travel during covid

We have made several trips of 1 or 2 weeks. Someone above mentioned Smokey Mountains being crowded but I never saw that. We stayed a week in Pigeon Forge, a week in Hendersonville, and a week in Linville and never saw much of a crowd anywhere except on a Sat in the Chimney Rock, Lake Lure area. Took another trip up through WV, PA, MD, and VA (2 weeks 1000mi and 4 campgrounds) and although it was leaf peeping time saw very few crowds. Also spent a week in Annapolis. Heading to West Palm Beach in Dec. We are 75 and 79 so we just try to stay safe and keep on rolling. Safe travels everyone.

JaxDad wrote:

JRscooby wrote:

Grit dog wrote:


Actually due to the China Virus limitations on youth sports, we’ve had MORE time to go camping, with the kids and still have made a few hockey tournaments for the younger boy in ID, AZ and MN.
Which is nice since our state is socialist and has killed youth sports largely.

Well another political based statement allowed to stand by mods.

I’m not sure ‘allowed to stay’ is the correct term. The report function is inop.

Yes, reporting does not work. OTOH I bet the mods would find any post that that showed most of the world has done a much better job controlling Covid 19 than the country where the leader has been recorded say he knows a lot of people will die but he has and will downplay it.
And calling government efforts to protect population "socialism" is silly if you understand socialism is a economic system, not a form of government.
Democracy is enshrined in the Constitution, capitalisms is not.

Yeah, our plans changed. We typically spend winter overseas. Usually Europe and SE Asia with work stops in the middle east mixed in. While we would have no issues going, the flights are largely shut down and work isn't going to pay for me to sit in a hotel quarantining for two weeks every other month, so...

We loaded up near the end of September and headed west. Other than some nasty winds across southern Wyoming, it's been great. Cool comfortable weather for the most part. Light crowds.

Today we are hitting our 7th National park of the trip (in addition to several National Monuments, state parks and other cool places). The nice thing being so late in the season is crowds are down (Zion was busy but the shuttle driver said it's way down from a month or two ago).

We were in Sequoia yesterday and many of the popular stops, there was only 1 or 2 cars and the roads largely empty. Today it's off to Yosemite...snow is the biggest concern given the weather forecast.

PS: One ironic thing...With one exception, the NP visitor centers are shut down in the name of the Rona. Yet oddly, every single park gift shop is operational. Apparently, the Rona fears RV'ers bearing gifts.

JRscooby wrote:

Grit dog wrote:


Actually due to the China Virus limitations on youth sports, we’ve had MORE time to go camping, with the kids and still have made a few hockey tournaments for the younger boy in ID, AZ and MN.
Which is nice since our state is socialist and has killed youth sports largely.

Well another political based statement allowed to stand by mods.

I’m not sure ‘allowed to stay’ is the correct term. The report function is inop.

Just got back from an 87 day trip. Covid crimped our style but did not stop us in our tracks.

Travelling by RV is inherently a solitary activity. You travel in your own vehicle, sleep in your own bed & eat at your own site. There is no need to be running off to a store every day. If there is any socializing it is done outside at a respectful distance.

We only covered about 5000 miles this trip which were very flexible in route & time spent.

Plans are already in the works for next year. Newfoundland is plan A. A western trip is plan B. Be adaptable & go with the flow & be careful out there.

We were supposed to go to Galveston in July, but they raised there Covid rates and basically closed everything down. Didn't want to go and sweat on a beach or by a pool with everyone else in 100 deg temps. So at the last second, 3 days before we were to leave I made a quick week and a half trip to Granby CO and RMNP.

Hen we were supposed to go to MI and Door County WI for their Fall festival in Oct. Well the festival got cancelled. So I had a month and planned a trip to Navarre FL and Santa Rosa RV Resort on the Gulf. So both worked out. People panick and worry. Not us we will travel. We don't worry about what the version of the flu will do!

Not sure if anyone watches Traveling Robert on You Tube, but he took a long midwestern trip this summer and the Smoky's was his last video. Holy ****! I've never seen it so packed! I know it's the most visited NP, but there was no where to park, tthe small swimming areas in the rivers were packed. So if Covid was so bad it would've been seen in August, but that's when the numbers started to drop. So much for social distancing stopping the spread.

We have done all our planned trips and have one more to go. Camping is the ideal COVID travel. Being self contained is really nice. Our own beds, bathroom. Use to use park bathrooms but got an Macerator to make it easier to deal with portable tanks.

I think camping by nature is socially distancing. I don't go to hang out with people at the camp ground. We had to cancel one trip due to the campground being closed during a stay at home order and another due to not having vacation time left. Work made us get to 0hrs during lockdown. other than that we camped a bunch. i had fridays off all summer so every weekend was a 3 day weekend. We used the camper a ton, the boat a ton and i got alot of house projects completed this year. we had a great summer all while doing the socially distance thing.

Wear the mask, sanitize your hands and carry on with you life. You can care about other people and live your life at the same time!

Grit dog wrote:


Actually due to the China Virus limitations on youth sports, we’ve had MORE time to go camping, with the kids and still have made a few hockey tournaments for the younger boy in ID, AZ and MN.
Which is nice since our state is socialist and has killed youth sports largely.

Well another political based statement allowed to stand by mods.

We camp with a pop-up, so using facilities in the camper while traveling does not work. This year we have done day trips when we can stay away from people. The first one, we planed to eat in a restaurant we like. But we got to the town, put my mask on, and got out to walk the dog. Somebody said "you don't need that mask, this is trump country" Back in car, drive to grocery store. Mask, shield, alcohol wet towel in hand, bought stuff to make lunch.
We did make a 3000 mile trip. Drive 300-350 miles, camp 2-3 nights. Would pack the porta-pot and shower tent, and lunch where it was easy to reach. The layover day I would cook enough to be sure we had quick food for travel day. Wife would look up Walmart, order food for couple of days, then we would pick up at curb.

For our June through August "Covid wilderness travels" , we found it rather easy to utilize grocery pick up services with a bit of advance planning.

Walmart is located almost everywhere and many major chains as well. They put the groceries in your RV on the steps.
With a bit of planning, we did not go into a grocery store the entire trip.