Round Trip Seattle - Missoula - Yellowstone - Calgary - Vancouver

[Tourist]

Lifey

p.s. Would you like me to send you a couple of notes, and you can take mine in too. I will not be over there till June.

Hi Lifey, I didn't really understand what you were offering but I would certainly appreciate any notes.

As has now become obvious my plans have been abandoned until an unknown date. Hopefully it won't be too long but at this point I don't have a clue. I hope you are already in the USA if that is where you want to be. My friends will have to go and kick the tyres on the Xplorer for yet another month, it is now 19 months since we hit the road together, house moves, house sales, and now Covid-19.

[Lifemagician]

Like you, my trip has been postponed to a date yet to be determined. It's not on my mind at the moment, too many immediate issues which are occupying my mind and time. Meanwhile, daughter in Boston has paid Missoula.

Lifey

[Tourist]

Like you, my trip has been postponed to a date yet to be determined.
Lifey

So we are a year on, Boris won't let me leave, Joe won't let me in. I have had the Pfizer jab but never the infection. Initial results from Scotland on the 75+ age group who have had one jab for more than 4 weeks show an 85% reduction in hospitalisation for Pfizer and 94% for Astra Zenica and no deaths. All looks good.

My friend goes and kicks the tyres on the Xplorer every three months and runs up the engine, check for critters and advises on the level of pigeon shit. I sold an apartment in Spain and the sale included use of it free for the month of June for 5 years, (missed year one in 2020 of course). I don't see getting to the USA before that but Spain may be possible, so August might be realistic. Can't be later or Canada and Yellowstone start to look difficult.

Frustration abounds. Hope you're doing OK Lifey and everyone. It gives us a clue what living under a totalitarian regime can look like, at the moment, (in UK anyway), the state owns us not us the state.

[Lifemagician]

Reminds me of the polio epidemic, in the 40s & 50s, when we could not visit relatives who had, or had lost a member with polio.

My trip too is tentative.

We (in Melbourne) had a very hard time being locked down for 124 days. But it was oh! so worth it. There has not been a case in the community for months now, nor a death. As far as I know there is no one in hospital.... but I could be wrong. The cases which still come up are all in quarantine, or off ships. Western Australia looks after most the maritime virus victims. Our biggest issue at the moment is that there is limited space in the quarantine facilities, which is limiting the numbers coming home. I believe there are still some 30.000 Aussies who want to come home, stuck overseas - mostly in countries without regular flights. Though I believe there are still thousands stuck in the UK.

I'm planning my trip for July 2021, and possibly stay till end Oct or early Nov. Our vaccinations are just starting this week, and the over 80s are not due to get it till mid March, and the 2nd in April. Then there is my visa to get. Then my exit permit - that's the most difficult of all, and a negative swab within 72 hours of boarding. Somewhere along the way I will also have to purchase my ticket, the prices of which are now double they were for the ticket I had for earlier last year.. They are available now, for July, but I am a little worried about committing. It is so much hassle to change dates and all that.

Am hoping I will not have to quarantine when I get home. If I have to I hope I can do it in my own home, since I live alone.

Can't even guess what state my van will be in by the time I get there, especially after the huge storms of the last two weeks. Whatever, I'll have to have it all checked out and made safe.

Once I know what I am doing, and when, I will start to make an outline of my plan. But not before, it is too depressing.

I too have a conflict with local and international travel. Between May and August is the best time to see much of this country's outback. I have seen very little of it.

Lifey