American Road trip during Covid crisis

The Black Flag Cafe is the place travelers come to share stories and advice. Moderated by Robert Young Pelton the author of The World's Most Dangerous Places.

Moderator: coldharvest

American Road trip during Covid crisis

Postby babihutan » Sat Jun 06, 2020 4:18 pm

Hey fellow flaggers, I am scheduled to cross the border from Canada into the States for Lyme treatment in a couple weeks and I know the border is shut down for non essentials, but this is medical so would be deemed essential.

I know Canadians are scared shitless of the States right now and even returning Canadians need to be self quarantined for 14 days upon arrival. Since many of you are in the US, just wondering if anyone knows the status of whether there is any sort of quarantine issues on your side of the border and whether travel in general is pretty free between states. We will be going to Tennessee driving through several states to and from. will have the fam with me and don’t plan on attending any George Floyd death protests, or Liberty marches holding hands with 1000s of Trump’s people in the town square.

The virus doesn’t worry me, but the wife is convinced that the virus has reached most people’s brain which would explain the increasingly bizarre Behaviour of people as shown on the 6 o’clock news. I tell her no honey....this is just another day in America! Business as usual.

Appreciate any info on travel status. Oh yeah and we wanna drive home the long way and maybe check out the mountains of North Carolina, West Virginia, Appalachia country. Any cool places to check out in that area?
babihutan
BFCus Regularus
 
Posts: 450
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 5:07 pm
Location: Canada

Re: American Road trip during Covid crisis

Postby Kurt » Sat Jun 06, 2020 8:32 pm

Why aren't you scared of the virus?

For a while here the dead were forming dripping puddles of people juice outside of U-Haul trucks and I would smell rotting corpses in the wind. If I was coming from a place that had a sane response to COVID-19 I would actually be afraid to enter crazy-land.

There are some dumb people here and their ideas hold sway in many areas. The dumb people are armed and afraid and they might not understand things like "Canada" or "Germ Theory of Disease" ...but in Appalachia I have always enjoyed the Cumberland Pass area along I-68 and Ashville North Carolina.
User avatar
Kurt
In Manus Manus
 
Posts: 21998
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2004 6:29 am
Location: New York City

Re: American Road trip during Covid crisis

Postby babihutan » Sat Jun 06, 2020 10:51 pm

Thanks for the info Kurt, I’ve always loved Adirondacks of upstate New York and White Mountains of New Hampshire, but never really got to see the real Appalachia country further south.

I don’t mean to discredit the virus, I know it’s real as I’m quite certain I already got it a couple months ago along with the family (it makes you appreciate how beautiful a thing being able to breathe is). What scares me more than the virus is the implications an epidemic can have on people if imposed by the government such as being stranded, or denied access etc. Funny enough even before the virus hit I had already turned down 3 potential trips overseas, and now in the state we’re in, if it weren’t for medical reasons, I honestly wouldn’t even leave my province and just lay low.

I’ve been fortunate and able to work and stay very busy through the whole shutdown, been exposed to everything on a daily basis, and I guess from my point of view, the best I thought for society was to keep the sick and the elderly as safe and unexposed as possible while maintaining enough business as usual work while at the same time just being smart and safe about distancing and hygiene. That has been my personal take on this, but I imagine for you in NYC it would be a completely different reality as you described!! Those were some crazy times.
babihutan
BFCus Regularus
 
Posts: 450
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 5:07 pm
Location: Canada

Re: American Road trip during Covid crisis

Postby MJK » Sat Jun 06, 2020 11:41 pm

You'll be fine outside the cities until you get to Memphis or Knoxville or wherever your treatment is scheduled. The Interstate Highways are OK until they pass thru a city. In the country folks are behaving like they always have. Off the Interstate system the U.S. highway system can be a real pleasure, taking more time but running from small town to small town. Looks like Mammoth Caves Park in Kentucky is open to some degree; that's a pretty unique place. Great Smoky NP is good too and also open 'somewhat'. Both Kentucky and Tennessee are beautiful. Small town cafes can be a real treat. That's how I discovered pickle soup.

