We left Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California a week ago last Thursday, March 26th, and headed east on our 2,500-mile trip to Florida: Oceanside-Yuma-Benson-Las Cruces-Fort Stockton-Kerrville-Beaumont-Biloxi-Tallahassee-Titusville. There wasn’t much traffic on I-10 as many states along our route had enacted “shelter-in-place” guidelines. We only stopped for diesel fuel. The Buc-ee’s in Alabama had the least expensive diesel fuel we’d seen along our route.
After we left, we decided to accelerate our trip from 14-days down to an 11-day trip as it seemed the coronavirus pandemic was getting worse along our route. We were very concerned that Florida was going to close its borders.
Florida did set up COVID-19 “check-points” on eastbound I-10 and southbound I-95 on March 30th. We crossed the Florida state-line on Saturday and went through the checkpoint. They only asked one question: “Have you stayed the night in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut or Louisiana in the past two-weeks?” We answer “No”, and they told us to have a nice day. Luckily there was no traffic backup and the whole check took less than a minute.
Last week, after talking with my sisters Janet and Marcia and their spouses, we’ve all collectively decided to cancel our planned road trip to Alaska next summer. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the border to Canada is closed. If we could cross, we’d have a 14-day quarantine. Also, Alaska currently has a 14-day quarantine. Alaska also currently forbids travel between any of its towns and cities. We all spent a lot of effort planning and making reservations for this 2 ½-month road trip. Now we’re all busy cancelling our reservations.
Stay healthy and be safe out there!
Steve & Julie Cornelius
Nice post. Glad you made it safely.
ReplyDelete