Author Take: Traveling During a Pandemic

As a cozy mystery author, I often write about humorous anecdotes, especially when my main characters travel. Unfortunately, traveling during the pandemic has been far from comical. I’ll tell you a bit about my experiences both good and bad. Plus, you can tell me about yours.
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On March 13, 2020 or close to Friday the 13th, my state was officially shut down. We weren’t sure what it meant, but my sisters and I were afraid even to travel to my mother’s house that we were cleaning out and getting ready to sell. After six months of going nowhere and selling my mother’s home, we hit the road via car and headed north.

Official Host at Wind Park

​Driving somewhere seemed easy since we were headed to South Dakota to look at the bison and gather up some rose quartz. Not too many people at our desired stops and even fewer people on the road. Mask ordinances varied everywhere we went, but we had ours ready. Merchants and employees were happy to see us. Our road trip would get a A-/B+. There were a few spots of absolute standstills usually caused by an RV on the narrow roads. Needles Highway isn't great for RVs.

Puerto Rico from the cruise ship

eBefore traveling went south in a hurry. Cruising used to be our desired travel mode, not too surprising our middle-aged sleuths loved it, too.  The Star Trek Cruise, which we were on, was one of the last to tour the Western Caribbean before the ports closed in March 2020. We like everyone else thought this would blow over and booked a birthday and anniversary cruise in May 2021. Even went so far to spring for a suite since you’re only sixty once. That cruise was cancelled. Even though cruising is technically back, we have our doubts. We book a cruise, then, it gets cancelled and we never get our money back. I wrote letters, sent emails, talked to their chat bot, spent at least sixty hours on various calls to make our replacement cruise happen. It was just cancelled, which means I have to start again. Just the thought wearies me. Word of warning to cruisers: put down only the deposit until you find out for sure if your ship will sail. Cruise Vacations get a D- from me. I might go for an F, but I’m still holding out for my cruise credit. Anyone who knows a troubleshooter for cruise patrons, please drop their info in the comment section.

Kayaking on the Rio Grande Far Flung Adventures

 Maybe not feeling confident, but desiring to see my son in Texas, we chose to fly. We went with an airline known for down home friendliness and lining up people like cattle to board. Our first surprise in our air adventure was a cancelled flight and not one we were notified about. Myself and about a hundred other unhappy fliers demanded to know what happened, but the airline employees were tight lipped on the subject. Most demanded their money back and were told to go home and apply online. Spoiler alert: they’ll get credit, not money. I asked about other flights and was told they had no way of knowing if other airlines flew to my destination. One did. It left an hour later, but I didn’t know that. Instead, I was rerouted adding an additional ten hours onto my already seven hours of flight time. We were in the airport or in the air from seven in the morning until eleven that night. Technically, the flight takes five hours. 

Our not-so friendly flight stewards huddled near the front of the plane while warning us not wearing a mask was a felony and bringing on our own alcohol was forbidden. Various incidents of out-of-control fliers explained their hesitancy to interact. I imagine the disgruntled customers that had to be rerouted didn’t inspire interaction, either. That particular flight experience would earn a C mainly because we were never informed about the cancellation by email, text, app, or call. We had no way of knowing we needed not to rush to the airport. We could have spent our extra five hours at home.

​Once in El Paso, Texas, we met up with our son and his girlfriend and had a super time. A big shout out to the people of Las Cruces, New Mexico, Terlingua, Texas and Marfa. You guys rock. A special shout out to Enterprise who exchanged our wonky rental for a four-wheel drive without a hassle. Make sure to use Far Flung Adventures, too. Texas road trip was A+.

Marfa Sunset

Back to the airport, but this time I used an airline where I choose my own seat this went much better. The flight attendants acted more relaxed, but that may have been due to all the empty seats surrounding me. A half-filled flight has to be an easier one. The shining moment of the flight was the Detroit airport. Long layover, of which I’m not a fan—except this time.
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Detroit is a huge airport that goes on forever or so it seems. It gave me a chance to get my steps in. I also treated myself to a reasonably priced steak dinner at Lone Star. Then I discovered they had a gentleman playing show tunes on a baby grand in the food court. I located a cup of Earl Grey and a cookie to accompany the music. One downloaded podcast later, I was ready to board the plane where I was once again surrounded by empty seats because I used my airline app to check out and modify the seating if needed.  B+ on the experience because the airline made the big layover by moving my first flight to three hours earlier.

Photo by yousef alfuhigi on Unsplash

The same airline kept changing the times on an upcoming flight to see our other children that  carved a three-day visit a into a day and a half. When I tried to return the flight back to the original schedule, they demanded another $350. A news agency had reported about this bait and switch practice, but this was my first experience. Not a fan.
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In conclusion, if you can drive; do so. There is still the allure of the open road and plenty of country to explore. As for my traveling adventures, one or two might show up in the next book.