Don't know where in Canada you are coming from but try not to go thru Illinois; that state is beyond broke and the Highway Patrol there have made a cottage industry of pulling over out of staters, looking to confiscate money and goods.
User avatar
MJK
BFCus Regularus
 
Posts: 1445
Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2004 2:59 am
Location: Fairbanks

Re: American Road trip during Covid crisis

Postby Kurt » Sun Jun 07, 2020 12:01 am

MJK wrote:You'll be fine outside the cities until you get to Memphis or Knoxville or wherever your treatment is scheduled. The Interstate Highways are OK until they pass thru a city. In the country folks are behaving like they always have. Off the Interstate system the U.S. highway system can be a real pleasure, taking more time but running from small town to small town. Looks like Mammoth Caves Park in Kentucky is open to some degree; that's a pretty unique place. Great Smoky NP is good too and also open 'somewhat'. Both Kentucky and Tennessee are beautiful. Small town cafes can be a real treat. That's how I discovered pickle soup.

Don't know where in Canada you are coming from but try not to go thru Illinois; that state is beyond broke and the Highway Patrol there have made a cottage industry of pulling over out of staters, looking to confiscate money and goods.


I never encountered that in Illinois EXCEPT East St. Louis. I encountered exactly that and multiple times. 25mph means that exactly there as that is how they fill their city coffers.

In Chicago they used to have weird "No Turn On Red" laws that kept esoteric hours so it was very easy for a non-native to get pulled over (like in NYC there is no right turn on red ever...and only a few small signs warning of this as one enters the city. )

But unless he is coming from Thunder Bay or Winnipeg or points west of there I do not think passing through Illinois would be an option.
User avatar
Kurt
In Manus Manus
 
Posts: 21998
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2004 6:29 am
Location: New York City

Re: American Road trip during Covid crisis

Postby Mr.PocketsOfSteel » Sun Jun 07, 2020 12:20 am

Don't know where in Canada you are coming from but try not to go thru Illinois; that state is beyond broke and the Highway Patrol there have made a cottage industry of pulling over out of staters, looking to confiscate money and goods.
User avatar
MJK
BFCus Regularus

Posts: 1372
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2004 9:59 pm
Location: Fairbanks


"Due to Civil Unrest" my UPS package from Filson is stuck in Hodgkins, Illinois. Bastards!!
Mr.PocketsOfSteel
 
Posts: 27
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2012 8:50 pm

Re: American Road trip during Covid crisis

Postby MJK » Sun Jun 07, 2020 7:33 am

Two years ago I went across southern Illinois on my way to Pennsylvania and every 10 minutes I went by a van load of Hispanics having their rigs searched as they stood around with multiple State Patrol units on scene. Must have seen 5 in 70 miles. Then a car in front of me was doing 48 mph and I got wedged behind him as a young trooper spent a good 5 minutes on my 8 o'clock, running my Alaska plates. That was on Interstate 64; I understand I-54 and I-57 are the cash cows that pay the bills with confiscation money. Born inChicago and plan to never return for any reason.
User avatar
MJK
BFCus Regularus
 
Posts: 1445
Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2004 2:59 am
Location: Fairbanks

Re: American Road trip during Covid crisis

Postby babihutan » Sun Jun 07, 2020 1:43 pm

MJK wrote:You'll be fine outside the cities until you get to Memphis or Knoxville or wherever your treatment is scheduled. The Interstate Highways are OK until they pass thru a city. In the country folks are behaving like they always have. Off the Interstate system the U.S. highway system can be a real pleasure, taking more time but running from small town to small town. Looks like Mammoth Caves Park in Kentucky is open to some degree; that's a pretty unique place. Great Smoky NP is good too and also open 'somewhat'. Both Kentucky and Tennessee are beautiful. Small town cafes can be a real treat. That's how I discovered pickle soup.

Don't know where in Canada you are coming from but try not to go thru Illinois; that state is beyond broke and the Highway Patrol there have made a cottage industry of pulling over out of staters, looking to confiscate money and goods.


I’m coming from southern Ontario so will be good going through Ohio, Kentucky then Tennessee. Then on way home, hopefully hit the longer eastern route through West Virginia. That’s a wild story about Illinois, crazy how quickly the US can descend in places to levels seen in Colombia in the 90’s. And I feel it’s only the beginning!

I drive a lot up here never with any issues, but funny enough driving in the States I often get pulled over for trivial reasons or find myself on the receiving end of female road rage!?!? To this day I’m banned from driving in Massachusetts over one speeding ticket from 2006.

One of the best drives I ever did was the highway weaving back and forth between northern Arizona and southern Utah, fucken gorgeous!

