Travel in the Time of COVID

                                 Some of our face masks, all washed and hanging in our laundry room to dry.                                                              Photo by The Pensacola Hippie 

With the storm coming ashore in New Orleans, Pensacola is in for a rough couple of days of eastern bands of wind and rain from Hurricane Sally.  I am so grateful that we are not in the path of a direct hit, and my prayers are for all those on the Louisiana/Mississippi coast . 

I am using today to start getting ready for our vacation. This included doing some laundry-- including the washing of all of our face masks. In order to preserve the ear straps, I am machine washing them, but hanging them out to dry in our laundry room.  

North Carolina, unlike FLORIDA, has some strict masking regulations . This makes me feel better bout our trip there. We are driving, and taking our own food & drinks with us-- no food stops at fast food joints in the interstate.  The place where we are staying while in North Carolina is a family-owned Bed & Breakfast that offers a huge breakfast every morning. We'll pack trail snacks, but d not plan to eat a meal until take-out after the day's activities. 

I planned our itinerary to include only outdoor activities. We will go to the Carolina Highlands to spend time in the mountains , so there is quite a bit of hiking. I have the carl Sandberg property on our list, but the outdoor trails are all that is open right now due to the pandemic. We are okay with this arrangement, as we prefer outdoor vacations anyway. The Sandberg House would be interesting, but it will e there after COVID { whenever that may be...} 

We plan to spend on day in nearby Asheville, and I found that the Botanical Gardens there are open to foot traffic. Additionally , a sweet friend gave us a map of the walking tour of downtown Asheville and we naturally plan to stop and sample a craft beer at one of the breweries there { using the outdoor seating option}  If we are hungry, we can get take-out and eat it on the way back to Hendersonville. Again, since we will stock our backpacks with good trail food, hunger should not affect us. 

Our truck will have enough wipes and rubbing alcohol , we want to keep our hands clean while we are out in public. 

I am glad that we can take this trip together-- a much-needed respite from our isolating COVID existence in Pensacola. 

~Sarah