Travel Plans, 2020

[SWharton]

What is everyone doing regarding their travel plans? Ours are up in the air right now. We are in our permanent location and can stay but would like to hit the road in a month or so. We have a concern that everyone will be on the road due to cabin fever and the campgrounds will be full. But then we can see no one traveling as they recover from the economy collapse. Your thoughts.

[docj]

As much as we would love to go somewhere, I think it's going to be a good many months before we're going to feel comfortable about doing so.  I guess we could go to a State park or a boondocking location where we could be "away from people" but I'm not sure what that would buy us.  At our "home location" we have over 3,000 sq ft of space to spread out in as well as having my wife's sewing room/casita.  I can't envision going any place where there would be crowds.

Although we may, by then, have beaten down the virus, it won't have gone away.  Dr. Fauci said that there isn't going to be a return to anything approaching normal until a vaccine is available and I'm afraid he's going to turn out to be right.  JMO

[chirakawa]

7 minutes ago, docj said:

Dr. Fauci said that there isn't going to be a return to anything approaching normal until a vaccine is available and I'm afraid he's going to turn out to be right.  JMO

docj, you may know this.  It seems like I read somewhere that the fastest vaccine ever developed and put into use was for ebola, and it took five years.  Is that correct?  If so, why are they saying 18 months on this one?

[Randyretired]

We are also planning to stay close to home.  We will probably spend time between our home and mountain property this summer.  I don't believe we will travel or be around many people until a vaccine is available.

[docj]

16 minutes ago, chirakawa said:

It seems like I read somewhere that the fastest vaccine ever developed and put into use was for ebola, and it took five years.  Is that correct?  If so, why are they saying 18 months on this one?

I'm not an expert, but I believe that there was a lot of work done on SARS and MERS a couple of years ago.  Both of those are corona viruses and, I gather, there are similarities with respect to how they attack cells.  What I've read is that scientists are hoping some of those similarities will help them fashion a vaccine to work on this new one.

A week ago there was a lengthy article in the NYT outlining the different groups all over the world working on finding a solution.  Lots of relatively new, high tech approaches being used, along with the "tried and true" ones for vaccine creation. One can only hope we don't have to wait five years before one is available.

Edited April 20, 2020 by docj

[GR "Scott" Cundiff]

It just so happens that we had already dialed back our 2020 travel plans.  I accepted an interim position in February and told them I would stay till the 1st of June.  Now, their search has been put on hold and I've agreed to stay longer.  

The thing I'm not looking forward to is Texas summer heat and humidity.  

[bobsallyh]

We normally don't leave our RV lot in Yuma, AZ. until the last week of April or the first week of May. We play it by ear. When things start breaking open we will head north and our usual places of camping unless they aren't open and then we will just go another way. Since we don't make reservations, flexibility works. But I will say "I've got hitch itch"!

[Twotoes]

I am full time and don't have a physical residence to stay put at. I also volunteer at National Parks in the summer and all 3 of my assignments have canceled for the entire summer and I now have no place to go. I am trying to find a camp ground that is open and will allow me to stay at for several months. Not sure how I am going to pay for a camp site. My only income is rental income and if my tenants don't pay their rent I can't even evict them. My son lives in Omaha NE but all State Parks are closed and the few camp grounds that are open are full and have a waiting list. My daughter lives near Green Bay WI and it is even worse there. I may go to the Escapees camp ground in Hollister MO and sit for awhile. I was looking forward to having a free camp site for the summer.

[agesilaus]

Quote

I'm not an expert, but I believe that there was a lot of work done on SARS and MERS a couple of years ago.  Both of those are corona viruses and, I gather, there are similarities with respect to how they attack cells.  What I've read is that scientists are hoping some of those similarities will help them fashion a vaccine to work on this new one.

I just read an article from a major vaccine developer warning that we may never see a WuFlu vaccine. After all the common cold is a coronavirus and we know how vaccine development has gone with that. There are lots of viruses with no vaccines. So maybe we will see one and maybe we won't. Ebola is a whole different class of viruses and I'm not certain but I think they came up with some material that was worth a human trial fairly fast. I believe the epidemic faded before they had a chance to fully test them.

