How We Socially Distanced on a Cross Country Trip

The Sleichter seven have just wrapped up a ten-day, ten-state family vacation with very, very little human interaction outside of our family. It’s not that we are bunch of introverts; we just knew the importance of socially distancing while the coronavirus has the nation in its grips. This fact was made even more evident by the need for me to be tested for Covid right before we left, not because of symptoms, but because of exposure to positive patients. (Results were negative, FYI)

So, here’s what we did. We had a bag full of face masks for the family. I had bought some masks for Katie to take with her on her trip to Taiwan last fall, so we had plenty on hand. These weren’t very necessary, as I was primarily the person who had contact with others.

We ate breakfast and lunch as picnics or from our groceries. Most of our supper meals were take out, eaten back in the rooms we had reserved. The three times we ate in restaurants, the restaurants were very diligent about socially distancing, leaving big space between tables, with all the servers wearing masks.

Our destinations were all very “great outdoors” and ideal for socially distancing: Carhenge, Mt Rushmore, Glacier, an Oregon ghost town, an Idaho National Forest, and Yellowstone. But the people vacationing were also politely following the new cultural guidelines of “making space”. For example, at Glacier, the number of people at the park was way down, and the hikers and bicyclists were politely distancing. My kids probably got tired of me saying, “Sleichters to the RIGHT!” every time we met someone on a trail. Where the trails got narrower, people were polite and took turns moving off the trail while the next group walked past. Or, if a group was slower than us, they would move to the side when the trail widened and let us by, as we would do for those faster than us.

The parks themselves had things in place to encourage socially distancing. For example, whether due to construction or covid, the sitting area at Mt Rushmore was closed off and only certain trails were open for hiking. At Yellowstone, the indoor facilities were almost all closed, so your time was spent in the open spaces.

It was like a social experiment, seeing the differences in how the states were handling the virus. Kansas and Nebraska and the corner of Colorado we visited were diligently following recommendations, asking people to wear masks as they entered buildings, having more closed dining rooms. Washington and Idaho didn’t seem to care any more, even having amusement parks open and every dining room we saw opened up. And that's why in Washington and Idaho, the kids were even more isolated from the public, per our request.

And lodging in a cross country trip during a health crisis? That took a little forethought. We stayed in motels that had doors direct into our rooms, cabins that stood apart, or Air BNBs that allowed us to have a house to ourselves. When we did have to stay in hotels, only I went in to the lobby, and the kids had very minimal exposure to any other parts of the hotel, besides the room we were staying in.

Dining also took forethought. It’s one thing to decide what you want to eat and in which town. But then it required facebook searching to determine if the restaurants were actually open to dining yet, what their restrictions were, was there any rioting in the area, and did the recession already take them out of business. It might have been easier just to eat drive through, but that’s a lot of fast food. And sometimes you just need to eat at a table, with food not made in a fryer.

We were the only ones in the restaurant! No masks!

And that’s how we safely planned our family vacation 2020. I also took my temperature every morning and night to make sure I did not show any symptoms of the virus myself.  I feel confidant that there were no potential point of contacts for my family members in the ten days. They are at more risk in their jobs (grocery stores and farmers markets) than they were on this vacation. 

It’s a pathetic shame to have to worry about coronavirus and rioting and recession while trying to plan a family vacation. But at the tail end of the vacation, I say the quality family time we were able to get was worth all the effort and planning.