too late to change my mind, so I just had to do it, no matter how long it took.  The bottom line was a negative test result and we were cleared for takeoff.

Navigating the airport and
plane; following the rules 
Earl and I wore heavy N95 duty masks in the airport, but switched to a more comfortable one once we got on the plane. I have to say, we were impressed at how seriously the flight attendants took public health measures.  They were happy to serve food and drinks as long as you briefly lifted your mask from the bottom and put it right down.  Being a tolerant group, the flight attendants graciously invited any passenger who felt wearing a mask infringed on their personal freedom, to get off the plane and check with another airline (OK, I'm done now).

Even though it was shorter than our usual time there, it was so nice to be back in Maui, in the warm, in December.  Even though additional testing wasn't required, the state of Hawaii offered free Covid tests to tourists.  The testing site was close to us, did nasal swabs (thankfully), and the results were waiting for us within 30 minutes.  Impressive!  

The lesson:  Nasal swabs are just fine for me.  The really important thing was being warm.
Ahh. Warm weather!




Comments

  1. LilleteFebruary 27, 2021 at 4:37 PM

    Hi Tammy, as always, good to read your posts. Hoped the winter storm wasn't too bad for you. Can't believe the grandkids are not little kids anymore.

    ReplyDelete

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