As for plans, I've been working with RVTW the last couple of nights. Hard to make plans with the uncertain situation right now. Ideally I'd like to take off in mid-May. My wife works for the schools and they are now closed for the rest of the year.

Right now I'm thinking Cloudland SP in GA for our first park followed by a couple of SP in TN, if they are open: Rock Island, daytrip to Burgess Falls and Cumberland Mountain. We would probably hit some mountain parks in NC but that state is a complete unknown. TN is at least saying they plan to start opening.

After that a run over the Mammoth Cave. We've been there multiple times but since we are doing more hiking I noticed that they have a lot of interesting hikes including some to lesser known caves. The first time I went to that park the tour took you down to the underground river and had a short boat ride. For whatever reason that was dropped years ago.

After that I don't know, maybe across to the National Grassland in KS. We will be doing more COE parks in the east; and boondocking especially out west.

Of course our original plans included the Escapade, and I think they jumped the gun on cancelling that. But maybe not.

[rpsinc]

25 minutes ago, Twotoes said:

I am full time and don't have a physical residence to stay put at. I also volunteer at National Parks in the summer and all 3 of my assignments have canceled for the entire summer and I now have no place to go. I am trying to find a camp ground that is open and will allow me to stay at for several months. Not sure how I am going to pay for a camp site. My only income is rental income and if my tenants don't pay their rent I can't even evict them. My son lives in Omaha NE but all State Parks are closed and the few camp grounds that are open are full and have a waiting list. My daughter lives near Green Bay WI and it is even worse there. I may go to the Escapees camp ground in Hollister MO and sit for awhile. I was looking forward to having a free camp site for the summer.

Is there the opportunity to park at your rental property?  I too have rentals and already have had tenants put us on alert as to their income circumstances.  The forecast is uncertain at this time.  But the stock market seems to be showing some promise.  Times...they are a changing..

[docj]

1 hour ago, agesilaus said:

After all the common cold is a coronavirus and we know how vaccine development has gone with that. There are lots of viruses with no vaccines

The virus that causes the common cold mutates rapidly and, therefore, traditional vaccine techniques don't work well for it.  That's the same reason that the seasonal flu vaccine has such a low efficacy.   Each year a guess is made as to the nature of the flu virus that will circulate that next winter and supplies are produced in sufficient quantity for the population who will want it. One of the unknowns is how much will this coronavirus mutate and how will those mutations affect creating a vaccine.

One of the good things going for us on this is that there are quite a few new technologies being employed by some groups in addition to the traditional "killed virus" approach.  Some new gene-splicing techniques seem to offer good promise.

As for there being lots of viruses without vaccines, I'm puzzled which ones you mean.  Within my lifetime I've seen vaccines for polio, measles, mumps, chickenpox and HPV to name just a few.  All the routine illnesses of childhood now can be prevented.   Sure there are other viruses in the world, but that's where $$$ matter.  There has to be a large enough potential $$ market to make vaccine development worthwhile.  

[Kirk W]

Our plans were to leave our base in mid May, make several stops to see friends and relatives along the route to our staff job at Escapade in Rock Springs, WY and after that we had plans to continue traveling for several months. Now all of those plans are pretty much scrapped. We are still hoping to be able to travel from TX to a Kansas farm in our family at some point in July, but even that is not a sure thing. 

Like Joel, we doubt that normal travel will resume before fall and may take even longer. I would expect that some of the park campgrounds will be open in a month or so, but my guess would be that even then they will be limiting the use to keep visitors well separated and that attractions will be limited in access and availability for the entire summer. 

[hdrider]

 We were supposed to leave Arizona April 1st and head to Oregon but Oregon was locked down worse than Arizona at that time and our 1st 2 County Park reservations cancelled us so we opted to stay at the resort we winter at through April. Now the end of April is here and we decided to stay in Arizona through May because we feel pretty safe walking and bike riding in the resort where we would be pretty limited at our next stop which we moved back to June. We will certainly leave Arizona June 1st because it will be getting to warm for us, probably before then LOL!! We have reservations in West Yellowstone for 3 weeks, Billings for a week and Cody for a week starting in July which are up in the air at this point. I hate the thought of spending "close to" $100 per night and still not have the freedom to see what we want to se freely. We might just find someplace to hunker down and try to re-create this all next summer. 

