The public elementary school my kids used to go to suddenly got a slew of new standards they had to meet from the state. One was that they get bad points for kids being out sick, so they started begging us to send sick kids to school and let the nurse send them home. This was around the end of the 2018 to 19 school year. We’d already decided to move our younger kids into the same school as our middle schooler but if not that would have been a big push to find an alternative. It was absurd.
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Is it safe to travel right now? I would say yes, as long as you take precautions. But you need to be comfortable with traveling during this strange time. As I’ve said thousands of post earlier on this thread, we must live our lives. We stayed in 2 different hotels over 3 nights this trip.
We did a 1,000 mile roundtrip from northern California to southern California this past weekend to move both kids out of their college apartments. We were traveling through and to counties with spiking numbers of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. There were apprehensions. We found travel and eating to be a hassle, inconvenient, and stressful. Every time we left the car, we had to put on our masks. There were a few times, we were yelling at one another to retrieve the mask from the trunk to put on as someone was heading towards the store without a mask. We sanitized our hands when we returned to the car. We sanitized our hotel room and refused room service. We sanitized our food wrappings. All of the restaurant and hotel workers wore masks and gloves. We were dismayed at how many people wore surgical masks when they still in short supply for health care workers. We had to wear masks around DD since we are from different households and she goes to work everyday. Read more, if you want to see what we did, how life was to travel during this pandemic, and the precautions we took. Sorry, I don’t have many pictures of our trek. I was frazzled.
We left home in Alameda County and drove to Fresno County, HWY 99, so that DS19 could take pictures of F19s taking off at the Fresno Airport.
This isn’t our normal route to SoCal. This route took us through more urban areas, where we were able to go to Costco in Clovis and Bakersfield to use the bathrooms, which were fairly clean. The sink had plexi glass between each faucet. We had lunch at our favorite restaurant in Santa Clarita, Los Angeles County. The burgers are delicious but the poutine is not WDW quality. We called in a take-out and were supposed to eat at its outdoor patio. But when DS did a wild turn into its parking lot, the key fob flew off somewhere and we couldn’t lock the car. Try finding a black fob in the black interior of a car! The food was done already so I laid a beach towel across the trunk and had a tailgate after sanitizing the outside of the containers and my hands. Thankfully, we found the fob after lunch! For a Friday, traffic flowed through Los Angeles and Orange counties, with only very minor slow-downs.
I checked into our hotel on my app and used a digital key. I ran a bleach solution and wiped everything down, even though the hotel says it cleans high touch area more carefully. The room hadn’t been used in a few days. There was a scattering of dust. We did a take out for dinner and ate in our sanitized hotel room. This restaurant, which is normally packed for lunch and dinner, closed at 7 PM. We arrived at 6:40 PM. We crashed after dinner. The next morning, I checked out online. The front desk had plexi glass between the clerk and the guest. There was bagged breakfast and they served the coffee. Nothing was self served. We didn’t take any food or drinks. There were people walking in the lobby and inside the hallways without mask on, even though it is required. 
DH went to pick up the moving truck. He sprayed the truck with Lysol, and drove with a mask and gloves on. Tnhe temperature was in the 80s as we moved DS’s furniture and stuff out of his top floor apartment into the truck. There was no AC and it was hard work while we were wearing masks. 
But, we were done in a couple of hours and headed down to San Diego.
DD22 moved into a house with 3 other girls. Unfortunately, they all decided to move in on the same day and they had their families helping them also. One of her roommates in her apartment was also moving out the same day and also had her family in the apartment. So, another round of masks had to be worn. I was thankful they were there to help clean out the last of the stuff from the apartment. It is terrible to be the last roommate out since you are left to clean.
We checked in to the hotel on the app and again got a digital key. But I had to ask the front desk for a parking pass. They also had plexi glass between the clerk and the guest. Again, we were taken aback with the number of guests wandering the lobby and hallways without masks, even though it was required. I sanitized the room with a bleach solution before we settled in for the night. 
