Our Experiences Traveling in Covid Times

Samwise, socially distanced and relaxed in the desert.

Good morning from the beginning of our last week in Kanab. Tomorrow will be eleven weeks since we left the White Mountains.

Covid has been both the primary impetus for this trip and its most significant concern.

When the pandemic began in March, my brother Eddie and I joked that we were well-suited for it. Like all solitaries, we were concerned but believed our life would not change very much. We stay to ourselves, after all, and the virus spread when people gathered. We are not gatherers. On top of that, Northern New England is a pretty quiet place from March until school lets out.

We were not, however, prepared for how the little towns we lived in would change, how the Covid migration of the wealthy wanting out of the cities would impact our regions.

Soon, peaceful places we loved grew crowded, grocery stores became danger zones, and our (Samwise, Emily’s, and mine) little world was rocked by trails being crowded with folks from …