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The Great Pandemic Escape

July 23, 2022 /

Amazing to Watch…

For two years, almost all of us were stuck in place. We didn’t dare travel like the old days to see family or friends or just get away.

But now, even though the pandemic isn’t really over, most feel safe enough to travel, especially those smart enough to be vaccinated and boosted.

And these last three months for writers have been the time of great forgetting anyway, so for writers, April, May, June, and July have been brutal on writing goals and schedules. Far worse than normal. And I couldn’t figure out why it was so much worse, exactly, until Kris and I started noticing that our local restaurants we love (those away from the Strip and Fremont Street here in Vegas) were dead slow.

And all the employees were commenting on it.

Yet this last week we had an in-person workshop in the Golden Nugget and the hotel and casino was jammed full of tourists. And numbers of other casinos we went to on the Strip were packed, and the news has been doing daily features on the records being set for travelers at the airport and for gambling winnings and so on.

And we finally figured it out. After two years, everyone wanted to travel this summer. And I sure don’t blame them. Seeing family or just getting away after the last two years trapped makes complete sense. And we are a tourist destination, so the Strip and Fremont Street are jammed, while the locals are traveling out camping or going to see family out of the city, leaving local’s restaurants slow.

So I’m calling this The Great Pandemic Escape. Got a hunch it will continue until school starts in most places and then slowly ease.

Just an observation. Got a hunch there will be studies on this coming soon. (grin)

Safe travels, for those of you making The Great Pandemic Escape.

10 Comments

  • Rob Kerns

    July 23, 2022 at 3:18 am

    I must be an outlier, then.

    I’ve written more in the last three weeks than I did the previous three months combined.

    And I’m having all kinds of fun doing it!

    I will confess that I haven’t written what I expected to write… or wanted to write, for that matter. But I haven’t fought it… just followed along behind the Creative Voice, dutifully recording everything like a patient scribe.

  • Mark Kuhn

    July 23, 2022 at 2:56 pm

    Here in New Jersey Covid cases are creeping up again, averaging between 3,000 to 4,000 per day. I have curtailed my bowling, steering clear of crowded places. I will practice during the week when the bowling center is basically empty and always while wearing a mask. I am double vaxxed and double boosted, but losing my brother to Covid last year has me being cautious, some would say too cautious.
    Months ago our governor declared an end to Covid protocols and mandates so people now think it’s all clear. Hospitalizations are climbing slowly as well. Personally I’m doing the best I can, I guess. I realize that if I am exposed I would probably get nothing more than a bad cold. My brother wasn’t vaxxed at all. It’s a shame. I think about him everyday.
    As far as writing goes, everytime I start something the story always takes a turn toward a character losing a brother, so I stop. Nothing I write could possibly bring him back. If it could I would keep writing until I heard his voice on the phone again.
    Be careful out there. Be well. Tell the ones you love how much you do.

  • Kate Pavelle

    July 24, 2022 at 1:14 pm

    Some of the travel going on is out of obligation. I’ve read an article on the flurry of wedding-related travel, and how people deal with it. So many weddings got delayed, everyone’s catching up. Wedding guests are, apparently, getting exhausted both financially and emotionally. The article shared stunning travel schedules (9 weddings in a summer on a limited budget, ouch!), as well as strategies such as not really unpacking the “wedding suitcase.” The situation is yet a different kind of crazy.

  • James Palmer

    July 25, 2022 at 5:26 am

    Here in Georgia, with its oppressive heat and humidity, it’s been too hot to go anywhere, so I’ve been inside, in air conditioning, writing away. I just wrapped up a 180% funded Kickstarter (thank you for backing, BTW) and just finished writing a 30k+ word novella that I am now editing with plans to release next month. I’ve never released anything back to back like this before. This after a long creative dry spell feels pretty good.

  • David Anthony Brown

    July 25, 2022 at 8:49 pm

    Pandemic isn’t over. My elderly parents went on a cruise in Europe recently and came back home… my mother has covid and probably my father as well. Both vaccinated and boosted.

    Be safe if you travel. Just because you’re vaccinated doesn’t mean you can’t get it. But without the vaccine, given my mother’s health conditions she’d be almost certainly dead.