We were tired.
On Sunday morning, DD took graduation pictures under a pier on the beach. There were lots of people on the beach walking, running, surfing, and sitting. Some wore masks but all kept their social distance. I didn’t wear my mask on the beach that much.
Our LTE wasn’t working well enough for online church on the go. So, we went to do a take-out for lunch and had another tail gate on our trunk. It’s a tiny place. They made us line up outside, which they had taped the social distance on the sidewalk. You are only allowed in the restaurant if you are ordering and when you are called to pick up your order. If you are ever in San Diego/La Jolla, try the Taco Stand. Their tacos, carne asada loaded fries, CA burrito, and churros made to order are delicious and very reasonably priced. 
We continued to Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial to take more pictures. You get a 360 view of area and the ocean. There were also lots of people here and most of the time, there was no room to social distance on the paths. Maybe 70% of the people wore masks here. I wore mines for the most part.
We called in an order of take-out for dinner and ate out on DD’s patio. They held the credit card machine towards me and I ran my own credit card. The restaurant was doing sit down dining. They had erected 5 ft wooden partitions between the tables. We are not ready for dining in.
On Monday, we were supposed to do one more round of pictures at UC San Diego before heading home. But we were tired from all the moving. We said good-bye to DD22 as she headed to work and we headed home. There was no hugging as we really are from two different households now. 
We had to return the moving truck to Santa Ana and again, went to the restroom at a Costco nearby. We wanted some strawberry croissants at Cream Pan and decided to go to the Fullerton location instead of the original location in Tustin. It was our first time at this location. It is a huge location and had lots of tables but they weren’t allowing anyone to sit down. We bought each of us a strawberry croissant and I proceeded to order a box of pastries for home. DS had to usher me out of the store while DH paid so that I wouldn’t wander the pastry cases and buy more sweets!
DS wanted a picture of the rocket booster in front of SpaceX in El Segundo.
We ordered two 18” pizzas from Grimaldi’s up the street. The restaurant was open for sit down (Los Angeles County) but there was only one table of guests. A steady stream of people were doing take out while we were in the parking lot. Again, we ate on top of our trunk. We returned home on our normal route, I-5, going through the rural areas of the Central Valley. We made one pit stop in Lost Hills, Kern County to use the restroom at this gas station with a store. The workers wore masks but less than half of the shoppers wore masks. They had self serve food (hot dogs and taquitos) and drinks, which was surprising 
. The bathrooms were not as clean as a Costco’s bathroom. We left quickly and decided to minimize drinking so that we wouldn’t have to make another pit stop. We were very relieved to pull into our driveway.
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I think there is some degree of seasonality to the virus (and yes, I’ve been thinking that given what has been happened this past month, we are headed for a huge problem in the fall).
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San Diego’s problem is its proximity to the border:
This may also be part of the problem in Arizona.
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This is all so stressful for you, I’m sorry. I know you will do everything you can to keep everyone safe.
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Lovely pics of your DD!
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As they should. It’s crazy that 2/3rds of the deaths in PA are from nursing homes. And it still continues to be an issue.
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@PrincipalTinker How has this program been working in your district since shutdown? I know most (all?) districts in CO (at least Front Range) are doing the pickup availability. But I’ve wondered if this is working well. There is a huge difference between getting food at school and having to make the effort to go somewhere and get that food. I worry about parents who won’t bother to make the effort.
I don’t know how homeschool “friendly” CO is, and I don;t want to do it (DS REALLY doesn’t want to do it); but it would be better than the remote learning we had.
…
Someone posted the story about the Pediatics Association strongly pushing for school in the fall. We finally went and did our long delayed well child check. Our pediatrician is very firmly in the camp of restarting in person school.
This also pretty much sums up my views on potlucks.
So in order for CO not to “end up like TX or FL”, Polis has shut bars and clubs. I saw something from a local microbrewery. It said as long as they had a food truck there, they would be open. otherwise only to go.
