Regular readers have probably picked up on my mentions of having no travel plans this year. Knowing that I had a new addition to the family on the way (and with some family members in higher risk groups), I’ve wanted to err on the side of caution when possible. It was just a stroke of luck that I didn’t have any travel plans on the docket this year and didn’t have to make any big cancellations.
In recent months, there is no doubt that my household as a whole has been getting itchy feet to some extent (just going to Cumberland Farms to get Gift of College Gift Cards was a big outing for us). With the holidays approaching, we’re considering how to safely spend time with our families (none of my family has yet had a chance to meet our new son given that we’ve all wanted to reduce his risk). However, we may travel to spend Thanksgiving with my parents, who have been at home apart from necessary trips to the grocery store given their own risk factors. What we haven’t yet determined is how we’ll get there as they live about 14 hours away from us by car. From the outset, we were fairly sure that we would drive. However, a month with a toddler and newborn has had us consider whether a flight may be easier.
Despite the relative ease of a flight by comparison, we came to the conclusion that driving made more sense for us from a number of standpoints. However, one standpoint I hadn’t considered was quarantine enforcement on return.
Becky at Sight Doing reports on her recent return to New York State after having visited a state deemed to be a high risk and frankly enforcement is more intense than I’d have anticipated. To be clear, I support that: we’ve been spending time at home both to minimize risk to our family and in the hopes that we’re doing our part to slow transmission so that we can all get back a sense of normalcy sooner. Regardless, wherever you stand on travel restrictions and quarantine enforcement, I found Becky’s post to be very enlightening in terms of what to expect if returning to New York State by air.
And that’s not to say that we wouldn’t quarantine ourselves at home if we traveled by car. We surely would, though if traveling by car I suppose that we likely will not be subject to reporting our temperatures daily and explaining how we’re acquiring groceries and medicine. It’s not that I’d be afraid that I wouldn’t be able to answer for all of that satisfactorily but rather that I’d rather not deal with the added disruption of daily and random reporting.
Again, as a New York State resident, I found Becky’s post an interesting read as I haven’t had any direct experience with air travel recently and wasn’t aware of how this was being handled. Click here to read about her experience.
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I appreciate you taking reasonable steps to ensure you a d others are safe. Driving definitely makes more sense as there is no practical way to check every road into the state. FL did have checkpoints on I-95 and I-10 but not on secondary roads.
Here is an alternative for you. Find an airport in another state that doesn’t have as aggressive monitoring as NY, drive there to fly to your destination and then drive back into NY on secondary roads. Seems that is a compromise that would work
It’s unreal that American’s are letting this happen.
This will go down as a black mark on our country for all of history.
We have seen the Independent nature of our country crack – in 6 months.
Completely ruined and gone. And, yeah, I don’t think it will ever come back.
Saddest year in the 200+ year history of the US.
The year that the citizens gave up and said ‘put us in chains, please’
I can think of a few sadder years
If I lived in Syracuse, I’d be much more afraid of being around someone coming back from a trip to Philadelphia where they went out to bars and entertainment venues than someone coming back from a solo hiking trip in West Virginia. Behavioral risk seems to be much more strongly associated with infection than the location of one’s residence. The rationale for imposing quarantine requirements with no exceptions for those who test negative on the sole basis of whether a state goes from 69 to 70 cases per 100k needs to be better explained to all Americans.
If you decide that you can’t stand it any longer and need to get out, there are some good points alternatives that are not subject to quarantine restrictions. During August and September, we stayed in the Hamptons at the Topping Rose House (SLH–Hyatt points), in the Adirondacks at the Mirror Lake Inn (SLH–Hyatt points), in Portland, Maine at the Hyatt Place (cat 1-4 certificates) and at the Madison Bay Hotel in Connecticut (Hilton free night certificate). We felt safe at all of them, and we try to be very careful. None of these places will subject you to quarantine upon your return. Glad to see you back!
As a NY resident, I was required to fill out the paperwork upon my return from SC by air about a month ago. I thought it was a joke and was surprised to get a call a couple days later. For the next two weeks I received the text asking me about symptoms. Coming into NY by car there is no such enforcement, but you are required to fill out the paperwork online and follow the same quarantine rules. I find it interesting as I believe NY (or at least parts of NY) now meets their own quarantine threshold. So theoretically everyone in NY should be quarantined.
Read Becky’s story. Totally creepy. I know a lot of people have bought into this hysteria, but come one. How close to a dystopian novel do you have to get before people say enough. In Australia they are standing guard at the entrance doors of apartment buildings preventing people from leaving. Police going into homes to remove family members who test positive is also happening. How compliant and sheepish we have become. Last I checked 99.8% of people under 70 recover fine. 95.6% over 70 survival rate. These restrictions are clearly about something much more sinister. Do you research…stop listening to the media. Wake up and fight back before too late.
Mark – think of someone other than yourself. You may not be over 70 but lots of people are.
Totally agree with you Mark. Unfortunately we are the silent majority. I encourage everyone to get a grip and look at things with their own, instead of being fed a garbage narrative. D
New York may seem aggressive for America, but these measures are pretty weak when compared to what the majority of Asian and European countries (plus Australia I guess) have had in place since February. Then look at case counts around the world today, as well as lifestyle differences (much of Asia have been virtually virus free and resumed all domestic activities).
I get your point that illness and death are an inevitable part of life. It’s been true throughout history. It’s just that as our societies advance and technologies develop, we expect more and more control over mortality. Some troll will always remind us that it wasn’t that long ago when life expectancy was barely 30 years, but I personally prefer to side with the developed world where we take everyone’s health and hygiene seriously.