What it was like traveling in a pandemic

Jaden Cheloha, Staff Writer

My sister is immunocompromised. Basically, this means she’s a lot more susceptible to diseases and illnesses than the average person. So, when she decided she wanted to move to college now instead of attending online classes from home, it meant we would have to find a mode of transportation safer than flying to get her to her university in Seattle. 

In a decision that was a win for both myself and my sister, we rented an RV (I’ve always wanted to go on a road trip in one). Because my family and I would be the only people we would come into regular contact with, that made the trip a lot safer. That being said, we still had to be diligent about how we spent our time in the camper. Everything had to be wiped down thoroughly, and our hands had to be sanitized after touching anything that hadn’t been wiped down. 

Once we got on the road, everything felt pretty normal. It didn’t feel like we were in the middle of a pandemic, it just felt like a nice family vacation. Whenever we needed to stop for gas, we were always pulled back to realityWe had a box of disposable masks on hand, which always needed to be worn whenever someone left the camper. 

The RV parks didn’t seem to be implementing many rules and restrictionsThis was my first time staying in parks like these, so I don’t have a baseline for what to compare them to, but since everyone just sleeps in their own RV, coronavirus precautions weren’t as important as they would be for a hotel. Masks were still required whenever you went inside a building, though. 

Not including when we moved my sister into her dorm for the day, we were on the road for about a week. The biggest issue with travelling in a pandemic was definitely just translating what we’ve been doing at home since March into a cross-country road tripRemembering a mask whenever we picked up Chipotle or sanitizing our hands after restocking toilet paper from Walmart wasn’t hard, but was just something we knew we had to keep in mind since my sister’s health was our main concern.