We are Americans. We hold US Passports. In mid 2020 US Passports are pretty well worthless. For a few weeks to months, Wifey has been contemplating and discussing a domestic trip this year and casually googling United States Top Tourist Destinations and then making mental "nopes" on all the urban options ... New York City is amazing, but not till there's a vaccine. Etc.
Monday, September 7, 2020 - Evening hours - Hubby reviews upcoming deadlines and identifies a window of time in which we can take some soon expiring PTO. Wifey begins research in ernest, contemplating a 9/9 departure date for a while. We go to bed with a plan to contact our real estate agent etc and confirm we can sign for an upcoming house sale early.
Tuesday, September 8, 2020 - We speak with our agent and title company staff and plan for an early execution. Plane tickets purchased for a September 11 departure during Wifey's lunch break. A rental car is booked during Wifey's lunch break. The rental car is canceled. The rental car is re-booked, this time using points not money. Hubby and Wifey are under the impression that all hotels are booked today as well. We are able to use a hotels.com GC for part of one stay, some AirBNB credit from our canceled Passion Play trip for another, and Hilton points for two nights (including one at an Embassy Suites)! We'll be staying in 6 different places in 6 different towns, the furtherest of which are 380 miles apart. At 1:00 pm we confirm a dog-sitter for our time away. We look for tours of our destination .... they're all booked or canceled due to COVID-19.
Also today, we find out the buyers of our first home would like possession tomorrow (they're paying us for the early access by day, so why not?!) ... so we go ahead and move our remaining belongings out. Cause what else is on our to-do list anyway?
Wednesday, September 9, 2020 - Pre-packing commenced in earnest (ya know the selecting and folding and piling up of clothes stage?!).
In updating our trip spreadsheet, Wifey cannot locate confirmation numbers for two of our hotels. After research, these were never booked. Two final hotels booked. We continue to look for tours of our destination .... they're all booked or canceled due to COVID-19. Wifey researches the cost of accessing each park we'll be visiting and decides we need to buy an annual national park pass. She also decides to do that once we arrive instead of near home since its effective immediately. She will later regret this decision. We go to our local mall to pick up a chair we bought Monday afternoon. It doesn't fit into our car. Wifey wears alternating pairs of boots around the house trying to sort out which are more comfortable.
Thursday, September 10, 2020 - 7:00 am - we check into our flights and find we're upgraded to First Class! Woo Hoo! Wifey notices her boarding pass doesn't show Trusted Traveler Status, and begins tweeting DMs to and calling AA. Turns out her birthday is off by about 20 years causing the snafu. It is resolved by the awesome social media team for AA. Seriously, AA's twitter help is way better than their phone-in help. Our friend Vance saves the day by assisting Hubby with the failed chair pickup from yesterday. He's our hero. Later in the day, we sign paperwork, selling our first home, to be finalized next week. Packing continues, as does re-packing. Somehow Wifey can pack us both for 3 weeks in Europe in two carry-on suitcases, but is struggling to keep this trip in 2 carryons and one checked!
We continue to look for tours of our destination .... they're all booked or canceled due to COVID-19. We give up on a float trip tour and re-pack; removing the water-shoes and towels.
Friday, September 11, 2020, 4:00 am - We depart our home for the airport.
