Author Topic: Anyone putting off overseas travel due to Corona virus?  (Read 20177 times)

Mr. Green

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Re: Anyone putting off overseas travel due to Corona virus?
« Reply #150 on: June 28, 2020, 10:18:55 AM »
Spartana, I hope your trip goes well.  Camping sounds safe to me.
It was a total bust. VERY crowded and no camping or motels abailable. Not even wilderness sites in the Sierras. Stayed about a week near Mammoth then came home. Now with things opening up here in Calif cases, deaths, hospitalizations and people in ICU are really rising so I'm likely staying put at home. Unfortunately friends, BF and family are all starting to participate in big group activities and going back to work so maybe off in a remote mountain town is the best place to be. Some places are starting to close again as well as postpone fully opening due to the increased numbers. In my county today was the highest number of deaths and this week.has the highest number of new cases (more testing?) as well as hospitalization and ICU.
I hope we don't have problems with this if we manage to get on the road. We're planning to utilize a lot of National Forest and BLM areas that would probably be less than full under normal circumstances but I've read about the hordes of people turning to camping to get away from home. Hopefully as long as we're not near major cities this won't be an issue.
I don't know about BLM camping but seems crazy packed everywhere. Much more crowded then pre- covid times. I think it is doable now that stores and gas stations, etc  in the nearby towns are open...for now. I'd still be very hesitant to do a long multi month trip but seems you guys are pretty prepared and willing to make sure you don't bring your out of state covid cooties to the small towns. Some places are starting to close again or stall their planned reopening so that's something to consider to. I will say that people are NOT very cautious here and it is becoming harder to practice social distancing then before. You might find even remote places much more crowded then pre-covid times because so many people want to get away so your own risk is increased along with the risk of you bringing covid into the next place you visit.
We have an almost completely off-grid setup. Bathroom and shower abilities, and we sleep in the van. As far as COVID is concerned, we'll have cloth masks, P100 respirators, isopropyl alcohol, soap, and nitrile gloves. We've already been practicing our safety techniques like when getting gas only one hand is used to touch anything. Only one person goes into a store while the other is prepared with sanitizing materials when the other emerges. We're not messing around.

If need be, the 3.5" lift on our Sienna will let us get off-road and utilize forest service roads, etc. to find more remote campsites. There are some breathtaking sites out there that you can't really get to in a normal car.

norajean

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Re: Anyone putting off overseas travel due to Corona virus?
« Reply #151 on: June 28, 2020, 10:25:22 AM »
One of the obstacles to travel is the contingency plan if you get sick. You probably can’t fly home with a fever. You could end up being sick in an unfamiliar place with no support beyond your travel mates. If you are in the hospital for weeks, where will they stay? Pre-hospital how will you separate from each other in an RV, van or tent? Now everyone in the group is infected and it may not be feasible to get home. Not a pleasant scenario.

Fish Sweet

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Re: Anyone putting off overseas travel due to Corona virus?
« Reply #152 on: June 28, 2020, 11:46:06 AM »
I will say that people are NOT very cautious here and it is becoming harder to practice social distancing then before. You might find even remote places much more crowded then pre-covid times because so many people want to get away so your own risk is increased along with the risk of you bringing covid into the next place you visit.

That kind of surprises me.  I fully expected Southerners to ignore social distancing based on the culture here, but I kind of thought the whole West Coast would take it seriously.  The numbers suggest that that's true in the Bay Area and the PNW, but not in Southern California.  I'm not very familiar with Southern California, and I guess it's more different from the Bay Area and the PNW than I realized.  Are things playing out the way you expected based on the culture in Southern California?

As another SoCal resident-- yeah, it's a huge area with a lot of diversity, including bastions of extremely conservative republican folks who may be listening to rhetoric depicting the virus as some kind of political hoax.  I have definitely seen the anti-maskers with their 'MASKS CAUSE CO2 POISONING' bullshit around here.  Orange County especially is a very red county.  That said, I can't just point fingers at other groups, lol.  While the area I live in is (imo) pretty good about social distancing and masking, there are a lot of people for whom the scales of 'fear of deadly pandemic' versus 'quarantine is a hassle and I hate it and don't give a frick anymore' have tipped in favor of throwing caution out the window.

