After discussing my concern about my return trip home by air with my physician cousin Kevin, I decided to drive home because of my age, medical history and the enhanced threat of being exposed to Covid-19 in a crowded airplane. I booked a car on Priceline.com for a one-way rental from Las Vegas for about $670.
I was already renting a car from Budget for the duration of my Las Vegas stay, and I checked to see what their deal was. It turned out they would charge me an additional $450 to convert my rental from a same location return to a one-way. But, because I planned to return the car two weeks early, I would recoup much of that fee. So, I decided to take Budget’s deal.
My last week in Vegas, I went to two of my three OLLI classes and began to strategize my trip home. I still wanted to see the Grand Canyon, but that the would take more than half a day and make my other travelling days longer. I had driven across the country last year from El Paso to Ohio and found that the fourth day driving was when the fatigue really set in. I wanted to avoid any extremely long days on the road.
Also, I planned to visit my brother Tim in western Illinois and calculated a route that wouldn’t affect the total time and distance of my route.
Another factor was the weather. While Las Vegas had high temperatures in the 70s for the first week in March, it turned cooler and cloudier the last week I was there. It even rained pretty steadily two of the evenings and early mornings. Also, the national news about the coronavirus was not good and it was causing many cancellations and business closings. I began to get concerned about the availability of food, fuel and lodging on my trip home.
So, I decided to leave on Friday, March 13. I texted my Airbnb hosts Lori and Ernie about my plans to check out early and I said good bye to Ernie and hit the road. The weather was cloudy and cool with an occasional sprinkle of rain. I headed southeast out of Henderson and took US 93 towards Kingman, AZ, and then picked up I-40 heading east.
I still had the Grand Canyon visit in the back of my mind, but the weather convinced me otherwise. As I passed Williams, AZ, the exit for the primary approach road to the Grand Canyon from the south, it was snowing and the cloud ceiling was hiding the tops of nearby mountains. It was only in the upper 30s, so it was not good weather for sightseeing.
So, I pressed on with my original plan and continued on to Santa Rosa, NM. As I passed through Flagstaff, AZ, with an altitude of 7.325 feet the temperature was only 33 degrees and it was snowing. Fortunately, it wasn’t sticking to the road surface and I continued across northern Arizona and New Mexico. I crossed the Continental Divide, altitude 7,800 feet and then got stuck an hour-long traffic jam near Joseph, NM.
As it got dark, there was a 20-mile stretch of highway where it was pretty foggy. I finally reached Santa Rosa at about 9:30PM and the only restaurant nearby that was still open was a McDonald’s. So, I feasted on a Chicken sandwich combo including diet Coke laced with bourbon once I got back to the motel. The Best Western motel was full, so I was glad I booked a room beforehand.
The next morning was sunny and cool, and it was back on i-40 heading for Oklahoma City. The weather was much better, partly sunny with temperatures in the 40s and 50s. As I approached Oklahoma City, it turned cloudy but it was still dry. After 11.5 hours on the road, I arrived in Joplin, MO, my second night’s stop.
I was ready for a more substantial meal, so I had dinner at a nearby Cracker Barrel. Fortunately, it wasn’t very crowded and I was able to avoid close contact with a lot of people. When I got back to the room I went online and found out that my niece Angela and her husband in Washington state might have Covid-19.
Her husband Kevin works in IT for Boeing but he also officiates high school basketball and football games. The previous weekend he attended the Washington high school boys’ basketball state championships in Tacoma. He didn’t officiate any of the games, but helped coordinate the activities at the scorer’s table and worked closely with another good friend and longtime official named Steve.
After the tournament ended Saturday night, Kevin went back home to Chelan, WA, and his friend Steve left for Palm Springs, CA, to visit his son. On Monday, Steve became ill and was hospitalized in intensive care with Covid-19. Steve Colby fought the disease for nearly a week, but passed away on March 16. He was 72 and had a history of heart problems.
My niece Angela and Kevin have quarantined themselves at home in Chelan, WA, and were tested for Covid-19 over the weekend, but the test results still hadn’t come back as I write this.
On day three of the trip, I went to get breakfast at the hotel at about 7:45AM and there was no one else there. The hotel parking lot was not that crowded and only three other people eventually showed up while I was eating. I was on the road by about 8:15AM.
Central Missouri is not unlike Ohio, rolling farm land that was beginning to turn green as spring was arriving. It looks like the number one farm product there is beef cattle, as I saw thousands of them in fields in both Oklahoma and Missouri. I proceeded northeast across Missouri and crossed the Mississippi River at Hannibal, MO, the birthplace and boyhood home of Mark Twain.
After a couple of more hours, I arrived in Macomb, IL. My brother Tim, his wife Shannon and I went to a bar restaurant on the central square in Macomb. We had a nice dinner and discussed how the Covid-19 situation was affecting the country and our families. It bothered me a little bit that the restaurant was very crowded, but it appeared to be the only business still open in central Macomb. After dinner, we went back to my motel and talked some more before they left. The only person I saw at this motel while I was there was the front desk clerk who checked me in and the one who checked me out. There were only four cars in the parking lot when we went back there after dinner.
Macomb is the site of Western Illinois University, and it had closed earlier that week. There was a surreal aspect to my evening and next morning there as I saw very few people out and about. After getting breakfast in a bag at the hotel, I hit the road at about 8:15AM. It rained steadily at times for the first two hours of the trip, but the rain eventually stopped by the time I crossed into Indiana. As I drove through Indianapolis, the traffic seemed very light for a Monday. After another five hours on the road, I arrived home in Stow, Ohio.
It was a long four days that had a bizarre feeling because of the impending health crisis and the way it seemed to be affecting travelers. For the most part, traffic seemed lighter than I would have expected and the motels I stayed in were virtually deserted, except for Friday night in Santa Rosa, NM.
These are indeed strange times and, although it was tiring and costly to drive home, I’m glad I cut my Las Vegas vacation short. In times of trouble, it’s much better to be home.
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