While much of the world changed mid-march, our 2020 changed a bit earlier. This trip is a story of sickness, disappointment, being pushed outside your comfort zone, exhaustion, and perseverance. It has been a really challenging one for me to write because it’s really the point that life as usual ended for us.
I had started planning our travel to Costa Rica much earlier than most of our trips. We were going to be driving ourselves around in a country with rough roads and a language barrier, lots of bugs and deadly animals. But there would be volcanos and waterfalls and sloths and beaches. I was so excited to do a trip slightly out of our comfort zone. I had bought the bug spray that will burn it’s way through ziplocs and organized all my trip documents in print form since we wouldn’t have cell service (I had even exhausted options to unlock and switch sim cards in our phones 😜).
When we boarded the plane from DTW to PBI we were finally going! But first we would spend the weekend in the Keys and a week at my grandparents in Lake Worth. It was a great way to get in our yearly Florida visit and save on flight costs. Our layover at BWI was extended for about an hour while we sat boarded on the tarmac. My pessimistic neighbor said it wasn’t going to happen, that he sat for a couple hours the night before. But he was wrong. I brought my Oculus Quest and decided it would be funny to try and play on the plane. It was actually pretty cool! Except when the plane would turn or adjust altitude, then the navigation would slide up, down and sideways. Not the best for motion sickness. We landed, picked up our car and made the drive down to Biscayne Bay and the Everglades to check off two more national parks!
Biscayne Bay
This park is primarily accessible by water. Lots of opportunities for boat tours, kayak rentals and snorkeling. We decided to simply stop by the visitor center on land and walk the boardwalk.
The Everglades
Just to get it out of the way I hated this park. I only recently stopped making jokes about how much I thought it sucked. I get it, it’s an extremely unique ecosystem. I didn’t want to hike because gators. We drove the length of the southern park to the tip of the peninsula. And the beach was ugly. Building still had storm damage from years ago. It just didn’t come close to measuring up to any other park. Not even in Ohio. Especially not Cuyahoga in Ohio.
We spent the night in Homestead, FL. I picked a cheap hotel with points knowing it wouldn’t be the greatest, but I wasn’t expecting what we got. The desk staff was very friendly and nice, you could tell it was a family place. The rooms had attempts to redo them, but the old stuff was stained, rusted and dirty. Oh well, you win some you lose some. Not long after falling asleep we were awoken by our neighbors. I swear to you they were making an adult film. 2 men, 1 woman. Banging (pun intended), moaning, casual chitchat. Repeat. For HOURS. At this point we were tired and the air conditioner wasn’t working. It was miserable. We woke up in the morning and grabbed an actually reasonable continental breakfast where I saw our noisy neighbors. Awkward.
Florida Keys
We both felt off the whole way down. Terrible sleep, travel days or days I’ve eaten certain foods can have that effect on me. I shrugged it off. The drive down was gorgeous and something I am glad to have seen once. When we arrived we took a walk around downtown to see the touristy sights. The southernmost point sign was swamped with people since a cruise ship was docked. It was in the mid 60s and full sun. It felt wonderful. Except Adam wouldn’t take off his black hoodie. He felt feverish. We wrapped up our visit early with a picturesque beach. Then drove 4.5 more hours to Lake Worth wondering why we felt so off. We’d never been sick on trip before. That’s not how it’s supposed to work when you request PTO.
The Black Hole
Woke up the next day to a sick and tired Adam. He had to work but that ended up consisting of napping in bed with his laptop. I knew he must feel terrible, he would never normally do that. I spent time with my grandparents and getting some work done. By mid day Monday when I picked my head up off the wall I was leaning on it was throbbing. I still remember it as the worst headache I’ve ever had. The sickness had claimed me too by dinner time. Feverish, aching in my neck and spine. Ibuprofen and a nap made me perk right up long enough for dinner time and some TV. We were watching them build a Covid hospital in China in 2 weeks on the news.
By Tuesday it was clear we were not ok and it was becoming a reality that Costa Rica might need to be cancelled. Feeling guilty about being inside while it was so nice and warm out we attempted a walk at lunch. The sun physically hurt and I was exhausted. We went right back inside. My fever became too much for the ibuprofen while I was in the middle of making dinner. It was the first time we thought to take my temp. 102.7. The trip was off and we would find an urgent care our insurance took in the morning.
Except it turns out if you have Blue Care Network HMO, most places still won’t take your insurance even if they are listed as in-network on the website. The cost without insurance for 1 person was the same as for 2 with. Since we were primarily going to get a doctors note for our trip insurance, we decided I should go in since I was worse. Without a test the doctor determined I probably just had the flu (it would cost $40 w/o insurance to test he said and not worth the money), he’d give me meds to ward off pneumonia and I’d be fine to leave the country in 3 days. Thankfully a flu diagnosis worked fine for our trip insurance, because there was no way we were leaving the country with a fever and a pandemic brewing.
