August 2020 - to travel or not to travel?
Here we are, six months into COVID 19. I was certainly optimistic that things might be better by now, but I was wrong. It looks likely thhat the US-Canadian border won’t reopen until well into next year, maybe not until next summer. I miss Canada. I’ve come back around to the question that I frequently ask myself:
WHY TRAVEL?
I’ve never been one to go anywhere because someone had told me “you HAVE to go there!” I will ask, if that’s presented to me “why should I go there?” There might be a compelling answer, in which case I’ll consider it. It is rarely the reason for me to visit a place. No, I have a long list, at 66 years of age, too long for this go-around, and that’s OK. That may sounds morose, but it provides focus - what do I really want to see, do, experience?
This summer for the first time, I’m semi-retired. I am still working as a church organist and music director, which poses some unique challenges right now. It’s the first summer in quite a long time that I’ve really been able to experience the coast of Maine in a more relaxed way. So many people - even this year - come here for their vacations, and I’m already here. In many ways, it’s a special opportunity. I still avoid the more crowded places, but I do that every summer. There is the added concern about people who refuse to wear masks or to quarantine. I don’t spend as much time on Mt. Desert Island and I shop in Ellsworth as little as possible, because it’s just too crowded.
Most of the time, to shop and to explore, I head Downeast, where there are fewer people and case rates are lower. I should say that I always wear a mask in public, practice distancing as much as possible and wash my hands diligently. I’ve been social distancing since March 13, the last day we were in school.
I’ve been to Portland exactly once, for fifteen minutes to pick up something I needed right away. It was scary. I did stop for frozen custard in Freeport, which was womderful, and for a couple of hot dogs at Wasse’s in Belfast.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking “maybe I can go somewhere relatively safe.” I’m back to asking “why travel?” Can I do the things I would ordinarily do, see the things I’d usually see, stay the places I’d usually stay and still feel safe? Are those places open? Are they practicing safety measures? The answer to these questions is often “No.”
I love to eat in restaurants, diners, roadhouses. I haven’t been in a restaurant since probably February. I do takeout, and it’s OK. Picnics are lovely. Drive-in places are fine. I miss sitting down for a nice meal, surrounded by other people enjoying their meals.I miss dinners at home with family and friends, too. I miss people, don’t you?
I’ve taken a few short day trips, mostly Downeast. I took one overnight staycation at the lovely Coach Stop Inn on MDI, owned by good friends, perfectly safe and a nice little change. They did everything with great care and caution, and it was very comfortable. It was still weird. I’m reluctatn to travel when it feels weird in this way.
I expect, actually want, travel to challenge me, to get me out of my own head, to feel differently, to experience differently. I want my expectations to be challenged. This feels very different but, honestly, not much fun. There’s a real loss of the spontaniety that makes travel fun.
I can’t go to Canada. I don’t want to go to anyplace that’s too crowded, that has too many active cases and certainly nowhere that has community spread. This makes the options very limited, mostly to more remote locations.
In his memoir “Off To The Side,” Jim Harrison talks about this exact thing:
“Escape, pure and simple…now I intended to search for new and better and bigger thickets. Gradually my definition of thickets came to include distant, anonymous motels in remote towns and cities. In actual thickets there is ideally a stump to sit on and enough brambles so that you may frame the surrounding landscape in the apertures formed by branches.”
I’m looking for actual thickets but also metaphorical ones, places that are fairly nondescript and would provide an opportunity to see through a different aperture than the ones that are familiar. Right now, this feels like a number of fairly remote places in Maine. We still have quite a few. I think I’ll look for some over the next month. I will report back, but I won’t be very specific. You’ll need to find your own thickets.
The next couple of exercises will be to get out in nature, fishing, hiking, kayaking and maybe camping in September when it should be cooler. We’ve had an unusually hot summer here on the coast of Maine. Autumn in Maine is wounderful, and I intedn to enjoy it fully. Travel to Vermont or maybe even the Adirondacks might be possible.
Winter? I don’t know. Stay home, hopefully do some skiing,and snowshoeing, maybe even ice fishing.
Much, much later, when it becomes possible, I’ll go to Canada. Atlantic Canada first, and when it feels safer, back to my beloved Quebec. Yes, I’m daydreaming about that. It will be wonderful.
Where are you dreaming about?
