Dash from Dallas

Coronoavirus news from around the world was rapidly worsening, borders closing and advice changing by the hour.

17^th March – At about 1pm local time, I hear that the Australian government declares entire world “do NOT travel” (this has major implications for my travel insurance and therefore our plans). Realise that very soon we are probably going to be faced with being forced to return to Oz if we stay any longer in the USA.

Contact RV company who tell me we can either drive to Orlando and drop RV off early at no additional cost (that’s likely to take about 5 days), or drop it in Dallas and be charged approx. US$2,000 for not returning it to NY. Spent the night trying to contact Travel Insurer, RV rental company etc. (As of 26^th March – still waiting for my call back or ANY contact from Travel Insurance co). Had to decide whether we continue driving across the US as planned (still meant to have another 40+ days) but already places are going into lock-down, we can’t see or do anything in the US anyway, or hot-foot it to Orlando, or drive to Dallas to fly to England where the borders are still open. 1am and I don’t know whether travel insurance is still covering us or not and expecting England to close their borders any second (given they are now the only country with their borders still open) – realized if I’m planning on flying out of the US in 2 days, I probably need to book flights now. Decision made.

18^th March – Bid Julia a rushed farewell, give her all our groceries and drive 8 hours to Dallas, checking news reports regularly, hoping that Boris doesn’t announce border closure before we can get there.  Fortunately mostly an uneventful day until about 10 mins from destination. Then the usual nightmare of navigation.

At Comfort Inn near airport – from comments from the owner, have reason to believe that either the RV may be gone by morning or at least the contents may be (we were too tired to face unpacking RV tonight).

19^th March – Fortunately both RV and contents still in there in the morning. Spent a few hours cleaning the RV and moving everything out of RV cupboards into suitcases. Then spent the rest of the afternoon repacking suitcases, watching news updates – in particular England. Packed my precious toilet rolls (didn’t give those to Julia! 😊)

6pm – “Tornado Watch” for Dallas. FFS!!! Can we get a break please??? Oh and also possible flash flooding for the next two days. Seriously starting to lose my sense of humour by this point.

20^th March – RV survived a second night in the carpark, managed to drive to RV rental return without any flooding issues and got ourselves to the airport really early in anticipation of testing, screening, queues etc.

How wrong that was – by the looks of things ALL but one terminal of DFW airport closed and that one – barely a soul in site. All shops and restaurants closed or only serving take-out however, not a hand sanitizer dispenser in sight. Quickest check-in ever and very, very relieved when we took off (God Bless Boris – all is forgiven!! 😊).

Mixed emotions leaving the USA, disappointed and upset at having US trip cut short and Canada cancelled completely. Thinking of all the things we are missing out on … but also a huge relief to have another option and getting on the plane. Thankful that we are healthy and this is our biggest “problem”. Excited to be going to England again. Worried whether we have made the right decision or whether we are jumping from the frying pan into the fire … time alone will tell, I suppose.