Not sure about the gloves

Road trip!

With Dr. Henry saying stage 3 is now upon us, we decided to take do a small, socially distanced, and entirely local vacation. We went to see The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World’s parents (and the Cutest-Baby-in-the-World.)

Before that, though, what’s happening in the rest of the world.

(HERE) The Germans are bailing out their airline, Lufthansa, which is not a cheap thing to do, and I’m not even sure where their planes can fly to at the moment, but it stops the company from going down in flames. To all those looking for refunds, I feel for you, but the reality is, the airlines are broke. It’s like asking your two-year-old to pay the mortgage, they’ll just giggle, smile, and poop in their pants.

In Thailand, gangs of monkeys have taken over the city of Lopburi. Now, this is something you can’t make up, but since they stopped getting bananas from tourists, the locals, in fear for their lives, gave them twinkies and stuff, but now the monkeys are hopped up on sugar like angry 12-year-olds playing Call of Duty and have gone all Planet of the Apes. Seriously. (HERE)  They have made a theater their HQ, they go around spray painting things, and hunt in gangs looking for fizzy drinks and sex, not unlike me when I was 17.

In BC, “The new phase allows for non-essential travel within the province and for hotels, resorts, RV parks and other accommodations to resume operating, as well as some overnight camping.” I note they do not mention anything about monkeys out of fear of a monkey take-over.

It’s good to see us easing up a bit more as the majority of people are doing their best to stop this pandemic. Still, that majority is sliding every day, so we made our choice to go on a non-essential trip (though I would argue going to see your mom and get a hug is pretty essential – ask the monkeys).

The weather was brilliant as we drove over the Coquihalla. We had packed the car full of water, food, and a giant container of wipes like we expected to wipe down all of BC. When we stopped for food, we went through a drive-thru and ate at a concrete table in the windy town of Merrit.

The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World drove the whole way, we had a ‘family mix’ of music on Spotify, and The-Youngest ate almost our entire stash of snacks (and still ate a full meal at the DQ drive-thru in Merrit). Having someone else happily drive allowed me to see the scenery for a change, as when we slowed in traffic, I could look at all the other drivers beside us and judge them.

It’s a good sport, being all judgie, and it may become my new favourite. I mean, I can do it while social distancing, so that’s a plus, and it’s something I can do while sitting down so you know it’s sustainable.

In a way I used to do it before the pandemic, sitting in a café, quietly listening to a first date or someone explain why they thought the world was flat or that CNN is still a good news organization. But now, while I can’t always hear what’s going on, I can roll my eyes at someone picking their nose in the car or chuckle as a middle-aged mom rocks out in her car to Grease.

There’s some solid gold entertainment to be had if you just look.

But for the whole journey, I won’t lie, we were a little anxious.

We made sure we cleaned our hands right after getting more gas. We made sure we touched as little as possible (which for The-Youngest is like asking a politician not to cut other people’s salaries before they take a pay cut themselves.) And we made sure that even when we got to the hotel, we cleaned it like we were having the queen over.

Meal in Merrit

All I can say for sure is that we’ll do our best – as we have done since day one – because the reward is worth the mitigated risk – Family time.

Until tomorrow, stay safe, stay healthy, and respect the new world.