What is it Like Traveling During Covid?
Traveling Man — COVID Man
I’m a Traveling Man, not a Covid Fan
to travel now takes on a new planI am grateful to our first responders,
the travel workers who worldwide wander.
We owe them our due and glad for no loopholes
with no due respect to all of the maskholes.The planes are parked
The airports empty
Ships are docked while trains are locked
Customs a jam while we wait at the Border
And hotels tell us what we can order.Families are split all over the map
To quarantine or not still seems like a trap.
A test takes an hour, a few, or a day
some even longer ~ cry as you may.Cruise ships are docked, some even sold.
The pathway to safety we can’t wait to be told.
Government bailouts bought us some months
But we hoped for travel to return all at once.And on my way home, the planes were a ghost
Instead, I took the last train from the Coast
And with the three folks I admired most
We laughed and drank and had a toast.Nine months later it’s still a mess
When it comes back is anyone’s guess
Travel has changed, and I must confess…
I think the world has said, “The best is less.”I pack light, sit tight, and eat right.
I take the high road, side road, back road, and back alley.
I travel high, travel low, travel fast, travel slow.
I’m a traveler. I go.
I started writing this in February/March 2020 after finishing Amtrak (California Zephyr) from Emeryville (east side of SF Bay) to Chicago. When I got to the airport to fly back to Dallas, the airport was already thinning out from the unknown effects of Covid. The economy was free falling, it was an election year in the US. Brexit was bouncing between the UK and the EU. The early stages of Covid zombies were showing themselves.
I’m a risk taker. I like parachuting, bungee jumping, traveling alone around Eastern Europe and through Russia. I eat food I probably shouldn’t (including the Old Fashioned Cake (which I generally get each time passing through DFW)), and definitely food not most Americans are accustomed to in Asia and Europe. It’s all so good, I can’t stop.
Like so many others, the Covid has stopped much of us from going far. Some. However, are able to keep traveling, albeit to very different experiences. When I wrote this, I thought about the more obvious negative issues… on the flip side, there are some positives… sustainable travel, reducing over-tourism like Venice, a chance to spend time with families at home, less trash in the ocean, less greenhouse gases (CO2) burn in the atmosphere. Hopefully, more of us will be more sensitive to the negative affect our travels cause.
Not to be outdone, the tens of millions of jobs directly and indirectly lost due to the travel shut down must be acknowledged. Governments and support agencies are creating greater awareness. Travel takes a community. Airlines are using some of this time to retire older aircraft while others such as United Airlines are committing to reducing greenhouse emmissions 100% by 2050.
Way too much to go on here. In nearly 40 years of working for travel companies: small travel companies; well managed and poorly managed; airline, car rental, train technology, Caribbean & Brazil; lived in Japan six years… I would not change any part of it for the experiences I’ve had.
Way too much to go on here, too. 100+ countries: walking across countries; Driest and wettest; hottest and [very cold]; most crowded and alone; safe and fearful; mugged, stolen from, pushed, knife pulled on. Fishing, running, sitting. I almost died a few times. But, not from Covid.
