As my story and pandemic continue, J and I are trying to move forward with our lives as normal as we can. Pennsylvania did a phased opening of stores and restaurants, which consisted of red, yellow, and green. We were in the yellow phase of reopening for a short time then we went to the green phase around the week of June 8th. We decided that for our vacation this summer, we were going to go down to Bradenton, Florida since his parents have a condo there. No one had been in it since they came back to Pittsburgh in March, so no germs there. We booked a flight and took off work for 2 weeks. Florida was one of the states that masks were never mandatory, and they closed things down slowly and days after Pennsylvania closed. Some things they did not even close there. It sounded great to me, especially after working really hard over the past couple of months because of the virus. It was a much-needed break.
Finally, June 26th rolled around, and we were free from work and the daily routine for 2 whole weeks. Our flight was on Sunday afternoon, so we dropped off Zollie, our dog, with J’s parents, then went to eat lunch. We were not sure what would be open at the airport, so we ate before we went. After lunch, we drove to my parent’s house and hung out with them for a bit before we all left for the airport. My parents drove us to the airport. It was pretty much empty, so we both got through the TSA line pretty quickly. Since we already
ate, we stopped at one open restaurant to have a drink before we got on the plane. After that, we headed to the gate and they started boarding. We flew Southwest and because of the virus and social distancing, they let only 10 people at a time on the plane, instead of the normal 30 people at a time. I thought this might slow things down a bit, but it really didn’t. 10 people lined up; 10 people got on the plane. 10 more lined up and 10 more on the plane. It was a well-oiled machine. I thought it was great too because I was not crammed against 2 people with my giant, heavy backpack waiting in line until it was my turn to get onto the plane. I had space in the line and really wasn’t in line for more than 2 minutes. Worked for me! The planes can’t fill to capacity anymore, so boarding was quick and easy. Pretty much everyone was in their seat as I got on the plane. I chose a seat near the wing, toward the middle. The great thing about it was there was no one in any middle seat. Ahh, space, that’s wonderful! I wish we could fly like that all time! The plane was spotless and super clean; I’ve never seen an airplane quite so clean. Really, the only difference on the plane was that you had to wear a mask. It wasn’t horrible. It wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t horrible. They still passed out a snack and water. That was all they had, but that was ok with me. I ate my snack slowly and piece by piece since you were able to take your mask off to eat. We landed in Tampa 2 hours later and very quickly got off the plane. We washed our hands, got our bags, and got the rental car. On the way to those 2 things, you must take a tram. Those trams have limited seats, and metal poles that you have to hold onto…that everyone touches. So, in a pandemic where the virus is transmitted person to person, you don’t really want to touch the thing that everyone else has touched. We leaned against it and wrapped our ankles around the bottom of the pole. It worked; we survived the rides. After choosing the rental car, we drove to the condo, unpacked our suitcases, and went up to Cody’s for a steak dinner and 2 for 1 drinks.
We went through life as normal while we were there. As I said before, masks were not mandatory, but people were really good about wearing them. All the workers like cashiers and servers wore them, but the people in the stores and restaurants didn’t have to wear them. We did our normal activities like go to the beach, do some shopping at Bealls, get orange juice and ice cream at Mixon’s and of course prime rib and 2 for 1 drinks at Cody’s. We did all that as normal, just with a mask.
I’ve seen photos that people post of crowded beaches and warning others to stay away from them. The beach we went to was not a touristy place, however, at first glance, the beaches did look crowded. Again, it’s a perspective thing. All the photos you see of the “crowded beaches” are shot running parallel to the ocean. And yes, they do look crowded from that angle. But, if you go into the water or to the back of the beach and look towards the people, you will see that people are way more than 6 feet apart from each other. Now, I’m not saying that all beaches are like this. I’m saying that what I saw at the beach I was visiting was people keeping their distance from each other. There was not a day there that I was worried about being too close to someone. Yes, people were walking around, and we had to avoid them, but everyone was doing that.
