PJ's travel blog: McMahan Pandemic Adventures

Pandemic Travel

The COVID-19 Pandemic has wreaked havoc on every aspect of our lives. In March 2020, my thriving student transportation business suddenly closed and the prospects of reopening were grim. In late June, Troy’s law firm did cutbacks and he was laid off. We decided to make the most of this crazy time and try to create new memories and experiences for our sons. We figured we can just as easily get COVID in our neighborhood or at Costco, and locking ourselves in our home wasn’t healthy either. We travel with hand sanitizer, wear masks everywhere and physically distance from strangers (especially easy since so few people are travelling). Bottom line, we are extra careful!

Financially: We liquidated the family business and sold most of our fleet of vans. Savings and unemployment also helped us stay afloat.

Cutting corners: Before the pandemic we traveled based on our mantra “the deal dictates the destination.” We usually find pretty great deals and pandemic air travel proved to be quite affordable ($66rt LAX-Orlando, $44rt Tijuana-Cancun, etc.). That principle still applies, however, we have to dance around COVID restrictions. We typically like to avoid travel to locations that require a COVID-19 test to enter and exit. It would be awful to get a false positive and be stuck somewhere. We also use hotel points or find other lodging deals. Packing granola bars, trail mix and a water bottle to refill saves us money. We typically find markets where we travel to buy food and snacks. Dining out can add up so we like to keep restaurant meals to about one a day. Whenever possible, we find local food in local neighborhoods. Always delicious and affordable. Also, we only travel with small carryon bags. It avoids baggage fees and it’s just easier to get around with one piece of tiny luggage per person.

Travel Insurance: When we travel to other countries we always purchase travel health insurance. We do the same now, except we make sure that COVID is included.

Scholastically: We had so little faith that the public schools that we had previously loved, would adequately educate our children during distance learning. So we enrolled our 9th grader in a charter school program that was already established with distance learning. He works on 2 classes at a time and meets with a teacher to check in weekly. It’s been wonderful and they’ve even offered him tutoring which has helped with his dyslexia. He’s also been able to participate in virtual seminary on all of our trips. For our 6th grade son, we decided to homeschool. We incorporate learning wherever we go and he does reports on geography, religion, history and culture before each trip. It’s made learning and traveling so much more fun and interesting. Travel is so educational!

Here’s a quick overview of most of the places we’ve been.

Utah (a handful of times)

Idaho

4 National Parks (Zions, Yellowstone, Arches, Grand Canyon)

Arizona

Orlando

Colonial Virginia

Costa Rica

Turkey

Serbia

Mexico