The year 2020 has been a strange one for sure and it will be a year to remember. I began the year with plans of traveling to many places like the beach and to work conferences but in March those plans came to a halt with the Covid-19 pandemic. I thought like many people, that the lung virus would quickly pass as the government shut down schools and the state for two weeks.
At the time of the whole state shut down, I was planning to head to California for a health conference. I said to myself, “thank goodness I did not put any money down towards that trip.” So I did not have to worry about canceling hotel reservations or get credits for an airline ticket. The pandemic stay-at-home orders meant that my college kid was going to be home for a while and my husband would be working from home. So I headed to the grocery store to buy some extra food for a hungry teenager.
Panic shopping
I had no idea how serious this coronavirus hysteria until I arrived at the grocery store and saw a full parking lot with not a single shopping cart. Once I got into the store and saw empty store shelves along with a long line to the checkout, I knew that this pandemic was for real. So I started panic shopping and loaded up my cart with food to feed my family for two weeks. Little did I know that would be the last time I would step into a store for 6 months.
I was thankful that I am a food stockpiler and we had plenty of food. Since my family has been no stranger to tough times, I had been planning for this state of emergency for a long time. I just had no clue that my emergency would be one that forced me to stay home and be with my family. Since I work from home, my life has been that bad. Sorry Corona but I have been prepared for you. I quite enjoy looking for ways to save money and being creative in the kitchen. Ok, not having eggs or white flour to make a cake for my son’s birthday in April forced me to be really creative and the whole wheat eggless sugar cookies will be one that I will never live down. I did have fun with the 75 pounds of carrots that I received from my church.
Trip after trip was canceled
With the pandemic lasting longer than anyone could imagine, pretty much all my planned trips for the year were canceled. I knew that it was not safe to travel and had no desire to travel in the year 2020. My asthma would not allow me to travel as wearing a face mask triggers an asthma attack. Plus all the disinfectants and hand sanitizers also are triggers for my asthma, causing me to cough up a lung, making people think I have corona.
When my mom, who lives over 800 miles away from me, needed my help, I so wanted to fly out to visit her, but I knew that my asthma would not allow me to travel safely. So, my husband volunteered to drive so I could visit my mom. My mom lives alone and this was a trip that we needed to take. So I began the preparations of traveling safely by car during the coronavirus pandemic. We did not want to bring the respiratory virus to my mom who is 84 years old. Our safe travel preparations started 4 weeks before our planned holiday time trip.
It began with my husband requesting time off from his job. Since my husband is an essential health care worker, he needed a good reason to travel. We were thankful that his boss gave him the time off to help my mom continue to live in her house instead of having to move into an assisted living facility. With my husband’s approved time off that meant he had to quarantine for two weeks upon his return to our state. I was glad that my husband had plenty of paid vacation time to use.
8 Steps to travel safely during a virus pandemic
1. Stay home for two weeks
2. Boosted the immunity
3. Stocked up on face masks
4. Prepared a car travel supply kit
5. Get the car serviced
6. Pack food and plenty of water
7. Choose to not stay at a hotel
8. Do grocery pick up
Stay home For 2 weeks
Since the covid-19 virus can be present in your body for a while and you can be contagious before showing symptoms, the CDC recommends a two-week quarantine after traveling. It is also a recommendation by our state health department. My family wanted to be ultra-careful since my mom is older and in a high-risk category for the lung virus. So my husband and I decided that we would stay home for 2 weeks before we traveled to see my mom. That meant we avoided public places and gatherings. We chose to not attend church and did the online church service. I only did grocery pickup instead of going inside the store. We also chose to not see friends inside their homes, so we did not allow our boys to visit their friends.
Boosted our immunity
The covid virus is known to be a strong one, so for two weeks before our scheduled trip, my family did things to boost our immunity. I made sure that my family used natural products for cold and flu season. I was not taking any chances with my moms' health. Prior to deciding to travel to see my mom, my boys came down with some virus after Thanksgiving. The only place that my boys went to was the orthodontist.
So we ate healthy food, exercised, washed our hands properly, and used an immune booster supplement. This nutrient-rich power shot is designed to supercharge the immune system and strengthen your natural defenses. I wanted my family to have strong healthy bodies so if we did come into contact with any virus or illness while traveling, our bodies could fight those bad germs off. That way those ugly germs could not make us sick and we would not make my mom sick. If we did get catch the flu when traveling, we would of course quarantine ourselves and take Flu-B-Gone. This natural immune-boosting antibiotic alternative helps fight seasonal sickness symptoms at the source.
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Stocked up on face masks
Since my boys and I don’t leave the house much, we needed to buy some additional face masks. When you attend school online and work from home, one only needs one face mask for running errands like grocery pickup. So I had to buy a couple more face masks for the trip so we had extras in case one got wet or dirty. A Silver-Infused Reusable Face Cover caught my eye when I was face mask shopping. I liked that this unique face mask had antibacterial properties and could protect us from germs. I also like that the Boomer Naturals face mask- had adjustable ear straps and form-fitting nose piece.