I also suspect that the push to reopen has a lot of people letting their guard down.  Folks who don't live on the internet or know to do their own research might be lulled into a sense of false security-- after all, surely things must be on the mend if the government has approved restaurant dining again.  Right??

dougules

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Re: Anyone putting off overseas travel due to Corona virus?
« Reply #153 on: June 28, 2020, 12:22:20 PM »
Ok.  My experience with SoCal is one trip to San Diego as opposed to having lived in Oregon plus multiple trips to Washington and the Bay Area.  It doesn't surprise me that those areas seem to be keeping things somewhat under control.

JoJo

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Re: Anyone putting off overseas travel due to Corona virus?
« Reply #154 on: June 29, 2020, 07:15:26 AM »
One of the obstacles to travel is the contingency plan if you get sick. You probably can’t fly home with a fever. You could end up being sick in an unfamiliar place with no support beyond your travel mates. If you are in the hospital for weeks, where will they stay? Pre-hospital how will you separate from each other in an RV, van or tent? Now everyone in the group is infected and it may not be feasible to get home. Not a pleasant scenario.

I was thinking about visiting more remote places in NM, Arizona, California desert this fall/winter but this is what's concerning me.  I'll be in a van, without facilities, so I'm mostly reliant on using vault toilets, finding a shower somewhere (perhaps hitting a campground every few days).  But if I got really sick, I don't know where I'd go.  I guess I could park in some BLM land somewhere, hopefully with some shade, but it would be really miserable. 

Mr. Green

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Re: Anyone putting off overseas travel due to Corona virus?
« Reply #155 on: June 29, 2020, 10:33:35 AM »
One of the obstacles to travel is the contingency plan if you get sick. You probably can’t fly home with a fever. You could end up being sick in an unfamiliar place with no support beyond your travel mates. If you are in the hospital for weeks, where will they stay? Pre-hospital how will you separate from each other in an RV, van or tent? Now everyone in the group is infected and it may not be feasible to get home. Not a pleasant scenario.

I was thinking about visiting more remote places in NM, Arizona, California desert this fall/winter but this is what's concerning me.  I'll be in a van, without facilities, so I'm mostly reliant on using vault toilets, finding a shower somewhere (perhaps hitting a campground every few days).  But if I got really sick, I don't know where I'd go.  I guess I could park in some BLM land somewhere, hopefully with some shade, but it would be really miserable.
Depending on how rustic you want to get you can resolve the facilities issues fairly easily. We're carrying 6 gallons of water for showers, and a solar shower bag that will heat it up during the day. $20 worth of PVC pipe and a tarp will get you a shower cubicle you can set up in 5 minutes on the side of a van.

That same shower cubicle can be used for privacy when you do your business with a 5 gallon bucket. Just use biodegradable waste bags and bury it using proper Leave No Trace methods. And don't forget the gamma life for your bucket. Keeps everything sealed up in case you have to pack out waste.

The PVC for our shower cubicle will come apart and, using the tarp, will double as an awning if we were somewhere with no shade.
« Last Edit: June 29, 2020, 03:09:30 PM by Mr. Green »

JoJo

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Re: Anyone putting off overseas travel due to Corona virus?
« Reply #156 on: June 30, 2020, 10:11:58 AM »
Yeah, this is my concern - it's not the isolating, but in the case I got a bad case of the covid, would be worried about being out in some BLM land, no facilities, unable to drive, eat, etc.  There are some informal groups of campers meeting up, perhaps would consider doing that at minimum to not be stuck alone somewhere.  I also try to camp where there is cell reception, and I do have an emergency battery for charging phone. 

mm1970

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Re: Anyone putting off overseas travel due to Corona virus?
« Reply #157 on: June 30, 2020, 12:26:54 PM »
I think that people tend to forget that SoCal is politically and culturally diverse. There are communities very dependent on family and community for meeting basic needs, there are large Trump supporting enclaves who are still insisting that these measures are a political hoax.