Nightclubs should not have reopened. I saw a story on the news about a club that Denver County finally shut down for repeated violations. Videos of business as usual. The owner tried to justify staying open. His arguments were poor and he kept contradicting himself. That place should have never been open in the first place.
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This is very, very sad . Thank you for helping me understand the major reason for the high numbers. I was getting concerned for DD who goes to work everyday and life in San Diego seems more normal than life at home with everything open.
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@amvanhoose_701479 and other interested parties
A couple we know who live near Houston rented a Cruise America class B RV and with 7 friends visited the south rim of the Grand Canyon, taking the train, and then visited Zion and Bryce Canyons before heading back to the Houston area, arriving Monday or Tuesday.
Our DD and her DH - who live in sw Idaho - joined them for the Utah portion.
It’ll be interesting, the next couple of weeks.
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Sorry for the long post: I wanted to pipe up about home schooling. I’ve done it w/ all four of mine for bits and pieces of their K-12 edu. for various reasons (over 38 yrs). We just finished my son’s sr. yr. cuz we moved right before it and didn’t want to force him to change HS for one year (last one done). He wasn’t thriving in pub ed, we tried online programs and as I said in an earlier thread there’s too much busy work. Homeschooling isn’t for everyone & I’ve seen it done poorly. It’s hard, there was a lot of screaming this past year about geometric proofs 
(my son and I are both strong willed 
) The mantra that I’ve used “Don’t bring pub school home”. Home Ed takes LESS time that public. There were a few weeks that we covered 3 chapters in geometry in one week cuz we were on a roll. 2-3 hours a day is needed at most but pub ed wants to see 6 hours like they have… it’s not needed at home. We used an accredited school that assigned an advisor to review credits, portfolio, to ensure that DS would have a legitimate diploma (enrolled w/ tuition paid). I’ll share the school contact w/ ne1 %'d. but there are many home school organizations around the country that are very good and supportive. Some thoughts that I’ve had during this time to help me: the pioneers were very isolated and survived, remote Alaskan kids have successfully been doing home sch via radio for decades, and I think of how much extra time kids have at home to play, investigate, explore, daydream, create, invent when their entire day isn’t managed. While I don’t have a kid in the game for this next year, I wouldn’t send them into this if I did. We’re trying to figure out college next year… it’s hard. Anyway… I could go on and on.
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That’s great home schooling worked out for you. For our family our kids are going to go in person if the school is open. It’s what works best for our family. It may be difficult at first, but I feel comfortable with our school district’s plans. None of this will be easy.
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Yep… it’s very individual, but I know many are considering and wondering and fretting. My oldest daughter called me last week to plan for home schooling next year after her governor announced their state’s plan for reopening schools; needless to say she wasn’t impressed and felt her DS wouldn’t be safe in pub ed. there.
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We sent buses out to all bus stops with food. At first we did it every day but then we went to 3x a week. All schools also had pick up zones. We have about 5000 students and we served over 200k meals.
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My brother is a bank’s branch manager. One of his staff called in sick yesterday and sent a picture of a thermometer showing 100.8 degree fever. HR followed up with the staff and determined that there were COVID-19 symptoms. The branch is shut down for 14 days and everybody still gets paid. However, the bank does not have the authority to make the employee go get tested and the employee refuses to go get tested! 
Meanwhile, he puts everyone’s lives on hold.
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I think the biggest key in homeschool is the family buying into it and understanding it’s not an addition to the family - it’s an integrated element. For me it means dying to self way more than my personality lends itself to.
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May have to start a home school information thread if the possibility gets more serious.
Not over proofs, but…yeah there was a lot of this. Still is, as I’m making him still do work.
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That’s crazy.
If people are wearing masks and socially distant then go the heck to work.
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Serious question- is there a common understanding of what “socially distance” means? I thought I did but the world is falling apart and now I find I might be mistaken.
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In our neck of the woods, it is 6’. It is posted on the doors at stores and restaurants, written on the floor at stores, and this particular staff at Costco who walks around the store yelling it to the customers.
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