The shops and restaurants were pretty much the same rules as Pittsburgh. People wore masks in shops. Servers and bar tenders had to wear masks. We went to the Kokonut Hut every night to watch the sunset. It’s an open-air bar with tables, a bar, and huts along the beach. Most people wore masks, but some did not since it was outside. They just mandated, just as we got there, that no one was allowed to sit at the bars anymore. So, what the bars did was pull tables up to the bar and have people sit at the tables instead. You also had to order food at the bars as well. I guess you become infected with the damn virus if you only drink…
We celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary on this trip! Minus the masks, it was a pretty normal day. We went to the beach and walked around for about 2 miles. Early in the walk, we decided to go out to the end of one of piers. We left our stuff behind us in a dry spot and sat on edge of the end of the pier. Our stuff included essential life things, like the key to the car, the key to the condo, our IDs, our phones. It was hot that day and the waves felt good when they gently splashed up on our legs occasionally. We were watching the school of fish swim around and out of nowhere; this giant wave comes crashing over us! We didn’t see it coming and we were soaked and coughing up salt water. I quickly jumped up and ran to our stuff that was quickly floating away towards the edge of the pier. I grabbed everything and everything was soaked. Our phones, the keys, our sandals, my ankle bracelet. Luckily, we got everything, and nothing got swept away into the unknown depths of the gulf. Thank goodness. Both our phones were warning us that there was water in the USB charging slot. Both of our masks were soaked. Everything else was ok. We continued to sit on pier watching the fish and looking out to the horizon. And one more time before we left, we got pelted with another giant wave. After that, we decided to continue to walk the beach then go get some lunch. We drove up to Bridge Street, put on our wet masks, and went to the Daiquiri Deck for lunch. It was a wonderful day to celebrate our 13-year anniversary. I am grateful to have J as my husband and grateful that we got to spend the day and entire vacation together.
One morning I decided to go for a run on the beach and up Anna Maria Island. It was fun. It was hot. It was also my half birthday. I decided to treat myself and get a cold coffee beverage and an iced tea for J from Starbucks. I’m not a big fan of drive thrus on a normal day with my own car. So, I really didn’t want to go through one not knowing what I wanted and with a manatee of car. My in-law’s car is huge compared to the HRV I drive. I decided to go into the store and order my drinks. After reading all the signs on the door, I
still went into the store. You would have though the workers in there were living in the zombie apocalypse, not the coronavirus apocalypse. The tables and chairs were all taped up, the social distancing squares were on the floor along with the signs on the counter every 2 feet. The lady that took my order looked like she was ready to run screaming out the door when I walked in the store. I thought, well, your doors are open, so if you are all uncomfortable with people in your shop, shut it down. I ordered my drinks, stood there waiting for them, then left when the girl gave them to me. They were probably the most nervous people I’ve seen so far during all this, and we were pretty far deep into this. I can’t imagine how they would react if it really was the zombie apocalypse.
We made our own fun for the 4th of July. While we were driving back from watching the sunset on July 3rd, we saw a huge firework off in the distance. We decided to turn into the next neighborhood and try to find a spot to sit to watch the fireworks. After looping around, we found the people who were shooting them off and we pulled off to the side of the road. We thanked them as we drove by and watched them for about 20 minutes.
On the 4th of July, I suggested that we rent bikes and bike around the island. J liked that idea and we stopped at Beach’N Rides to rent them. The guys were super nice, and they explained that the bikes were actually motorized. As someone who likes to exercise, I wasn’t completely bought into the motorized bike. He let us take a test drive up the road, and I thought it was fun. We rented 2 of them and off we went, across the bridge and down the trail on the beach. By the time we stopped for a bathroom break about 2 miles in, I was glad we got motorized bikes. It was hot and I was tired just from the little pedaling I did. While riding along the trail, we noticed that there were a lot of people in the picnic areas on the beach. We rode down to the end of trail and watched the boats in the bay for a while. At this point, we were hungry, and decided to go to the Bridge Tender Inn to eat lunch. Off we rode to the restaurant and parked our bikes. Frozen smoothies were up first, followed by chicken liver and sandwiches. We sat at the “bar”. They pulled tables up to their bar so that you could sit at the bar but still be 6 feet away from the next people. After lunch, we headed up Anna Maria Island, through neighborhoods then back down the main road. That got us about 11 miles, so we decided to head back to the shop to return the bikes. It was an enjoyable afternoon and we are grateful that the owner of the rental place decided to be open on the 4th of July.
