We traveled during a pandemic - #12
We knew the time would come when we had to break our quarantine bubble. We didn’t imagine that would look like a trip, but it did—and it saved our sanity.
Hi! Typical me. Just when I was getting consistent with my writing and could have leveraged my (and my followers) excitement about my refresh, I go and fall off the face of the Earth. No excuses, except that we’re in the middle of a global pandemic and life feels really hard, and I’m doing the best I can. ☺️
Here we are, at the end of May. We’ve been quarantined for 10+ weeks, 70+ days. No friends, no family, no daycare, no work (in the office). We’ve talked for awhile in our house about how we were going to burst our quarantine bubble. Would it be by bringing in a nanny? Would it be by seeing friends or having playdates? Would it be by driving to Iowa to visit with our family? No, instead of starting small, we did as one does in times like these, and we got the fuck out of dodge to move our quarantine bubble somewhere else.
Bryan and I were set to leave on May 21 for Australia, returning home yesterday. It was our annual anniversary trip, celebrating 9 years on May 28. Obviously, that didn’t happen, so we decided to pack up and south to the Smokey Mountains in Gatlinburg, TN.
Why Gatlinburg? Well, for one, Tennessee was slowly reopening. So while we didn’t want to just ignore the rest of the world and dive right back into society, we liked that might have the option to go out to dinner, for example. We were able to rent a cabin in the mountains, far away from everyone, and we knew that we could spend our days hiking, fishing or doing other outdoor activities we don’t have access to in Chicago, and where we could keep our distance. So we braved the 9-hour trip with the boys and took off.
Worth noting is that time leading up to our trip over Memorial Day weekend were probably two of the worst yet. The stress and tension in our house was at an all-time high. Work was overwhelming. I was working until anywhere from midnight to 3 a.m trying to get things done. There’s lingering fear of furloughs or job loss, and difficult conversations around managing the boys. The boys were acting so out of control. To get out of these four walls, out on the open road, disconnect from work and reconnect in nature felt more like a necessity than a luxury.
As a whole, the trip couldn’t have been more perfect. The house itself was incredible. It was nestled in the woods, in the mountains…on a mountain, really. (No seriously. The incline to get to our house was so steep and difficult to get up. The neighboring house couldn’t even get up there, and had to call the police for help.) We had plenty of space for the weekend, including a large outdoor patio complete with a fire, a grill, a hot tub, as well as an upstairs bar/deck.
Aside from what we did there, people have been most interested in the logistics of traveling during a pandemic. So I guess before I get to the “what we did,” I’ll address the “how we did it.”
We opted for a private home instead of a hotel. Gatlinburg offers a huge amount of hotels downtown and with pools, waterparks, etc - but we weren’t comfortable with that at the time, so opted to rent a home. We spoke with the owner about her cleaning policies, previous guests etc. and felt comfortable going there.
We packed our own groceries. We had a lot of perishable items in the fridge that we packed in a cooler, and I made a quick Target run the night before we left to get some other pantry items. We planned to grill one night, and either order in or go out the other two nights, so we didn’t have to pack too much—just breakfast items, some things to make sandwiches, all the snacks, all the alcohol…call it a day. We only had to venture out to get essentials.
We stopped strategically on the road. We knew that with a 9-hour trip, and two young boys, we would have to stop a few of times. We didn’t plan to stop cities to stop in with things to do/see, as much as we planned to stop to meet basic needs like eating, peeing and exercise. For meals, we went through drive-thrus, and then parked in parking lots to set up a little picnic to get some air/stretch our legs. (#classy). We used bathrooms at the restaurants, as they were less trafficked than gas stations. We wore masks anytime we went inside. We stopped at a couple of rest stops to just run around and take a break from the car. We did have to stop at a gas station or two, but again, wore masks, washed hands, sanitized surfaces (like when changing Connor).
We wore masks. I know that make make some of you gasp, but yes…whenever we could not socially distance ourselves from others, or we were indoors…we wore masks. Quite honestly, it felt like we were the only ones in Tennessee wearing masks. It was truly shocking, coming from Chicago, where everyone is still sheltering in place and wearing masks and nothing is open, and going South, where it seemed like literally no one knew or cared we are in the midst of a global pandemic.
We brought our own sanitizer and wipes. For stops, for the house, for all the times we didn’t have access to soap and water.
All in all, as I said, the trip was pretty perfect. We needed it so much. During this time, we’ve been together all day every day, but that doesn’t translate to quality time. In fact, it’s been the opposite, as Bryan and I have been pulled in a million different directions and haven’t been able to focus on just each other or just the kids. So, part of me documenting it here is because our entrance back to “reality” has been harsh and I don’t want to forget it. ❤️
Day 1
Our first full day, we went out in the morning on a hike with the boys before the rain hit. They had a great time looking at slugs, spiders, plants, mushrooms and wildlife. We even saw a bear! At a distance, of course. We head home before it started raining, and spent the afternoon listening to the rain, playing in the rain, hanging out in the hot tub, and just relaxing. The rain let up enough for us to grill some burgers and hot dogs, and we called it an early night.
Day 2
More hiking! We hiked about 2.5 miles to some waterfalls that we could walk behind, and we enjoyed a little picnic before making the 2.5 mile trek back. I had to haul Connor again, as the little men were tired from our walk in. Next, we hiked up to the highest point of the Smokey’s. It was a VERY steep hike, and more people than we had seen, but it was worth the view. The boys fell asleep on our ride back home, so we ordered dinner from a local restaurant, and headed back to the house for more hot tubbing, a fire and the boys first S’MORES experience.
Day 3
A little bit of a “bust” in terms of what we had planned, but still a great day nonetheless. We wanted to drive a loop road through the mountains where you could get off here and there to hike, etc. But traffic was SO bad—it took us more than an hour to crawl MAYBE half a mile, so we opted to get off the loop road, take some backroads and find a spot to picnic. We did, and as we were getting set up next to a creek for lunch and some fishing, we got rained out. Wamp wamp. We cut our losses, got some ice cream, went home, had a water balloon fight, more hot tubbing, more camp fires, more s’mores. ❤️
Day 4
Time to go back to reality. As mentioned, we tried to avoid many of the “attractions” in Gatlinburg, but we couldn’t escape this goddamn bridge that my gem of a husband mentioned to Liam that we would not stop talking about. The Gatlinburg Skybridge is 140ft at its middle point—which also features a GLASS BOTTOM. Did I mention I’m scared of heights? We had to ride a god awful chairlift to the top, and I cried actual tears as I clung to Connor for dear life as we rode to the top. Once we got up there, the actual bridge wasn’t terrible. There were a lot of people, and we we wore our masks in the condensed areas, and there was someone sanitizing the bridge, and we all kept distance. I ushered us along as quickly as I could, chugged a beer afterwards for courage for the ride down the mountain, and then we were on our way home to Chicago.
So, how did we travel during a pandemic? Carefully and not with one ounce of regret.