Covid Chronicles. Chapter 54: Pennsylvania Road Trip

 

Read chapter 53 here

 

Photos by Retiring Guy

Wednesday, June 24, 2020 

The day JoAnna and I left for Warren marks the first time we traveled outside of Dane County since before the ‘official’ arrival of the pandemic in Wisconsin: March 18, when Governor Evers issued his first safer-at-home order. The closest we came to breaking out were the two rendezvous with Ron and Margaret to the Military Ridge State Trail near Blue Mounds, a small community in the western part of the county, less than a mile from the Iowa County line. The first time JoAnna and I drove there, we felt as though we were somehow breaking the rules, the pandemic restrictions adding a heightened sense of forbidden adventure. 

In early May, when we started to focus more seriously on a Memorial Day weekend in Warren, I fretted about such basic parts of the travel Itinerary as rest room breaks, an increasingly important consideration now that I’m in my 70s. Will they be open? (More than likely, I considered, especially along major transportation routes.) If so, will they be maintained? (Perhaps a legitimate concern, as a private company now operates Indiana’s service areas.) Will travelers wear masks and social distance? (Not the majority, according to Jill and Lee, based on their observations of driving from Lexington, Kentucky, to Two Rivers.). Should we wear gloves? (We have a half-empty box of disposable latex gloves in one of our junk drawers. And that’s where they remained.) 

But it’s not as though we ever spend a lot of time at a rest stops during a long trip. We give ourselves enough time to use the rest room, buy snacks or a quick lunch to go, and gas up the car. This time around, though, we packed our own food and beverages. Plus the Prius’ gas tank provides us with a travel range of more than 400 miles. One refueling is all we needed to get to Warren. 

Our trips to and from Warren always involve a discussion of the following question: Should we drive Interstate-90 through the heart of Chicago or play it safe and take I-290 through the suburbs? 

“I’m sure a lot of people are still working from home” was JoAnna’s latest take. 

 On the day before we left, I checked a Chicago traffic map and saw quite a bit of red, indicating congestion and delays, above and below the ‘h’ in Chicago. 

Maybe not as many people as we think, I considered. 

It ended up being similar to the map you see here, most of the toll road and freeway system highlighted in green. 

With a 6 a.m. departure time, we reached the exurbs of Chicago within two hours, traffic flowing at a fast pace. Under normal circumstances, the morning rush hour would be well underway, even this far from the Loop. As traffic started to thicken, drivers continued to barrel along at speeds in excess of 90 mph. (I was content to flirt with 80.) The most impatient drivers frequently changed lanes, weaving between cars as though participating in a live-action version of Grand Theft Auto. 

 “It’s nice to know the pandemic hasn’t changed people’s driving habits,” JoAnna noted sarcastically. 

If anything, the virus has probably led to a further acceleration in aggressive, discourteous driving, particularly those still stewing about safer-at-home orders and disinclined to wear a mask under any circumstances. Trumpers, in other words. 

Some of these folks might have been inside the 7-Eleven, not a typical Indiana Toll Road service area, where we made our first stop. Although all staff members wore masks, most of the customers – more than 75%, I’d guess -- left their faces uncovered. Lack of facial coverings is a major sticking point among our friends, which is why some of them have yet to visit a store, still doing all of their shopping virtually. It is also a regular topic of conversation on Next Door, a social media app. Our favorite meat market, Knoche’s received sustained scorn and indignation in response to a post about the fact that none of the employees wore masks. 

“I will never patronize any store whose employees don’t wear masks” was a common refrain. 

I repeatedly rolled my eyes while reading this thread, refraining from offering a counterpoint comment. One brave soul chided the group for its collective handwringing. The idealistic goal of Next Door is to ‘bring neighbors together’, but to me it’s become a hive of busybodies. 

Next Door’s caviling aside, Knoche’s remains one of our weekly shopping destinations. 

Considsering the number of trucks we encountered on the road, I'd say the U.S. supply chain appears to be in good shape. The first indication of this was an Interstate rest stop between Madison and Janesville where dozens, perhaps close to 100 semis were parked. A trucker’s sleepover? On the other hand, vacation travel is down. At both of the full-service plazas where we stopped on the drive to Warren, the parking areas designated for passenger cars were greatly underutilized, as shown on the photo on the previous page, especially for this time of year. 

As it turned out, the Indiana 7-Eleven turned out to be an anomaly. At our subsequent stops, most people wore masks. And social distancing was not an issue. 

Based on the additional observations we made during the return trip, vacation travel is down considerably, no doubt for a variety of reasons: caution, fear, lack of money, lack of options. Ohio’s Cedar Point amusement park doesn’t open until July 9, and then only for season pass holders on the first two day. This time of year, the Sandusky interchange of the Ohio Turnpike is typically one of the busiest. Not now. Thanks to COVID, Sandusky is a lonely town so far this summer.

Read chapter 55 here