8 positive results of travel during Covid

I am so over Covid – figuratively, of course, along with everyone else, but also literally. After two years of Purelling and vaxxing, isolating and darting about town like masked avengers, I watched the display on a rapid test turn quickly to the double-line status that marks a positive result.

On the plus side, there was no plus sign. Even worse than getting Covid would have been getting pregnant!

But still, I was incredulous. The results didn’t truly sink in until the next day. We had flown from Kelowna, B.C. to Ottawa for a funeral – the only time we’ve been on a plane in two years – and both Bill and I managed to pick up the pernicious virus.

On the one hand I was ticked off – after so long being careful, changing our plans and changing them again to remain safe, curtailing my wanderlust rather than exploring the world according to our retirement plan, I got Covid anyhow. What was the point of hunkering down for so long? On the other hand, I was relieved that, because we were triple vaxxed, our symptoms were mild, more like a bad cold.

But of all my mixed emotions about getting Covid, the overriding one was guilt. We had brought the pestilence into the home of family members, forcing them to work from home. And then our guilt escalated when we discovered we’d passed along Covid to a loved one.

As we holed up in their basement (with a lovely guest room and bathroom) with our N-95 masks and Lysol wipes and Purell, I tried to focus on the good that has come from travel during Covid.  

Yes, despite all the travails, there have been some positive results from our travels during Covid.

1. We explored more of our own country. We had taken early retirement to travel the world, but Covid brought us back to Canada (two years ago this week) after just six months on the road. We explored our hometown – Ottawa – and when it was safer to do so, we set off in August 2020 to see the West. We meandered through northern Ontario, crossed Manitoba swiftly since we couldn’t stop there without isolating, poked around Saskatchewan and Alberta, then settled down in British Columbia, in the small town of Osoyoos, for the winter. And then another winter. Along with discovering gorgeous sights and eye-opening places, we learned about provincial differences, including the health-care systems, driving conditions, composting (limited in areas where grizzly bears are close to hand) and milk jugs (no bagged milk in B.C.!). We also noted differing provincial attitudes towards Covid, masks, and vaccine passports. Alberta is definitely the wild west, with much more cavalier attitudes towards public health and safety than B.C. or Ontario. During our Ontario summers, we saw southwestern Ontario and fulfilled a long-held dream to canoe the entire Rideau Canal from Kingston to Ottawa. We wouldn’t have done any of this if Covid hadn’t intervened.
2. We discovered a safer way to travel during a pandemic – in a camper van. We bought an empty cargo van and converted it into our trusty camper van, named Vandalf. We were fully self-contained, with a fridge, toilet, gas stove, water, battery power, solar panel, and solar shower. We needed to stop just for gas and groceries, which meant we could keep our distance from people. No need for hotels or even campgrounds. We learned the art of boondocking – camping for free on Crown land, Walmart parking lots, B.C. Recreation Sites, municipal parks, trailheads, boat launches and more.   

3. We found that places that are open tended to be less crowded. I initially thought we’d have to avoid museums (which I love), but discovered they were nearly always devoid of people. Many required booking a specific time to visit, which also limited numbers. We became selective about the places we decided to visit. Any potential crowds sent us fleeing. Is that a positive effect of Covid? It is when you hate crowds anyhow! Instead, we’ve focused mostly on national and provincial parks, hiking and cycling on trails, and just generally spending more time surrounded by nature.  
4. We became more appreciative of people who work in the travel industry. These people have had a tough time, so we made a point of being good guests in their places of work, following every Covid rule. On a personal level, we heard horror stories of demanding ignoramuses with bad attitudes from our daughter Rachel, who works in Canmore’s outdoor recreation industry, and our daughter-in-law-to-be Crystal, who works in a large Toronto hotel.
5. We saw more of our family. Our son, Tom, has lived in Alberta and B.C. for nearly 10 years and we hadn’t seen him or his fiancée, Tasha, very much until we decided to spend this winter and last in Osoyoos, B.C. Covid meant more time spent with them as well as Rachel. Last summer, I shared more time with my mother than I have since I left home for university.

6. During Covid, we pondered travel itself and realized:
   • We must consider the ethics of travel. When is it safe to resume traveling? Is a place ready to receive visitors? How many people there have been vaccinated? If I got sick there, would I be over-burdening its health-care system? I realized that everyone has a different comfort level with the answers to these questions. I found myself feeling resentful and even jealous of those who resumed international travel before we have, even though I knew I wasn’t ready for it yet.
   • We’re more aware of overtourism. We read about locals enjoying their hometowns with fewer tourists, how national parks and other natural environments have improved with fewer visitors, and how water and air are cleaner. In the future, we will take care to not contribute to overtourism, and will travel in ways that benefit local economies.
   • We underlined our commitment to slow travel. We learned the benefits back in 2002-2003 when we took a year to travel around the world with our three children, then aged 7, 10 and 13. With kids, you can’t travel fast, so we learned, just like during Covid, to find safe, uncrowded places to stay for longer, and get to know those places more in-depth.
   • We understood that travel is a luxury, a privilege. Travellers aren’t included amongst essential workers and travel doesn’t appear on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. However, once those basic needs are met, travel, for me, falls under Maslow’s self-actualization level; it helps me become a better me. “Travel is a luxury – but it is also an investment in the wider world, in communities and ecosystems outside our own,” Steven Overman, author of The Conscience Economy, said in a Condé Nast article. “When conducted with conscience, it can, like all business, become a transformative force for good.”

7. We worked on some positive personal traits: flexibility, patience, adaptability to uncertainty and stress. Anyone who knows me well knows that patience has never been my strong suit. But I have improved by leaps and bounds in the past two years! Travel alone teaches you patience; travel during Covid elevates it to PhD levels. We dealt with high stress getting home to Canada in March 2020, and the stress of getting across provincial borders in May 2021. We deciphered provincial, federal and international pandemic rules and read the fine print of travel medical insurance. We learned to change our plans, then change them again, and again, and then realize plan-making itself was an exercise in dreaming. My new superpower is adaptability – making changes on the fly. “It’s all part of the adventure” is my travel mantra, helping me find the positive when things don’t work out. Is it possible that Covid has improved me, so that travel will be an even better experience for me in the future?
8. Having had Covid was good. Since I was on a positivity roll, I decided to find the good in catching the virus. Now it’s more unlikely – although not impossible – that we’ll get it again. And we also have those PCR tests. With our positive results, we won’t have to have another PCR test to cross the border from the U.S. back into Canada for another six months. Yay! Just in time for that particular Covid rule to be lifted…

We never did get to the funeral – it was postponed until May. But we recovered from Covid, thanked our family profusely for their above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty hospitality, and flew back to B.C. just in time to start packing for our long drive back to Ottawa. We have our daughter Liz’s June wedding to organize!  

Covid has changed travel forever; it will never return to the previous ‘normal.’ Catching Covid on an airplane means I’ll likely always wear a mask when flying and sanitize that tray table and armrest with a Lysol wipe. It’s all part of the adventure.

We visited Ottawa and caught Covid in March 2022. Find out where we are right now by visiting our ‘Where’s Kathryn?’ page.