The travel industry is taking a hard hit from the coronavirus. RVers may feel safe in their homes-on-wheels, but the ability to travel to places unaffected may soon become more difficult.
We received a comment from a reader named Gray on our RV Daily Tips Newsletter this week expressing concern. Here’s what he wrote:
“This morning (Wednesday) we learned that ten nursing and care facilities in WA state have at least one resident or employee tested positive for Covid-19. That’s a sudden increase from the one Life Care center in Kirkland in which the majority of WA fatalities have occurred to date. This may be seen as an unpleasant or distasteful topic for our carefree RV lifestyle, which most may prefer to ignore, BUT… wife and I have siblings in similar long-term care facilities in No. Idaho and we’d planned an RV trip there to visit. Now we ask ourselves: understanding that one can become infected and contagious without knowing it, is it advisable to travel and visit unprotected facilities containing the most vulnerable family members among us?
“Or should we just blithely go on, business as usual, heads in the sand? And deny the uncomfortable reality that this unpleasant reality is spreading at an exponential rate? And pretend it will have no effect on such things as our happy RV lifestyle? And realize that everywhere we go these days, there has been no testing and we have no idea whether those we come in contact with are or are not carriers? Ask yourself: How is it that we are seeing an exponential spread from town to town, state to state?
“Is it possible to exchange information, seek answers to serious questions, and make sensible and knowledgeable adjustments to RV travel and camping? Isn’t it about time to begin addressing this issue in these forums, or is that asking too much?”
What do you think, RVers? Are you worried about upcoming travel plans because of the coronavirus? Have you already changed upcoming plans, or think that you will? Please leave a comment and tell us how this virus is affecting you, your RV, and your travel plans or route. Please keep this discussion as respectful and as non-political as you can. We are all in this together. Thank you.
##RVT939
Boy, what a difference a year makes. Multiple State’s governors bungled the common sense way to deal with the contagious ***** virus. Now in at least two states, those governors are under investigation for malfeasance, because in NY alone, upwards of 15K nursing home residents needlessly died because of how infected residents were sent back into the nursing home, which the administrators told the governors were ill prepared to deal with such desease. The USS Hope saw apprx. 100 ***** patients, even though the ship was equipped to handle 1,000 patients, as a level 1 trama treatment facility. Sad, but nothing is mentioned about this, so I thought I’d say it here.
we hope to head home to Michigan from New Mexico next week. We will be traveling in our motor home. What are our chances of NOT getting hung up in a quarantine?
My wife and I are facing a real dilemma. Her sister’s husband passed away unexpected last December, leaving her alone to care for her 99 year old mother who suffers from dementia. They live in San Antonio, Texas. Before the coronavirus pandemic struck, we traveled from our home in Alabama to assist her in preparing to sell her house and move back to Virginia where there are additional family members that can help with her mother.
She has leased a new home in Virginia and the movers have already packed her out. Our original plan was to fly with them from San Antonio to Virginia. Now, the airlines have canceled our flights. Our backup plan was to drive our RV from Alabama to San Antonio (13 hours); pick them up and drive to Virginia (23 hours); then my wife and I would return to Alabama (13 hours).
My concerns:
1. The coronavirus has created extensive havoc and serious risks on interstate travel.
2. We are all over 70 years old.
3. I will be the only driver.
My son and daughter are urging us not to travel at this time; wait to see how the pandemic develops.
I welcome all constructive inputs.
Thank you.
I have family (self employed, highly isolated) who travelled from Florida to North Carolina with no issues at all. Virginia has effectively been taken by ****[bleeped by Diane — no name-calling], so no telling what a once friendly and safe state to travel in may be now. I know 81 is a highway owned by tractor-trailers. I used it just as a change from my usual, (95) and although beautiful scenery, I took more snow grit/gravel damage to my vehicle in the one winter when my mom passed, than in all my cars, the rest of my entire life.
Just be cautious about wearing gloves at the pumps, eat in when you can. I assume you’re bringing your own bathroom!
Hope things have worked out for you.
We are both over 70 and have other health conditions, which is common at our ages. We had a once in a lifetime 10 week trip from East Tennesse to the Virginia coast to California to home, but all of that has been postponed now, probably until next spring or summer.
I am in Arizona as a snowbird and am going back to home state of Washington. The trip back will start on 27th of March and take five days. Some concerns but i am self contained except for gas. Wear gloves and using Clorox wipes and staying healthy.
We had a huge trip planned for this year, got to Texas and the coronavirus hit the US. We will try to stay here until things are calmer then decide what to do. I had already reserved many of our destinations, and can tell you that many National and state parks are closed until at least May. Some RV parks are making reservations good for a year if you have to cancel. Everyone please wash your hands, keep from crowds and be safe.
Had a trip planned to Death Valley NP starting on April 1st, Got email that all NP campgrounds are closing and my reservation was cancelled. recreation.gov refunded my $.
We are staying in an RV park in Georgia and just extended our stay another 6 days. We are in no hurry to go home to New York state where it is in a state of emergency with everything shut down and 24 degrees.
