Like all you, we've been isolated, discombobulated, truncated, barricaded and situated in a strange world of outside infections and inside reflections for nine months - and counting.
I asked the wife, "What do you want to do?"
The wife says, "Nothing. What can we do? What do you want to do?"
I say to the wife, "It's going to be Thanksgiving in a few weeks; none of the kids are even thinking about traveling for the holiday. Your family, which has often hosted us for Thanksgiving, has made it clear that they do not want to host a potentially virus vector gathering. Nothing doing in 2020 for Thanksgiving and family. A nonstarter to be sure. I say, we declare a properly socially distant, mainly isolated 'Pandemic Playtime' and bug out of here. What do you say to that?"
The wife says to me. "Properly socially distanced? Isolated? What do you have in mind?"
I tell her that I've long wanted to camp on Padre Island National Seashore's beach. It'd be primitive camping, it'd be very isolated. It'd be the perfect place for the pandemic; 4-Wheel drive required to drive on the beach, but I've got a 4WD Toyota 4Runner, we're in an exclusive club - that's our ticket babe. There's 60 miles of undeveloped beach for us to pick a place to be far from the Covid crowd.
She sounds intrigued. "Two questions: One, what are the 'facilities' like if we primitive camp? Two, how long does it take to get down there?" She starts to crawfish on me; she's a great sport and though I can tell she's not thrilled with the idea of exchanging civilized facilities for a 'cat hole', she is not going to let that situation dismantle my dream adventure. However, she expresses worry about taking time off, her first vacation time all year in a hectic, discombobulated kind of year. "I'm supposed to kick off Advent for the congregation then, I don't know if I can take time away. I guess I could ask."
[She asks for time off, it is of course granted. There will be no live church services as the infection rate jumps. The church is going back to prerecorded Zoom, like they've been doing since March. She is asked to just record you kick-off message video before you leave. Simple. Go with blessings, you've worked too hard all the difficult year to not take some R&R before the end of the year. Go!]
I plan our Pandemic Playtime.
We leave town around noon on Thursday, November 26, Thanksgiving. We arrive in San Antonio and grab dinner there.
We leave San Antonio the next day for Padre Island. We drive along the edge of the Gulf of Mexico, looking for a place to pitch our tent in the sand. We stay Friday night listening to the surf's soothing rhythm, explore and play all day Saturday and pack up and leave the island on Sunday.
Since you have plenty of deserved vacation, we'll linger in Fredericksburg. We'll reconnect with some great people, Dave Ewing (housemate from my Grad School days in Austin 1981-1984) and his wife Teri. We will take a day to visit one of Texas' most engaging State parks, Enchanted Rock, all while booking two days in a remote, rural Airbnb.
I change the oil in my SUV, rotate the tires and then stuff it full of camping gear and supplies. We will cook up a proper Thanksgiving meal after we return. We have rescheduled our Thanksgiving for Saturday, December 5. Why do anything normal in a year like 2020?
Let's get on the road and enjoy our Pandemic Playtime. A parade of posts and pictures of our Pandemic Playtime follows on this blog.
Enjoy the journey (be advised that you may want to check the weather forecast before you plan your journey) [foreshadowing].
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