The face masks were available in many prints. I just love the butterfly face mask! The face masks were also comfortable to wear. This place even had face masks for kids! I was thankful that we were traveling by car so I did not have to wear a face mask for more than 5 minutes. The face masks were for the bathroom breaks that we would need while on the road. Boomer Naturals’ Silver-Infused Reusable Face Covers Offer More Protection for traveling.
Make a virus-safe car travel kit
In addition to having plenty of face masks, there were other items that my family needed to stay well on our car travel journey. I decided to make a car kit that would contain items that we would need for those necessary bathroom and gas stops on our road trip. I bought a box of disposable latex gloves and some hand sanitizer for when we had to use public bathrooms. The plan for bathroom breaks was – put on a face mask and a pair of disposable gloves before we enter the building. Then when we exited the building, we could take off the gloves and toss them into the trash. We would then use hand sanitizer once we got back to the car.
I also placed a package of alcohol wipes and sanitizing wipes into my virus-safe car travel kit. That way we were prepared for any virus emergency. I also placed the extra face masks in individual ziplock bags that were labeled with our names. Other items that I placed into the car travel kit was a first aid kit, some homeopathic tablets for stomach issues, and Boiron Acidil Meltaway Tablets. I love using Boiron Acidil Meltaway Tablets for occasional heartburn or acid indigestion symptoms. Having a virus-safe travel kit that included homeopathic medicines for stomach issues is always a good thing for traveling. Take a look at this article for more information about homeopathic medicines for digestive problems.
Get the car serviced
With any road trip, it is always good to get your car serviced to check the tires and change the oil. We knew that our car needed some work done on it before we traveled as the check engine light was on. The bad news for our car was the needed part needed to be ordered and would not be available in time for the trip.
So we had no choice but to rent a car for our road trip. I admit that I was hesitant to rent a car during a virus pandemic. I started to imagine that the rental car would smell like toxic cleaners and would trigger my asthma. Thankfully since we rented an SUV, we were able to get a car that had been sitting on the lot for quite some time. I guess since families are traveling less, the bigger cars are not being rented.
When we picked up the car at the car rental place, it had a sticker on the door that indicated that it was cleaned and sanitized by Ecolab's. The car had no bad chemical smell either. To be extra safe from the chemical smells or viruses, my husband drove the car home with his mask on. Then we opened all the doors of the car once my husband parked the car in the driveway. The doors stayed open for about an hour so if there were any chemical odors, they would be gone by the time we left for our trip. I was glad that we rented a car for our trip as I knew that it would be safer to drive than our car from 2009.
Pack plenty of food
Since we would not be stopping at any restaurants during our road trip, I packed a soft cooler with plenty of healthy car snacks like nuts, protein bars, fresh fruit, and coffee. Coffee is always a must for road trips for the driver and for me so I could do some writing. I also made sure that we had plenty of water that was packed for the trip as we were not going to chance drinking water from drinking fountains. So I grabbed my HYDRO Jug for the car trip. I love that this water bottle holds a half-gallon of water. That is 64 ounces of water!
I love how easy it is to carry this water bottle in the awesome sprinkle water holder bag. The HYDRO JUG bag even has a carry strap which will make it handy for walks when we get to my mom’s house. The water bottle comes in so many colors and even has a carry handle. My favorite way to drink water is with a hint of lemon flavor that gives me Electrolytes, Immunity Vitamins, and Natural Energy! The water jug can double as a lightweight weight if I wanted to get some strength training exercise while I was at my mom's house. I love that I can watch some online exercise classes on my computer.
Choose not to stay at a hotel
We decided not to stay at a hotel on our trip also just to be safe. So we packed up some air mattresses and chose to stay at my mom's house. I felt it was safer for mom's health if we avoided any possible exposure to the coronavirus and a hotel may have people staying there who are sick. Mom enjoyed having us stay at her house.
Do grocery pick up
Another place that we wanted to avoid was the grocery store as it could be a place that could expose us to the Covid-19 virus. So once we arrived at mom's house, I logged into my computer and placed a grocery order for curbside pickup. I love how easy it is to buy groceries online. I also brought with me these delicious No-Bake High Fiber Breakfast Granola Bars for our car trip. Not only are these granola bars yummy but they help keep that travel constipation away.
Traveling safely during a pandemic was easier than I thought. My family remained virus-free while we stayed at my mom's house. I am glad that we chose to drive instead of flying on an airplane. While I hate the long car ride, I also hate being sick. My feelings are that the risk of catching the coronavirus would have been more with an airline, as more people are on a plane. This lung virus is contagious and could be deadly for my elderly mom so I am glad that we were able to remain virus-free for my mom.