One other time we went to the beach, it was so hot we decided to jump in the gulf. We swam around for a little while. The water is crystal clear there and at one point we were just standing in the water. We saw a fish, maybe about a foot long and we stood there watched him for a bit. He circled around us and through our legs for about 5 minutes. It was so cool!
Before our departure from Florida, we had to rent a car to get back to the airport. We rented one a couple days before we left. Packing away the manatee of a car that we were driving was supposed to be a very difficult process, which in the end, it really wasn’t. We drove to the Sarasota airport and I dropped J off to pick up the rental car. He got a white Dodge Challenger, V8 hemi engine. It was giant, loud, and fast. Since we had this car for a few days, we decided to take it on the highway. It was pretty fun, and fast. He got it up to 50 MPH on the onramp to the highway. And then got on the highway. And then I
thought we were going to end up back in 1885 in the wild west. (if you didn’t get joke, watch Back to the Future Part 3) After the highway trip, it was my turn to drive it. This one was also about as big as a manatee and if you just lightly touched the gas it would “vroom” loudly and take off quickly. I got it out of the parking lot and onto the main highway. So, I’ve noticed that people drive really fast or really slow in Florida. And the slow drivers tend to stay in the left lane. People were zooming by us all week. But, when we got the car where we could zoom by people, we always got stuck behind the slow driver. How annoying. There were a few times that I zoomed by slow drivers that shouldn’t really have been going slow. Like the guy in the giant truck with the body of the truck popped up off the wheels. And the guy in the Slingshot, motorcycle thing. I pulled out around both of them from the left lane into the right and gunned it, roaring the motor as a passed them. It was pretty fun.
I was on the plane typing most of this story and again, I have to say, this has been a great experience traveling by plane. Once we boarded this one, I got hit in the nose with the powerful smell of cleaner and disinfectant. This flight was the first one of the day. We didn’t touch anything on the trams again, washed our hands multiple times in the airport, and got to the airport later than normal. There was barely anyone on the plane; it took about 20 minutes, give or take, to board everyone. There were 2 whole empty rows in front of me to where the next person is sitting. Everyone had a mask on; everyone was compliant. Again, people boarded 10 at a time. I wish flights could stay like this after this whole thing is over. It’s really been a pleasant experience.
While I tried to avoid reading or watching the news about this damn virus, it’s hard not to. While we were in Florida, the Pennsylvania governor started making rules again about what we can and can’t do back in Pennsylvania. He shut bars down, then some restaurants. He mandated that we must wear masks all the time, including when we are outside. He also mandated that if people from a handful of southern states come into Pennsylvania, those people would have to quarantine for 2 weeks. Florida was one of them. Back to the red quarantine stage for J and I for 2 weeks. I guess things are getting “bad” again as far as confirmed cases.
My mom and stepdad Ed picked us up from the airport. We devised a plan of how were going to exchange cars and people without contact. They both drove out to the airport and waited for us to call them when we got our bags. Ed drove my car, pulled up to the gate, and left the key on the floor of the driver side. He got out and walked away from it and we popped the trunk, loaded our luggage, and hopped in. Mom drove up behind us in her car then Ed hopped in her car then they went home. We all gave each other air hugs before we left. It was a pretty smooth exchange process.
A couple take-a-ways from this chapter. Traveling by plane in the pandemic isn’t so bad. Actually, I wish it would stay like this. I didn’t really want to go back to PA now for more reasons than vacation being over. People really can be responsible about new guidelines on how to live without these things being mandatory. Sometimes it feels like we've slipped from one Universe into the current one.
Thanks for reading this segment of my “This Damn Virus” story. Catch up on past segments here and come back next Wednesday for the next one!
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