Background- In March 2020, the pandemic hit. I was on an ice climbing trip in Ouray, CO when the covid started getting more serious. I remember at the beginning of the trip thinking that it was on the edge of being a good idea or not. I'm really glad I went though, as it would be my last trip for a while and was a great experience in general. I lived alone and was already feeling pretty isolated. I oscillate between hating everyone and wanting to get as far away from society as possible and craving social interaction. I call this the kevin cycle:
Crave Social Interaction --> Reach out to people
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| Reward of minimal interaction
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Retreat inward >---------- Realize how far I am from what
I want and what is normal for others
In the summer my Dad proposed that we adapt our traditional summer trip to our cottage on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay into a road trip to avoid flying during the pandemic. I was stir crazy at this point and it seemed like a good idea. There were a few logistics to figure out like what to do with my sickly cat, Truman, but it was all doable.
We originally planned to camp to minimize contact with people, but my family decided to use hotels and AirBnBs.