Hello Everyone, I’m sorry I haven’t had the chance to post anything these last two weeks, but it’s been quite a strange time. Two weeks ago I was writing to you from Texas with every intention of pushing on with this journey, come what may. I was well stocked with food, water, fuel and everything else I needed to survive for at least a month if need be. I headed south to South Padre Island where I holed up for almost a week, keeping my distance from everyone and everything and trying to read enough to make some educated decisions about what to do next. The beach was beautiful, and warm, and quiet and I enjoyed my daily walks, reading my books and enjoying a private Happy Hour with my feet in the sand every day as the sun went down. As I came to understand the coronavirus, how it was likely to spread and the best ways to minimize the damage it would cause, I realized we were going to be in this for way longer than a couple of weeks. I also read a post from a friend of mine who had contracted the virus and what that experience was like. While he is on his way to a full recovery, I realized that what he went through was not something I wanted to experience while living in the back of my van in 80 degree temperatures. To compound the situation, one of my teeth broke the night I arrived on South Padre, and while I was lucky to be able to get an emergency root canal in nearby Brownsville, I got in on the last day the dentist would be open. I was blessed to get this taken care of, but it made me realize how precariously perched I was so far from home during a worldwide crisis. Reading more, I came to realize that the governor of Texas was not putting into place the appropriate measures and was lagging way behind other states in that regard. I also came to understand that while there were no reported cases in that part of Texas, there was also almost zero testing going on which created a false sense of security. That all being said, I was truly impressed with the measures the local governments were enacting there on South Padre and in surrounding towns, closing all non-essential businesses and laying out simple to understand policies to keep their citizens safe. Finally, the day before I was going to splurge for a hotel room for the night, clean up and write my weekly This Week post, that same local government issued a Shelter in Place order. I couldn’t pay for a hotel for weeks on end with no end in sight, and I couldn’t sit in my van all day either. I could move on, but with nothing open it would be somewhat futile so what would be the point? As difficult as the decision was, it became clear that heading towards home was the safest, most responsible decision, so we fueled up and started on the 30+ hour drive back to Washington D.C.
I made a stop in Dallas to see a friend of mine, and I’m sure glad I did. I needed a little in-person connection at that point. We ended up sitting in her front yard, 10 feet apart, all day and chatting about a lot of things. It was nice to see her and catch up, and gave me some soul fuel I needed for the 2.5 day journey from there to get home. The next night I stayed in Jackson, Tennessee, and the night after that in Staunton, Virginia. I was able to grab some water and toilet paper for my folks as I went, finding some stocked shelves in a few of the stores I visited, and pulled up in front of my mom’s house on Sunday afternoon.
It was a long and tedious drive, sticking to the interstates for speed and dodging trucks trying to keep the country moving. I encountered some truly horrible drivers who I hope ended up getting to their destinations safely because they were a hazard on the road. On the plus side, there were some wonderful wildflowers in bloom along the highways providing a little bit of nourishment to my spirit as I went. I couldn’t help but thinking as I drove that it was as if time were standing still, and we were the only things moving. All I saw were billboards for concerts and festivals which were cancelled and not rescheduled, and advertisements for stores that were closed and restaurants that were probably just holding on if they were lucky. The drive gave me time to think about the plans that the world had for the next few months which are now simply put off indefinitely. I thought of the graduations and proms which would never be made up, the trips and dates left untaken, and perhaps saddest of all, the funerals which wouldn’t occur. I thought about how many industries would be affected by this, how many small businesses are only functioning month-to-month and how many of my friends and fellow countrymen live paycheck-to-paycheck. I thought of those authors who had poured their lives into books and those musicians who had poured their lives into albums neither of whom would be able to go on the tours to promote their art which they had worked so hard on. Mostly I thought about how delicately balanced life is and how easily the dominoes can fall when something like this happens.
I definitely must admit that I also felt pretty lucky to be me. The whole way home I kept hearing Bob Dylan in my head singing “when you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose”. I live a simple life with simple needs and don’t have a mortgage or anything which this puts in jeopardy. While other people will be left truly hurting from this in so many ways, all I will likely experience is inconvenience, and I am very aware of that and grateful for it. Since I am not worried about myself, I can be truly empathetic to others who have so much more on the line and be the ear for friends to bend if they need one.
While this has and will continue to alter my plans, as I’m sure it has and will for you as well, under the circumstances I am grateful to be safe and sound at home. I feel better knowing that I am here with my mom and stepdad in case something goes wrong, and that they are here for me at the same time. I’m also only a few hours’ drive from my dad in West Virginia if he needs me for any reason during these crazy times. As much as this city can drive me crazy, it’s home and I am surrounded by a good community of friends and neighbors, most of whom seem committed to doing the right thing right now and keeping their distance.
So here I am, and here I will be for the foreseeable future. There are no plans right now and no sense in making any. My summer job as a Tour Guide will undoubtedly be seriously affected by all of this, but some day there will be tours again, and I’ll be there to run them. I have plenty of things to occupy my time and keep me busy as this all plays out. I will definitely get to work on some Snapshots posts from the last few towns I visited in Texas, and perhaps some more from photos I never got around to editing last summer. I will get out and take photos of the neighborhoods near my mom’s house and show you how beautiful spring can be in our nation’s capital. I have podcasts to work on and I may even get around to getting this book written that I keep threatening y’all with. I’ll keep practicing my guitar chords, getting exercise to stay well and keep working my way through that stack of books that never seems to get any smaller. In other words, I’ll be living small, staying safe and keeping my mind and body active and engaged. I hope you will all be doing your own version of that.
And when this all dies down, hopefully sooner rather than later, we will all go out and hug each other, and dance together and travel and laugh and eat out with friends and family, go to the theater and the zoo and have a big celebration of life. And hopefully we won’t forget the fragility of it all. We will remember to savor the little things because they can be gone at the drop of a hat. We won’t take our friends or families or opportunities for granted because we will understand how lucky we are to have them. And when that day comes, I will let you know my new plan and how this journey will proceed from here. I can’t even speculate as to how things will go at this point. Until then, I’ll keep writing, keep taking photos and keep doing the things I love and sharing them here. I hope you will share in them with me, and share with me how you are doing during these trying times. I want this to be, as always, a space for positivity and love.
So until next week, I wish you all nothing but the best. Be safe out there, look after yourselves and each other, and try and enjoy the little things in life. I will miss the road, but I’m forever grateful for all it’s taught me over the years. Take care, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next week.
-Mike