Flying during COVID 19

That guy in the back had his mask on during the flight, I looked.

Back in January Mark was given access to stand by flights on United.  He paid a 50$ per person fee and was then able to access all United's flight options.  Last Tuesday (July 14th) we got to use them for the first time. He was so excited. I was actually really nervous about flying during COVID.  I asked myself again and again why are we doing this?  This is not an essential trip in any measure.  This is purely for fun and is it worth the risk of bringing germs other places and exposing family to them and ourselves?  In the end flying was the least of my worries as far as COVID goes.

 We flew out of Charlottesville to Chicago and then on to Salt Lake City.  Airports felt less crowded and the planes felt cleaner than previous flights we have taken.  All airlines boarded their flights from the back to the front, which honestly should always be the way its done. This took away the long lines people form as they try to get on the plane first for luggage space. As we boarded the plane we either had alcohol wipes on our seats or the stewardess handed them out to as we boarded.  Everyone in Charlottesville and O'Hare wore masks and maintained distance from each other. Salt Lake felt looser than the other airports but still a vast majority of people wore masks. We were fortunate to get seats together (something we cannot always count on flying standby) so we did not have to sit right next to anyone and neither plane was more than 70 percent full.  I think we really lucked out and were very pleased with flying with United for the first time. 

Once we landed in SLC we boarded a shuttle to pick up our rental car.  The shuttle was pretty small and completely full (15 people) so that was uncomfortable but again people did keep their masks on which I appreciated.  We were the last to board and ended up standing near the front which gave us a little space and also allowed us to be first in line to get our rental car which was good as they were quite slow.  While Mark waited in line for our rental Jared, Lydia and I changed clothes.  I decided I would rather wear clean clothes in the rental car we would be spending lots of time in the next 10 days.  Once we were ready to go we headed North to Syracuse where Mark's sister Cathryn lives.  We stopped at In N Out Burger (you could dine inside, we did the drive thru and ate in our car) and then were on our way.  Once we got to Cathryn's house we all showered and put our clothes in the wash as soon as possible.

Flying was much less stressful than I thought it would be.  After spending time in Utah and Idaho (especially Idaho) I appreciated the airports and seeing everyone in masks.  It was nice to see people sort of working together for the greater good and following recommendations.  In Idaho it feels like COVID is not a thing at all.  Hardly anyone wore masks and life seemed to be going on like normal.  We were in Idaho Falls, Rexburg, Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Twin Falls. We saw more people with masks in the parks then those cities.  We flew home the 24th and again had alcohol wipes, seats together, and flights around 75% full.  The airports had hand sanitizer everywhere and distancing signs all over the floors and people used them. As we waited in SLC I walked around the terminal near our gate to find a spot with less people and had no problem having enough space.  It all worked out fine and so far so good.  We had also packed hand sanitizer, wipes in case we weren't given and showered as soon as we got to our house.  It felt so good to go somewhere and see family members. Jared and Lydia were so sad to come home.  Normally they are happy to come back but I kind of think they might have been having some level of PTSD about being in VA again where it is much stricter and being reminded of Spring here.  Once they got into their own beds they both commented on happy they were to be home.  We are really glad we could go on a trip. Numbers aren't looking great most places so it may have been our only window.  We feel like we took good precautions when we were out.  National Parks are busy but they are also outside and we did not have problems with physical distancing. Albemarle County will be voting soon on whether they will be staying at the current phase or moving back one.  I have no idea what they will do. Mark is ready to go on another trip.  I am not sure if it was due to COVID but flying United felt a lot less stressful then Delta and with Delta we have to pay taxes and with United we pay nothing now that we have paid the fees at the beginning of the year so it is now a much better deal and we can avoid Atlanta which is nice.  If we want we can drive to Dulles and have a lot of options.

Distancing at CHO.  We were all so happy to go on a trip.  The weeks before Lydia could not stop talking about how excited she was for our road trip.  It was a lot of driving but a great trip.