Home amid Corona Virus

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We packed up all our gear, our bikes and our cats into our Honda CR-V to return home after seeing Whitney Rose at the Continental Club on Tuesday the night before. It's about 2,500km (1,500mile) or 25hrs of interstate driving and we've done it many times now. We left Austin TX on Wednesday March 11 and were home by Friday March 13 with overnight stops in Little Rock AR and Indianapolis IN.

The trip was pretty uneventful apart from a nasty hail storm near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. There had been a nasty tornado through Nashville only a few days earlier that had done considerable damage so for a moment it was more than a little distressing. But the bad weather passed and it was smooth sailing there after. Clear roads, warm weather and no snow -- well a tiny bit in the shaded north side of some ditches here in Ontario.

Our three cats -- Piscine, brothers Radar and Little Moe -- are not comfortable travellers. Piscine spends hours wandering the car and screaming that she's not happy. But she usually settles down and goes to sleep for at least some of the day. Radar and Moe are just terrified by the whole experience and hunker down quietly hoping it will all end soon. And it does, after 8 or so hours driving each day.

They like getting out of the car and exploring our hotel rooms. They're happy to be fed and climb on our bed in the night. But finding them in the morning can be a bit of a struggle. If there is a place to hide they'll find it. And if they find it you will have trouble finding them. On the morning in Indianapolis they had wormed their way together under the bed (Kate thought that there were critters in the night under the bed) in such a manner that we had to dismantle the King bed and box spring in the morning to get them out. In any case, they, like we, were glad to be home.

We crossed the Blue Water bridge at Port Huron MI. At the Canadian Border Services in Sarnia we were pretty much the only car crossing and got immediate service. They asked us where we had been, how long we'd been away, what we were bringing back, how much liquor, any tobacco and so on. They weren't interested in the cats; they never are in spite of us waving the required paper work. We were sent over to the "search your car for any drugs" area and were not at all keen on the idea of having our car torn apart. It's hard enough to get everything packed away and the cats loaded as well! In any case, the border services there were just concerned to make sure we were well and that we hadn't been to any other place other than the US. We were quickly sent on our way.

Back at home in St Marys, ON we discover that there's been a COVID-19 case in town -- we are not aware of any cases in TX during our holidays. The patient here is in critical care in the nearby Stratford hospital and the town has started lockdown procedures. The town day care had been shutdown first on very short notice from the province. Now the town has voluntarily locked down the library (Reg is a board member), museum, town hall, arena, pool, seniors center, Pyramid Resource Center, etc. Restaurants have voluntarily closed. Board meetings are cancelled or held by phone. Doctors and dentists have shut their offices.

We have been in self imposed exile distancing ourselves from friends and family on the slim chance that we might be carrying the virus (alternatively that we might meet someone who is). We have, nevertheless, been out to the Post Office, Drug Store and Independent Grocer but will keep out of circulation for a couple of weeks. At this writing we've been in social isolation for one week.

This may be the end of the world as we know it, but I don't feel fine.