After spending all winter in Florida, our plan was to come home to New England sometime in mid-April.  The original plan was my wife would fly home on April 13th and I would take a leisurely 2-week road trip home revisiting some historical sites in Georgia and Tennessee.

That plan got thrown out the window in mid-March once everything started getting shut down due to the coronavirus.  Within a few days, all the historical sites I was planning to visit were closed and everything in Nashville was shut down.  Each day, states where closing businesses, issuing travel restrictions and implementing stay-at-home orders.

What was to be a familiar journey that we’ve done for years, quickly became a question with an uncertain answer.  How and when would we get home?

Stay Put or Go Home

The first thing we had to decide was either hunker down and stay put in Florida or somehow make it home.  Our house in Florida was fine for staying put and food/supplies were plentiful.  Southwest Florida has significantly less COVID-19 cases and related deaths than our home state.  Our chances of getting the virus in Florida were significantly less and we are surrounded by several good hospitals.  Being a couple of 65 yr olds, we thought about that for a few days.  But the overriding factor was that our family members are all in New England.  If our children or someone, like my mother-in-law, got sick, we wanted to be nearby.

I wasn’t that keen on having my wife fly during the COVID-19  outbreak.  Airport security lines, gate areas, and a packed plane could be a perfect petri dish for catching something from strangers.  We checked with JetBlue and they let us cancel with no penalty.  We got a full refund for her ticket which we’ll use next year when we return.

I felt our safest option was to drive home in my RV.   We’d be self-contained with our own food, own beds, and our own bathroom.  We just had to make sure that we could travel without violating some state order and get fuel along the way.  We picked April 7th as our departure date. It was after April 1st when most snowbirds head north and before Easter.

Navigating the Travel Restrictions

The biggest area of concern was navigating the state stay-at-home orders that were being implemented.  Each day a new state was coming out with some type of business closure order, stay-at-home order, or travel restriction order.  I read a few of these.  Some like Virginia were very specific but Florida and Maryland were somewhat vague.  Maryland and New Jersey left much up to the State Police to determine what was allowed and to enforce the order.  The question I had was would states allow non-residents to travel through their state on the public roadways to get home. The last thing I wanted was to get stopped and or busted for violating a stay at home order or travel restriction.

So, a week before our planned departure, I began monitoring highway webcams, Facebook RV groups, and state DOT websites to learn about any issues or restrictions with interstate travel.  Every day I got feedback that snowbird friends were making it home ok traveling on the roadways without any major issues.  Fuel was plentiful and hotels were open. The only issue seemed to be the lack of open restaurants and restrooms. I also prayed about it and was feeling positive that driving home was the right thing and that it would all go fine.

Where to Stay

I made a couple of reservations to stay at RV parks in Florida and South Carolina prior to leaving.  I made one in Maryland but a few days before we left, Virginia and Maryland closed all their state parks and private campgrounds.  The RV park in Maryland canceled our reservation and closed.

So, I checked the OvernightRVparking online service to find free places to stay while on the road.  This app, which I’ve used for several years and is subscription based, shows places where you can park an RV overnight for free.  It’s based on current user feedback and shows places like Walmarts, casinos, truck stops, rest areas, and federal lands where you can park for free.  The app showed several options (a Walmart, Cracker Barrel, and Rest Area) just north of Baltimore where we could spend the night.  I felt confident that we’d be able use one of these for our third overnight.

Hitting the Road

Two days prior to leaving, I parked the RV in our driveway got everything loaded.  We closed our house up on Tuesday morning and were on the road by noon.   Florida had come out with a stay-at-home order a few days prior to our departure, but it was targeted at residents and people coming into Florida from coronavirus hotspots like New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

Traffic was light on I-75 going north to Tampa.  We spent the first night at LazyDays RV Resort in Seffner.  The park was open and only about 1/3 full.  The restroom and laundry were both open, but only the lobby of the office was open.  Reservation packets for incoming people were on a table in the lobby with instructions.  One clerk was in the office behind a rope barrier keeping people well away.

We drove 440 miles on Day 2.  Our route was north on I-75, then northeast on Rt 301 around Jacksonville, then north on I-95 to Lake Marion in South Carolina.  Traffic was again light in Georgia and South Carolina.  We saw mostly truckers on the road and a couple of RV’s. We had no issues with getting stopped.

That night, we stayed at the Santee Lakes KOA right on Lake Marion.  It’s a beautiful spot.  All the amenities were closed (restrooms, laundry. office) and they only allowed self-contained RV’s to stay.  We had to call the office to get directions to our site. They had a call-in pizza delivery service in the park.  We decide to give them some business and ordered a pizza for dinner, which was delivered to our campsite within 15 mins.  Day 2 was behind us and based on how things were going, I was feeling confident that we’d get home without any incident.

Day three was a long day. We stayed on I-95.  I wanted to get around Washington and Baltimore.  We drove 545 miles.  Traffic around the Washington beltway (I-495 east), which normally would have been heavy and backed up, was only moderate. Because my RV carries propane (a hazmat), we had to take the beltway (I-695) around Baltimore.  I usually go east over the Francis Scott Key Bridge but there were high winds (50 mph) and an advisory for RVs and empty trailers to avoid it. So we went around Baltimore to the west on I-695.  I saw lots of state police on the highway in Maryland but none gave us a look or stopped us.  I figure they had no interest in stopping out of state cars.

When we got around Baltimore, my options for overnight were:  a Walmart in Edgewood, MD, the Maryland House Rest Area on I-95, or a Cracker Barrel restaurant.  We decided on the Cracker Barrel restaurant in Bel-Air, MD.  I called and checked with the manager who gave us the ok to park overnight. We ordered takeout dinner from them (chicken and dumplings with veges and biscuits ;)) and spent a nice quiet night in their parking lot with no other cars or trucks.

Day 4 was our last day on the road. We had 359 miles to get home and it was still very windy with 40 mph gusts hitting us broadside.  It made driving hard because my RV is high profile and gets pushed around in high winds.

Our route was I-95 to the NJ turnpike, then on I-287 around New York to I-84 thru Connecticut.  I planned out our fuel stops because I didn’t want to get out of the vehicle anywhere in NY state.  For refueling on the trip I wore gloves once I left the vehicle and then went I reentered, I washed my credit card and then scrubbed my hands.  The door handles got sanitized multiple times each day followed by more hand washing.

For fueling on this day, I stopped midway on the NJ turnpike and had the attendance pump the fuel while I wore a mask,  I then refueled one last tine in Middelbury CT with a mask and gloves.

Finally Home

We made it home on Friday, April 10th, which was my birthday.  It was stressful driving all day in the high winds.  We were both exhausted and felt like zombies from the long days behind the wheel.  But we were home safe and healthy.

So, that’s what it was like driving during this time.  Normally, it’s a routine trip and this trip did go smoothly.  it was just the uncertainty and unkowns that caused a level of anxiety.  Thankfully no states had closed their borders.  And God was with us and we thank him for getting us home safely.