We are also in Georgia heading back to upstate NY. General Coffee. Four nights here then another campground in GA near Savannah. After that we are heading straight back to NY. We are really torn about returning to the state with the most cases, but we live in the Catskills. One case in our county.
I feel that if you stay to hanging out in your own space, ( no crowds or gatherings),staying within your family or couple, you can still be outdoors for hikes, walks, things like that and use good hygiene, things should be fine. RV parks may not be the best place at this time, but, if you (and I might) just use your own facilities and keep to yourself, like I suggested above. Safe travels!
We have postponed our trip to Florida until we feel it is safe to travel. Hopefully we will get there before hurricane season. Isn’t life fun!!
Our RVing isn’t scheduled to start until June. Trying to be optimistic and thinking this will settle down by then.
We had plans to go to Florida (Panhandle) and Myrtle Beach, SC at the end of the month. Had reservations made from Wisconsin thru Myrtle Beach. Unfortunately due to the virus we canceled. No need to transfer from county to county nor state to state. Along with the inability to find replacement supplies when needed….better safe than sorry. BTW we are 65 and 71 years old.
Yes I recently made the decision in February to relocate to the Florida keys and was going to drive down with my travel trailer and live fulltime rv . I paid my rent for April at my rv lot and now the governor of the keys has closed off the keys to travelers and I have to wait till April and see how things progress
I left my job and have begun packing up my rv for the long haul from Wisconsin to Florida and now everything is on hold
I chose that my plans have not changed since we just returned from our annual winter trip and have not decided what to do about a summer trip. In other words, same as always — no plans to travel for a few months. We’ll see what things are like then.
I am not at all concerned about the virus. I think the scariest part is the panic that is arising. The fact that they may be closing grocery stores and people are worried about feeding themselves. The only way this virus is affecting me and it’s pretty serious is that my husband and I were planning to move into our RV and head to Texas to live. My family members are flying out from CA to help us move from SC to TX. If they can’t fly I don’t know how we are going to get our RV and car with trailer to TX since my husband can’t drive. Our lease is up in June so… To me, THAT’S whats scary
Good luck, Mzlikely! I hope everything works out for you during this very stressful time. 😀 —Diane at RVtravel.com
I have not heard anything about grocery stores closing. In fact everything I hear is just the opposite. All essential businesses like grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations and take out food will remain open.
You’re not at all concerned about the virus! I’m sorry, but anyone with any sense is concerned with the virus. PLEASE READ UP ON THIS, and each area that you need to travel through.
Being Canadian, there’s a matter of travel insurance coverage and whether non-essential travel would be banned by President Trump. Fortunately, my insurance would continue coverage up until the point (yesterday) that my government issued a travel advisory. By that time, I was already home. I did indeed alter my travel plans due to this virus and left 4 weeks ahead of schedule.
The corona virus Covid-19 was not being taken seriously by many people, including those in Italy. Look at what happened with Italy. Yesterday, as I crossed the border, I was told to go into a 14-day isolation. Today, my province issued a “state of emergency” and have closed many public venues and told the restaurants, bars, night clubs, etc. to close. And, advising all people to self isolate for 14 days, not just those coming back from other countries. Of course, they keep the grocery stores open. They have also, wisely or not, kept our border open to all Americans … so far.
Although in self isolation, I have no symptoms. Since I was boondocking, no one was near me. When I had to get groceries, I would go first thing in the morning when minimal amounts of people are shopping and easy to avoid close contact. That left all the gas stations on the way home to deal with; what I did was use a vinyl glove (the kind used by food preparers) and wore one for handling the pump and pin pad on the pump. That left pure chance encounters in which I could catch the virus and time will tell if that happened.
Best to all of you and hope none of you catch it.
Steve
We had plans to camp at Cherry Creek State Park and go to the Supercross races in Denver the beginning of April. The races have been cancelled but, unless the state park closes, we’re still going and will find something else to do.
Just FYI – my daughter is a waitress in Denver and she texted us yesterday that all restaurants in Denver are closed until May 11 – except for take out. Good luck
Greetings – We have been planning for over a year for a 10 week trip out to Arizona, Utah, and other western states leaving from home (Atlanta)
Somewhat perplexed about leaving on March 23rd the second week of the lockdown.
Any thoughts?
Is it worth taking the risk of catching the virus? What if these states start closing parks and typical tourist attractions while you are there? What if the President issues a non-essential travel ban?
We left Colorado to see the Rockies Spring Training. Got to Arizona March 1st. Saw one game, next one cancelled due to rain, the next day the MLB cancelled Spring Training. We are at a 55+ RV park until the end of the month. Hoping things are better by the time we head back home.
As a healthcare provider, I have not participated in the panic. We are living our RV life as usual, no hoarding of toilet paper for a virus that is only respiratory; no hoarding of hand sanitizer which is anti-bacterial, not anti-viral. We are taking all common sense driven protective measures just like always. End of story.