And God damnit, I don't care how cautious you are, it is your God given right to go to the beach. I have an immuno compromised friend who complained about the crowds making social distancing impossible at the beach AND complained when the parking lots were closed to limit the crowds.
Yep. And even with the stay at home order, many of my friends are regularly going to the Sierras for camping trips.  I don't know if they are packed or not at all.  But, as so many parents aren't working and there's no summer camp, I wouldn't be surprised.  People are over it.  Even though we are still supposed to be "safer at home". 

I have friends who feel the same.  Regular hikers and trail runners, then COVID happened and suddenly the trails are packed...because people are stuck at home with their kids.  They need to get out.  You can still get out and avoid people, but it requires going further into the backcountry and avoiding weekdays.  I just needed to remind my friends that they don't have any more right to the trails... in any event, I just took a morning to take kid #2 (7) to the beach.  We showed up at 8:20 am.

Turns out, not a lot of people there at 8:20 am.  We were the first to put down our towel, and it was mostly older people walking.  Left at 10:20, and it was filling up.

And yes, lot of anti-mask individualist Trumpers all over CA.

One of the reasons we bailed on traveling to the East Coast this summer (there were many reasons) was health related.  My HMO wouldn't cover me anywhere but in CA.  So I'd have to buy temp insurance.  I think we may still take this trip, maybe next summer.  Hubby and kids are on a PPO, so they are fine.

Wrenchturner

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Re: Anyone putting off overseas travel due to Corona virus?
« Reply #158 on: June 30, 2020, 12:38:29 PM »
Now that I've got enough Aeroplan points for a round-trip transoceanic flight in business class... plus I can't eat grains apparently.

Things can change fast, that's what I've learned in the past few months.

sui generis

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Re: Anyone putting off overseas travel due to Corona virus?
« Reply #159 on: July 29, 2020, 01:03:31 PM »
Crazy story y'all.  I think I'd previously posted here about my trials and tribulations with getting reimbursed for a flight to the Caucasus that I booked through a third party vendor.  I filed a dispute with my credit card company and they gave me an immediate credit that would be permanent if the vendor didn't respond within 90 days.  Well, they didn't respond to my credit card company within 90 days....but they DID actually give me a reimbursement separately.  So, I had the "dispute" credit and an actual credit on my credit card.  I assumed the credit card company would notice and true it all up, but they never did.  The 90 days passed about a week ago (the reimbursement happened about 2 months ago) and now I'm starting to worry that the CC company is not going to notice this until some audit long down the road and then tell me I owe like $62,000 given the 18% (or whatever) APR I presumably have on the credit card. 

So I decided the best plan is to call them up and get this cleared up and have them undo my credit and just pay it back sooner rather than later....but when I called them they looked into it and then came back and decided they'd let me keep the credit because the company never responded in the 90 days...and that's what they promised me!

My jaw dropped.  Did I just make $3200 on this transaction? (It was an expensive flight!)

They were definitely clear on the fact that I had a reimbursement already, and I have no idea why they wouldn't take the credit back.  I can only assume that they must have gotten the money back twice from the airline as well, if they would let me keep it.

I'm still suspicious.  I wrote down all the details of the call for my files in case I do need to have an argument 6 months from now when there is an audit and they decide it was done wrong.  I'll always be fine with paying back the money, but I'm frankly still worried about the $62,000 in interest charges they may attempt to levy. 

But in the meantime, I am up by several thousand dollars, which is....a super weird situation to be in.

dougules

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Re: Anyone putting off overseas travel due to Corona virus?
« Reply #160 on: July 29, 2020, 05:36:57 PM »
That's crazy.  I would definitely document everything to the nth degree.

travel2020

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Re: Anyone putting off overseas travel due to Corona virus?
« Reply #161 on: July 29, 2020, 11:52:03 PM »
Yes, definitely crazy! I am dealing with the opposite situation. I disputed a charge because the airline cancelled a flight and claimed they refunded but I never received actual refund. Credit card company did the credit at the time but now sent me a letter saying that in their view the charge was legitimate but they will let me keep the credit as a courtesy but send a tax doc at the end of the year documenting it as income to me.

I suspect they are trying to write off the charge or something Like that but don’t think I should foot the tax bill for something that’s essentially a refund. Have to call the airline and credit card company to sort it out.