Salvaging the Trip
Starting to feel a bit better we spent the next few days pushing ourselves to enjoy the time we had with my grandparents and in the warm weather. I made it through a 2 mile walk, then a game of tennis and explored a boardwalk at the turtle sanctuary. Went to see the Oscar nominee (then winner) Parasite. Scored a deal on tennis shoes at Kohls. Ate the worst Jersey Mike’s of my life. Watched my grandparents try virtual reality for the first time.
It was time to figure out a plan to get home. I was very against getting back on a plane. I’m not sure if it was just the exhaustion, but it felt like the wrong thing to do. What if we drove home and stopped at the tiny house community in Georgia I’d been following online? The Super Bowl was in Miami that Sunday and rental car offers were incredible to drive one way back to Detroit. Plus, if there’s anything I can do, it’s put together a roadtrip.
Juniper Springs
We departed on the train to Miami for one heck of a long day. It was strange to go to the airport with no intention of flying. We had our first experience selecting our own Hertz car from the aisle and we were off; back an hour to where we started and then on to Ocala. I had hoped we would be able to visit Juniper Springs that night and wake up in the morning and keep driving. We were 5 minutes too late and no one else was allowed in for the day. I lost it. Maybe I wasn’t feeling as great as I thought I was.
This area in Florida is apparently one of the only other places with Lee’s Famous Chicken. And since it was Super Bowl Sunday, and Lee’s is a tradition, we brought some back to watch the big game in our hotel room. I needed some comfort, but it just wasn’t the same.
In the morning I was really glad we had waited to visit Juniper Spring. The lighting was so magical and we were able to leisurely explore the paths. It was other worldly. I probably could have posted pictures and people might have thought we still ended up in Costa Rica. It was something I never would have thought to seek out without the need to drive north. This was a day we were supposed to be zip lining, tubing, horse back riding and enjoying a hot spring. And I was HAPPY that I wasn’t there. I told Adam how thankful I was that we didn’t have to do that that day, because walking the flat boardwalk was about all I was capable of.
We again headed north. There were so many billboards on 75 heading that way! But I couldn’t see them. Even with my contacts or glasses my eyes wouldn’t focus. I’d take a nap instead of looking out the window or at my phone. Our stop for the night was in Macon. We picked a place with a movie theater and ice cream next door. I’d never had Marble Slab Creamery, but ice cream and popcorn for dinner sounded great. I’d heard it was the same as Maggie Moos, which I loved. It tasted weird, definitely not the same. Little Women was a great movie. Movies were such a big part of our life, it’s hard to think this was the second to last one we saw in theaters for almost 6 months.
Atlanta
This day was dedicated to exploring Atlanta and settling in at the Tiny House. Eeek! We decided to start at Ponce City Market. What a wonderful industrial building turned into shops, restaurants, offices and residences. When we went to walk to the center of Atlanta, we just didn’t have it in us. We decided to walk the Belt Line to kill time before restaurants opened for lunch. I’m so glad we did. What a neat feature. Everyone was outside and active, enjoying the weather. We grabbed some ramen and were ready for a couple days or relaxation in the woods.
Tiny House Dreams
Little River Escape was everything I thought it would be. Beautiful lots, peaceful setting, close to activities. We were able to explore the property before the rain settled in for the remainder of our visit. Man is rain on a metal roof the definition of relaxing. We read, watch tv and finally spent the time we needed doing nothing. I finally reached a breaking point and realized my taste was screwed up. It wasn’t the food… it was me. Spent the evening googling loss of taste and steroids, antibiotics and the flu. Inconclusive.
We snuck out in the rain to make a quick visit to a waterfall. I’m not sure either of us knew what to expect. It was raining, we were alone and this waterfall was MASSIVE. Still one of our favorite experiences.
The Flood
Obviously we knew it had been raining for 2 days, but without a local news station and limited mountain knowledge, we didn’t realize things would be flooding. Our next stop was to visit my sisters special place, Gatlinburg. As we passed Chattanooga, the spray from the trucks on the expressway became a nuisance. When given the opportunity before Knoxville to take backroads instead, we decided less spray was better. I started to notice the water level of the rivers. We stopped at a gas station, the route I was aiming for into the park was now closed. Could we keep going? We would just go straight to the hotel. I held my breath and we forged on. All we had to do was cross the river, head up the mountain and we’d be in Pigeon Forge in 30 minutes.