[Kirk W]

16 hours ago, docj said:

There has to be a large enough potential $$ market to make vaccine development worthwhile.  

How a COVID-19 Vaccine Might Work. Plus, How Quickly We Could Get There

Edited April 21, 2020 by Kirk W

[docj]

3 hours ago, Kirk W said:

How a COVID-19 Vaccine Might Work. Plus, How Quickly We Could Get There

Kirk, your link doesn't work

[Ray,IN]

10 hours ago, docj said:

I'm not an expert, but I believe that there was a lot of work done on SARS and MERS a couple of years ago.  Both of those are corona viruses and, I gather, there are similarities with respect to how they attack cells.  What I've read is that scientists are hoping some of those similarities will help them fashion a vaccine to work on this new one.

A week ago there was a lengthy article in the NYT outlining the different groups all over the world working on finding a solution.  Lots of relatively new, high tech approaches being used, along with the "tried and true" ones for vaccine creation. One can only hope we don't have to wait five years before one is available.

The actual  name given to this virus is SARS-CoV-2, by the WHO.

Back on topic, I suspect our MH will be garaged all summer, except for a few day-trips. This stay-at-home order flattened and elongated the curve until a vaccine is proven effective. However distasteful, herd immunity and/or segregation is the only "defense" in the meantime.

[bigjim]

13 hours ago, docj said:

I'm afraid he's going to turn out to be right.  JMO

fully agree

[Kirk W]

11 hours ago, docj said:

Kirk, your link doesn't work

I'm not sure what happened, but it is now repaired and working.      COVID Link

Edited April 21, 2020 by Kirk W

[trailertraveler]

Our plans to travel back North from Florida have been changed and delayed by the closures of public campgrounds and Rv parks in some of the places that we were planning to stay or need to transit. Florida did not close private parks and we have found them very accommodating in helping folks whose travel plans have been altered stay. Georgia never closed their state parks or restricted stays in private parks. We are headed to a county park in Georgia the first week in May and will hang out in Georgia until things to the North open up. We are still planning on heading West to NM and AZ in August, September and October,

Social distancing in campgrounds/RV parks has not been a problem for us. We do not generally use the club houses, pools, etc. The biggest risk could be the laundry, but we have not had an issue with over crowding so far. The refrigerator and freezer size does require grocery shopping more frequently, but the stores have implemented senior only hours, occupancy limits and one way aisles to help facilitate social distancing. Social distancing has not been a problem for the outdoor activities like hiking, biking, fishing, hunting and walking the dog. It is my understanding that sunlight and artificial UV-C light kills corona viruses quickly.

When or if a vaccine is developed, the effectiveness and whether enough people will actually get vaccinated will determine future risk. I have read that only about 50% of Americans get the Flu vaccine and that as many as 50,000+ die of the Flu and associated pneumonia per year in the US. There also seems to be discussion about how deadly the Covid-19 virus really is since the death total is now including anyone with symptoms that could be corona virus including those that had other severe medical issues that may have contributed to or actually caused their death. It is my understanding that the risk of dying in an auto accident is at least twice that of dying from the Covid-19 virus. We all have to evaluate the risks we are willing to take. For now, I will choose to travel before we are ordered to stop driving and shelter in place to prevent deaths from auto accidents.  

[LindaH]

We're at our home in Washington State as we normally are during the spring and summer.  We usually head south for the winter at the end of October and we're hoping we'll still be able to do so this fall.  Time will tell.

[Ray,IN]

43 minutes ago, trailertraveler said:

Our plans to travel back North from Florida have been changed and delayed by the closures of public campgrounds and Rv parks in some of the places that we were planning to stay or need to transit. Florida did not close private parks and we have found them very accommodating in helping folks whose travel plans have been altered stay. Georgia never closed their state parks or restricted stays in private parks. We are headed to a county park in Georgia the first week in May and will hang out in Georgia until things to the North open up. We are still planning on heading West to NM and AZ in August, September and October,

Social distancing in campgrounds/RV parks has not been a problem for us. We do not generally use the club houses, pools, etc. The biggest risk could be the laundry, but we have not had an issue with over crowding so far. The refrigerator and freezer size does require grocery shopping more frequently, but the stores have implemented senior only hours, occupancy limits and one way aisles to help facilitate social distancing. Social distancing has not been a problem for the outdoor activities like hiking, biking, fishing, hunting and walking the dog. It is my understanding that sunlight and artificial UV-C light kills corona viruses quickly.

