Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

I like to browse Coronavirus statistics a few times a week to see how trends are developing. One of my favorite sites is the New York Times, "Coronavirus in the U.S." When I checked its California detail page a chart I've never before paid attention to jumped out at me: the map of infection hotspots in the state.



As you can see in the chart there's one hotspot in the state right now: that bit in the upper left. That happens to be Del Norte County in the northwestern corner of the state. That's where we took a short trip 7-10 days ago and saw many people refusing to wear masks despite it being the law. And now, 7+ days later, they've got the highest new case rate in the state by a significant margin.

Wow, I'm so surprised.

To put this in broader context, though, this worst county in California still has a lower new case rate than the entire states of Michigan and New Jersey right now. Statewide, California currently has the second lowest rate of any state.

North Coast Roadtrip travelog #2
Ukiah, CA - Sat, 27 Mar 2021. 8:30am.

Just 10 ½ hours after arriving in Ukiah we are leaving. It's not that there's anything particularly wrong with the place; but this town and the Hampton Inn we've stayed at are merely a Friday Night Halfway stopover en route to adventures further north.

While even 8:30am is later than we wanted to hit the road this morning it's a slight shame we couldn't stay longer. We have a comfortable room with a balcony overlooking the pool and hot tub area. Here's a pic from last night:



We arrived too late for the pool's 9pm closing time, and this morning we're leaving too early for its 9am opening time.

In other respects we're glad to be moving on. People here are not exactly taking the Coronavirus and Covid-19 precautions seriously. Oh, they're doing some things to show you how seriously they take it. "Safety Theater", you might call it; in the same vein as Security Theater. For example, our TV remote has been sanitized and safety wrapped for our protection:



...Not that I even touched the TV remote. I haven't turned on a hotel TV except to see if I could connect my computer in the past 1000+ nights of hotel stays.

But while the TV remote is all nice and protected, how about the people? Ha ha, no. This safety theater, not safety fact.

Wearing masks indoors is state law in California, and it's company policy at this hotel. Placards are posted at the front door, at the front desk, in all the elevator lobbies, etc. Yet half the customers are walking around or sitting in common areas without masks, and the staff does nothing. Some of the staff aren't wearing masks correctly, either. We know that the virus gets passed between unmasked people near each other indoors— far, far more readily than it gets passed on the surface of devices, such as  a TV remote, that two different people might touch hours apart. But yeah, it's easier to put a bag on a remote than get a bunch of knuckle-draggers to wear their damn masks.

"Now is a great time to travel!" countless ads from airlines, hotels, and other travel companies breathlessly advise me from my inbox every morning.

"No it's fucking NOT!" I hiss in reply at my computer screen. Now is NOT a great time to travel. The risk of infection is an elevated danger not just for the traveler but also for all the prudent people they inflict their traveling ways upon. Everyone who plays it safe and smart and only goes out for essential trips is placed at higher risk by each of these super-spreaders gadding through.

"Especially with today's sale of 30%//50%/70% off!" continue the ads.

"Would you PLEASE stop offering discounts to super-spreaders! " I seethe. Sheesh, it's bad enough some people have chosen to bury their heads in the sand against the reality of this pandemic and cannot think outside the envelope of their own gratification anyway. We don't need profit-seekers encouraging antisocial irresponsibility with sales.