Maybe Give Florida Another Go

One full year has elapsed since Covid-19 altered our customary activities.  Had I not retired when I did, I would have functioned amid the medical fray, finding myself desperately in need of a vacation but limited to mostly a staycation, assuming they allowed their docs some periodic respite.  Even soldiers in modern warfare have some R&R provisions.  As a forced indoor cat, I probably did better than most.  My car counts as isolation, so a daily drive usually to nowhere became the norm.  For a while I went to stores but soon lost interest in being a consumer of anything other than food.  I never liked take-out, preferring a menu with the rituals of a waitress.  There not being many options for this, it became a special occasion, one whose absence became less bothersome as the months proceeded.  I had some destinations.  State Parks allowed fishing.  Two state beaches got visits without the deviants among us expressing their autonomy by endangering the public, as I saw in news reports from elsewhere.  I even ventured onto an airplane for my son's wedding, a much muted venture limited to puttering around my former campus and neighborhoods in St. Louis, eating outdoors twice, but not having the hotel amenities that add to previous short trips.  I also made three modest day trips, one to a Philadelphia's Italian Market, another to Ladew Topiary Gardens with grounds open but mansion closed, and another to a more distant state park while zipping briefly for coffee or pizza in the small town America that barely survives the nearby malls.  I even had a trip planned to the Everglades, but cancelled as the toll of Covid-19 peaked enough to make travel to the that part of Florida beyond prudent risk.  Now we have immunization, or will soon.  We also have places that depend on visitors trying to have their Second Act. Each day an airline or two tries to entice customers with air fares that undercut any other means of traversing that distance.  And Atlantic Florida being overbuilt, overscheduled by competing airlines, and without any need to transport cruise ship passengers, again emerges as an economical destination, though as safety improves, bargains have become more restrictive.

It's a place I never particularly sought out beyond making a trek to Disney World with the kids, something that has become largely obligatory one time, perhaps like the Hajj, for American parents.  My father lived in Boynton Beach for his final two decades, so a few trips worthy of Kavod Av got incorporated, though never truly what I think of as a personal vacation with that required element of escape for fun.  And I've been there in my professional capacity as a physician for two conferences.  It's not really the enticing destination where I would go to let my hair down let alone ride out my closing years like my father and some childhood friends have done, nor seek my adult destiny there, a venture taken by many friends as young adults.  Nobody who has done that seems to move on.  I found it a place where people like being catered to or having their entitlements reinforced, something that almost jeopardizes my pride of independence with the accomplishment that comes from doing as much as I can myself, mostly for myself.  

But a bargain is a bargain.  I have to look at the flights and places to stay.  What would I do if I were there for five days or so, or whatever length of stay qualifies for a discounted flight home?  The Everglades, which I have seen from the window of a small plane on a business related shuttle from Miami to Tampa, should be experienced at ground level.  I have a few friends there though with Covid still active, I don't know how receptive people are to guests.  When FB friends venture there and post photos, they invariably include gatherings of friends maintained over decades, and in far larger numbers, and likely in closeness, than my less gregarious nature has maintained.  There are beaches, but in the likely travel month of June we have wonderful beaches in driving distance. Hotels have outdoor pools there.  We have them indoors, though the outdoor ones are more likely to avoid suspension of activity by the regional health departments.  For parts of the area, there is a stronger Jewish presence than I have at home.  It would be pleasant to dine at a Kosher restaurant on some delicacy not readily duplicated in my own kitchen.  

Whatever is there that I might do, I think the strongest incentive remains being someplace other than here which has taken its toll.  My drive to nowhere to get me out of the house most days can be a drive to somewhere someplace else.  Check the airfares.  Check the calendars.  See who might be around.  But I'm ready for a more distant destination.