One ambulance rushed by us. Two cop cars. A fire truck. Oh gosh. This wasn’t looking good. But we kept going. The run off was rushing fast down the mountain and we finally reached the stop in traffic. Something was happening several hundred feet ahead. I couldn’t see what, but I could feel the panic and desperation of the people at the houses on the side of the road running around. This was not good. Turn around. Let’s make sure the park road is actually closed. The power of the river was terrifying. The park entrance was closed. There was no way to go but back the way we came. Except the water had crested the road. We couldn’t take the main road that way either. We were stuck in Townsend, TN. Google wouldn’t help because it didn’t realize there was an accident on the mountain. Maybe someone at the visitor center could help.
And in the nick of time I walked up as someone was locking the door. “There was a fatal accident, you can’t go that way. Go one street up and turn left, that will connect to the main road. But hurry, go now.” His urgency freaked me out. We drove. As we crossed the small road bridge the water was just touching it. I’m not sure we would have been able to go that way 5 minutes later. I’m not sure how far we went before the fear passed and we felt comfortable to stop. There was no way we were going back that way. The hotel needed to be cancelled and we would move on to the next stop. The hotel we were supposed to stay at ended up clearing the parking lot and all ground floor rooms for flooding.
We drove and drove feeling like we were being chased. There was a category 1 Hyatt in Bowling Green, KY. Everyone said Hyatts were great point redemptions. There was a pizza place we could use our CSR Door Dash credit for. Everything moved so fast until we were in the hotel room mowing down on pizza. I was so relieved. And the breadsticks were really good. Turns out just 5 minutes in front of us back in Tennessee a tree had fallen on a shuttle of city employees. One woman was killed. Somethings are a little too close for comfort. I still think about what that scene looked and felt like when we turned around.
Mammoth Cave
We had one last stop planned and we were not going to tempt fate with any extra activities. We would make the first tour at Mammoth Cave National Park and drive the rest of the way home. We woke up to 2 inches of snow. In Kentucky. It was the first snow of the year. We enjoyed our first (and to this day only) real breakfast at the Hyatt. No one was on the road, so it made for a quick drive to the park. Where I decided to check their Twitter. They were on a 2 hour snow delay to open. What luck. We saw someone disappear into the building so we got out and approached. They had let someone in to use the restroom. It was us and a group from somewhere hours away who were here just for this. A woman came to the door and yelled at us. I’m not sure why she was so angry and upset, but she didn’t want to let us inside and was angry that someone else kept letting people in. We petitioned and were thankfully let in just to use the bathroom. We went back to the car and I taught Adam what a Karen was. Turns out that was useful information for what was to come. After a minor breakdown we decided to wait out the tour. It was the “lame” tour, not the one we expected, but it was something.
The snow on the ground when entering the cave was beautiful. We got to see the huge caves that gave the park its name and learned some great history. It was short and sweet, but we did it. And we were so ready to go home 2 days early.
Final Thoughts
Obviously I’ve had a lot of time to digest this trip. I think it did a lot of work on our mindsets that made the adjustment to Covid times easier. We had to become more flexible, settled in with disappointment and able to make changes on the fly. I’ve also spent a lot of time retracing and reevaluating our sickness. It holds a lot of similarities to something that’s not the flu. We vehemently denied that possibility at the time. Eventually we figured out where we caught it from. That person had tested negative for both types of flu and strep. And had close contact daily with international students returning from Christmas break at a university. And my weird symptoms became more common. Who did I come into contact with? When was I contagious? I’m very grateful for our decision to not leave the country and my intuition to not fly. I will always feel like we were being chased or maybe just led home by all the crazy happenings.
Cost Breakdown
For the first time I got to navigate cancellation policies and Trip Cancellation Insurance through our Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. While many pieces of our Costa Rica trip were refundable like our plane tickets, several accommodations, the car and our adventure tour, some things were partially refundable or past the cancellation date. When planning a trip, if you pay for even part of your flight with the CSR the entire trip will be covered by the Trip Cancellation Insurance. We paid for our Southwest tickets with points/the companion pass, but were still responsible to pay taxes and fees in cash, which made the trip eligible.
While I submitted my claim the day we cancelled in January, they had not made any movement before the pandemic cancellations rolled in. This greatly slowed the process down. I was the most annoying person ever. I called them bi-weekly from March until July. Was the refund I got worth the time I spent? Definitely not, but at a certain point it became a matter or principle. The process would go much smoother if you were taking one round trip flight to stay at one resort for a week and used companies to plan your excursions. I, however, booked multiple flights, changing locations and hotels each day and booked all my activities directly.
Looking back now on how much we spent in cash and points to drive back I feel really guilty. That was an expensive trip back for being so terrible. It cost more than our week in Costa Rica was supposed to. I did get my wish of using more points for hotels in 2020, they just weren’t in the places I expected.
