I woke up Saturday morning, ready for go-home day. The plan was to go to Lucy's Birthday Tea at the Hayes Presidential Center, before heading to Pittsburgh to spend the evening with my cousin Joanne and her family. The next day we were going to drive to Charleston, so we could visit Fort Sumter before coming home. But, as I was changing into my custom made Lemonade Lucy shirt for the occassion, Asa knocked on the bathroom door to tell me mom did not feel well and had tested positive for covid. Asa and I felt fine, except maybe some vacation fatigue, so we quickly took a covid test which turned up negative. I breathed a sign of relief, but I also wasn't naive enough to think that we probably wouldn't turn up positive in the next few days. We had been everywhere together. Still, we decided to pack up and make a bee line for home, hoping either to somehow have gotten out unscathed or at least make it home before symptoms came for us. If we had been flying, I would have come up with a different course of action. But driving, I decided we could limit our contact with people and wear a mask everywhere we went.
Luckily, we had planned on leaving right after Birthday Tea, so I had already packed up most stuff the day before, including all of our picnic food. Everytime we stopped, we tried to pick a picnic table very far away, and felt good about at least eating outside, away from any other person.
We wore our masks in bathrooms, and tried to limit our stops pretty much to welcome centers.
But sometime in Kentucky we got a call from Hayden. He had woken up with a sore throat. We inquired about everyone else. A few hours passed before Peyton woke up with a slightly less sore throat, but one nonethreless. I had packed all but one covid test, so Hayden decided Peyton should be the one to take the one remaining test, since Peyton had lesser symptoms. Sure enough, Peyton's test was positive (meaning, obviously, Hayden's was too). Meaning also, Asa and I would almost certainly come up positive. Still, feeling alright, we made our way to Tennessee.
We stopped at a Hampton Inn just short of the Georgia line for the night, and went through the drive thru (masked and all) for dinner at Fazolis. We got the last room on the first floor, right by the door, so we weren't in the hallway too much and continued to cross our fingers. At least we were about to get a good night sleep in a king sized bed.
Calib, meanwhile, had to hold down the fort at home while Hayden quarantined in my room, and Peyton in the office.
The next morning I woke up and did a self assessment: I was still feeling fine. Success! So, down to breakfast, with a mask on, I went.
Asa, however, woke up feeling pretty shitty. A fever, a cough, a sore throat. So, I dug out the tests and sure enough: he was positive. I didn't even bother to take one. I just had to assume I was as well. It didn't matter at this point, I had been around everyone.
Luckily, we still had enough food to stop for a picnic lunch, making sure not to expose anyone else.
We spent most of the day on the phone with the kids trying to come up with a course of action. At this point, Calib did a test and came up negative. Though, I couldn't imagine Calib not coming up positive in the next few days. He was in a car with Peyton and Hayden the night before they came up with symptoms. But, we had to at least try. We threw out ideas for Calib: he could go stay in a hotel, there was talk of a tent (a construction which Calib tried at, but failed), and finally we decided just to quarantine all of us to the two rooms (our bedroom and the office), and limit our time in the main living space (where we would all mask).
It was just about 4 when we crossed the state line making it back into Florida. Who knew, after all this time that we'd survive covid in Florida, but pick it up in Ohio.
I really have no idea where we got it. In crowded indoor spaces we masked (which I know isn't fool proof, but still), we ate inside one and a half times (at Chuds, and my uncles bar which was open to the outside- and likely not the culperit since we were there the day before people starting test positive), we spent 90 percent of our time outside. Nobody we visited with ended up with it but us and my mom. So, I have no idea. I did suspect there was something to the fact that we haven't really been exposed to covid over the last two and half years, and maybe that made us more susceptible. In fact, there are studies that being exposed to it a little bit at a time over and over again, without actually getting it, helps build your immunity to it (some call it a Goldilocks-ahem "just right"- amount of covid) We're not really exposed ot it, because we've been so careful. Still, I feel like if this vacation gave me covid, any vacation would have given me covid. On the bright side, Asa and I have a cruise in a couple weeks, and we almost certainly would have caught it there. Now, we'll have super hybrid immunity: a vaccine, a booster, and natural immunity. We should be good for at least a month, maybe up to three.
The rest of the drive home really sucked, we did have to figure out quarantine arrangements, where we were all sleeping, the dogs, and all that- all while driving through a downpour while we had covid. And I had to drive, because Asa felt crappy and I felt fine (though I was very anxious about what might be coming for me).
We made it home just around 8. Calib had run out to get Chinese food and was getting home just as we arrived back. He waved to us from the car, and then we waited as he went inside and got his food before he texted us the all clear. It was really weird walking into the house. It was a mess (likely from Calib waiting on everyone while trying to spend as little amount of time outside his room as possible), but more than that, nobody was there to greet us, not even the dogs. Calib had put them in his room so they didn't see us. If they knew we were home, they would just whine to come and go out of rooms that we were in, so we just spent a couple days essentially hiding from them. But, it was nice to have some warm food waiting for us when we got home. We grabbed stuff we needed for the night from the car and took the food to our room where we planned on quaranting.
We did decide if either Asa or I had to leave the room, though, it would be me. Since I lacked any sort of symptoms, except, maybe at this point, a few sniffles. I was tired as well, but that could also have been chalked up to vacation. Still, whenever I went out there I told Calib everything I touched so he could lysol spray it down if he wanted.
Calib later dropped us off some drinks: gatorade, waters, tea, and some liquid IV stuff T'Ola had gotten for us. We texted our neighbors on the way home so they knew we had covid. I didn't want to inadvertently give anything to any of them. And they were all amazing about it.
Covid or no covid, we were just excited to be back in our bed.
Next up: Covid, Party of five