When or if a vaccine is developed, the effectiveness and whether enough people will actually get vaccinated will determine future risk. I have read that only about 50% of Americans get the Flu vaccine and that as many as 50,000+ die of the Flu and associated pneumonia per year in the US. There also seems to be discussion about how deadly the Covid-19 virus really is since the death total is now including anyone with symptoms that could be corona virus including those that had other severe medical issues that may have contributed to or actually caused their death. It is my understanding that the risk of dying in an auto accident is at least twice that of dying from the Covid-19 virus. We all have to evaluate the risks we are willing to take. For now, I will choose to travel before we are ordered to stop driving and shelter in place to prevent deaths from auto accidents.  

This bar graph demonstrates  what is happening now: https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/1830480/

[agesilaus]

I saw an article yesterday that was very interesting, if you split the NYC+ surrounding areas off from the rest of the US you will find that thge NYC area would be number one in the world. That's ignoring the Chinese lies. And the entire rest of the US drops out of the top ten to number thirteen.

So that bar graph reflects what is happening in NYC not the rest of the country. And recall this, most big media outfits are in NYC so all this doom and gloom comes from people living inside that plague center.

NYC skewing the rest of the country

TN, GA and SC have just announced they are opening back up.

Edited April 21, 2020 by agesilaus

[hdrider]

1 hour ago, trailertraveler said:

Our plans to travel back North from Florida have been changed and delayed by the closures of public campgrounds and Rv parks in some of the places that we were planning to stay or need to transit. Florida did not close private parks and we have found them very accommodating in helping folks whose travel plans have been altered stay. Georgia never closed their state parks or restricted stays in private parks. We are headed to a county park in Georgia the first week in May and will hang out in Georgia until things to the North open up. We are still planning on heading West to NM and AZ in August, September and October,

Social distancing in campgrounds/RV parks has not been a problem for us. We do not generally use the club houses, pools, etc. The biggest risk could be the laundry, but we have not had an issue with over crowding so far. The refrigerator and freezer size does require grocery shopping more frequently, but the stores have implemented senior only hours, occupancy limits and one way aisles to help facilitate social distancing. Social distancing has not been a problem for the outdoor activities like hiking, biking, fishing, hunting and walking the dog. It is my understanding that sunlight and artificial UV-C light kills corona viruses quickly.

When or if a vaccine is developed, the effectiveness and whether enough people will actually get vaccinated will determine future risk. I have read that only about 50% of Americans get the Flu vaccine and that as many as 50,000+ die of the Flu and associated pneumonia per year in the US. There also seems to be discussion about how deadly the Covid-19 virus really is since the death total is now including anyone with symptoms that could be corona virus including those that had other severe medical issues that may have contributed to or actually caused their death. It is my understanding that the risk of dying in an auto accident is at least twice that of dying from the Covid-19 virus. We all have to evaluate the risks we are willing to take. For now, I will choose to travel before we are ordered to stop driving and shelter in place to prevent deaths from auto accidents.  

 Boy be careful in Georgia, that governor is even opening theaters and all sorts of stuff in that state.   

Edited April 21, 2020 by hdrider

[Second Chance]

18 minutes ago, hdrider said:

 Boy be careful in Georgia, that governor is even opening theaters and all sorts of stuff in that state.   

Yes - including tattoo and nail parlors. We're hunkered down in Georgia and will now have to consider everyone suspect again...

Rob

[Twotoes]

21 hours ago, rpsinc said:

Is there the opportunity to park at your rental property?  I too have rentals and already have had tenants put us on alert as to their income circumstances.  The forecast is uncertain at this time.  But the stock market seems to be showing some promise.  Times...they are a changing..

No. There is no place to park at any of the rentals and even if there was they are all in Calif and it is illegal to park anywhere on the property or the street.