Read chapter 33 here
Photo by Retiring Guy
Based on a recent survey I read about – which for the life of me I can’t locate now -- JoAnna and I are members of a Covid-era group that ventures more than 10 miles from home each weekend, based on cell phone data. For the past three weekends, anyway. This past Sunday we met Ron and Margaret at Indian Lake County Park, an 11½-mile trip from our house. As we drove along the access road to the parking lot, we were surprised to see many cars parked along the side.
“Wow! I guess everybody decided to go here today,” I exclaimed, wondering if we should have chosen another location.
As we continued along the parking lot, we found plenty of spaces available, which was not the case when we left, as you can see from the photo here. Earlier in the day, when we texted back and forth to decide on a destination, Margaret mentioned that Indian Lake had been ‘really crowded’ on their most recent visit. As a result, I wondered if she and Ron might balk at staying once they saw so many cars.
The cars might not have been social distancing, but the park’s extensive trail system through fields and woodlands provided plenty of space for the – wild guess – 200 to 300 hikers, which included many families with young children.
We chose the 3.1 mile blue loop, the longest and most challenging path. It includes what I’d guess is a long 30-degree incline, which occasionally gave Margaret pause. Literally. She suffers from asthma, so we needed to stop a few times to allow her to catch
her breath. Needless to say, we didn’t encounter any baby strollers along this stretch as we walked from the parking lot to the trail head.
The weather is certainly what brought today’s large crowd to Indian Lake. A temperature in the mid-70s accompanied the nearly clear sky. While we sat talking, drinking beer, and enjoying the view you
Photo by Retiring Guy
see here, the wind started to pick up a little.
Otherwise, conditions were perfect.
As for that study I mentioned earlier, I think there’s misplaced emphasis on the cell phone data. First of all, some people still need to drive to their jobs — clerks at grocery, drug, and home improvement stores who likely can’t afford to live near their workplaces. Not everyone can work remotely. Secondly, if states and counties keep their parks open, most people need to drive more than 10 miles to get there. So far this week, I’ve had three conversations where a variation of the term ‘COVID fatigue’ was used. JoAnna, Andy, and I are certainly feeling it.
At the same time, I think it’s foolish for states and localities to rush into reopening their economies. We’re all interconnected, particularly when it comes to supply chains.
Government officials and business owners Northern Wisconsin counties are pleading with Governor Evers to pursue a phased reopening. Here’s my question to them: Are you ready to welcome
seasonal residents (second homeowners) and tourists to your area. Most of those cabins and cottages that dot the thousands of lakes in the northern part of the state aren’t owned by locals. And many resort owners are dependent on out-of-state guests to make their businesses viable. Yet since mid-March, this message has been relentlessly broadcast.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3/23/2020
And remember what Mim said in her email?
We were hoping to get up there this summer, but we heard Michigan is telling cottage owners not to go to their cottages. I do hope we can get up there just to check on things, though.
Rural counties that depend on tourism dollars as a sizable portion of their revenues can’t have it both open.
Right now it sound as though they’re saying, “Open us up, Tony
Evers, but let us keep out the riffraff.”
You can’t have it both ways.
Polk County Board Chair Chris Nelson is guilty of recklessly using a conservative ‘dog whistle’ with his mention of ‘Madison and Milwaukee’, GOP code for the grab bag of liberals and people of color they love to demonize. But when you look at a map of the state, it’s clear that the virus is an equal-
opportunity threat; it doesn’t acknowledge any partisan divides. The politically red counties surrounding Milwaukee – Racine, Waukesha, Washington, Ozaukee – have a significant number of cases based on their population. And Brown County, which last voted for a Democrat in a November election in 2008, is Wisconsin’s current hot spot, thanks to the meatpacking industry. It has nearly four times the number of cases than Dane County but less than half the population.
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