Thanks for the suggestions, we’ll see what sort of adventure awaits....
babihutan
BFCus Regularus
 
Posts: 450
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 5:07 pm
Location: Canada

Re: American Road trip during Covid crisis

Postby MJK » Sun Jun 07, 2020 9:21 pm

Babihutan- A few years back I left Missouri headed to McKenzie Tenn to interview some folks. I set up my Garmin nav system to keep me off the Interstates; it took me from winding 2 lane highways into a herringbone maze of cornfields and then announced, "Board ferry in 1.6 miles..." Perplexed, I motored on for 1.6 miles and there the road went right into a river, with a stop sign at the water's edge. No facilities, just a stop sign. I was out of the car with a Rand McNally spread across the hood, wishing I had spent more on the next model up Garmin when a horn blew and the Dorena-Hickman ferry pulled in. It held 3-4 cars or one tractor-trailer rig. I think it was $12 one way and if you keep the ticket a return trip the other way was half price, with no expiration date. The river was the Mississippi. It is probably too far west for your convenience but if you have young kids they might get a kick out of it.

Since then I have been both pleasantly surprised and somewhat inconvenienced by that Garmin(you have to keep it updated)but always let it keep me off the soulless Interstates when traveling in the Lower 48. However you go, have a good trip and best of luck with your treatment.
User avatar
MJK
BFCus Regularus
 
Posts: 1445
Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2004 2:59 am
Location: Fairbanks

Re: American Road trip during Covid crisis

Postby babihutan » Mon Jun 08, 2020 12:40 am

MJK - Thank you fine sir!

You definitely have the right idea of a road trip! My wife is pretty much the opposite of me and is always convinced the worst case scenario is the most certain to happen!! That type of trip you described would convince her she’s part of Wrong Turn and would lose her shit. Me and our young kids would most likely find humour in her stress and be digging the adventure thoroughly but then when the fun is over it would most likely backfire and result in a big I Owe Her Big Time such as committing to watching Little Women instead of Above The Law or sacrificing a weekend of camping for strolling the quaint arts and crafts shops of touristville.

Yeah GPS systems can be real fucked, I agree it’s needed to have a reliable and updated one. I love maps personally and have rarely been steered wrong but finding a competent navigator by map in this day and age is asking a lot!
babihutan
BFCus Regularus
 
Posts: 450
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 5:07 pm
Location: Canada

Re: American Road trip during Covid crisis

Postby Devlin » Wed Jun 10, 2020 2:49 pm

Canada must feel like it is living in an apartment above a meth lab that is on fire.

USA USA USA
User avatar
Devlin
BFCus Regularus
 
Posts: 1437
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2008 5:48 am

Re: American Road trip during Covid crisis

Postby Kurt » Wed Jun 10, 2020 4:43 pm

Devlin wrote:Canada must feel like it is living in an apartment above a meth lab that is on fire.

USA USA USA


Heh! That is brilliant.
User avatar
Kurt
In Manus Manus
 
Posts: 21998
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2004 6:29 am
Location: New York City

Re: American Road trip during Covid crisis

Postby babihutan » Wed Jun 10, 2020 11:44 pm

Devlin wrote:Canada must feel like it is living in an apartment above a meth lab that is on fire.

USA USA USA


LOL awesome!

Canada is so tied to the US likely more than any other country is to another. So similar, but some of the differences are so pronounced. Like the people Kurt mentioned earlier in this thread, the US has a certain segment of the population you really can’t find anywhere other than in the grand ol USA! Canada has a lot of good going for it, but the US of A will always be much more colourful!

I had a buddy who had never left Canada until his twenties. He went to the US for a few TSOL shows, traveled around a bit and I asked him when he came back how he liked it......his response was ‘our worst white trash here is the average American’. I died laughing but all I can say is the US has many more extremes of all types, both good and bad.
babihutan
BFCus Regularus
 
Posts: 450
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 5:07 pm
Location: Canada

Re: American Road trip during Covid crisis

Postby ReptilianKittenEater » Thu Jun 11, 2020 2:44 am

Devlin wrote:Canada must feel like it is living in an apartment above a meth lab that is on fire.

USA USA USA


I have friends that live across the border in suburban Buffalo and I am amazed that people there sometimes don't lock their doors.
User avatar
ReptilianKittenEater
BFCus Regularus
 
Posts: 3121
Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2004 3:18 am
Location: St. Catharines, ON, Canada

Re: American Road trip during Covid crisis

Postby Bronco » Fri Jun 12, 2020 9:16 pm

Your route through Kentucky and Tennessee could be set up to visit the various Whiskey bottelers along the way. Several of them have tasting rooms.
"I used to care, but things have changed"
Bob Dylan
User avatar
Bronco
Old Man On The Mountain
 
Posts: 2354
Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2004 5:05 am
Location: Just Passin' Through..

Next

Return to Black Flag Cafe

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 19 guests

cron