In 2019 I did a lot of travel... and I mean A LOT! From Seattle in the West to Budapest in the East to Florida in the South to Iceland in the North, I hit them all via plane, train, car, boat, and bus. So in 2020, my goal was to take a little breather - not necessarily give up traveling, but shorten my circle and explore some of the US sites. Never did I imagine how limited our lives would become.
I started off 2020 with high hopes that this was going to be an amazing decade – somewhat similar to the Roaring 20’s of the previous century. Bruce and I spent the last week of December hiking in Cheaha State Park in Alabama, and then attended a New Year's Eve dinner and dance party. I haven't stayed up until midnight in years, but let me tell you, you haven’t partied until you’ve partied with the locals from "Sweet Home" Alabama.
Then it was on down to Florida for my annual winter snowbird adventure. This time I was going back to the Beachwood Villas in Seaside - my third time to Seaside and my second stay at Beachwood Villas (what can I say? I like the area). I always take my bike with me, because there's a20-mile bike path that runs along the coast. But this year, I discovered that I could access the Port Washington State Forest hiking trails right outside my condo. Most people would probably think it was strange to go to Florida and not go to the beach, but I loved hiking on the sandy, FLAT trails.
The snowbirders in Seaside were very social (maybe that's the nature of snowbirders). I participated in weekly bingo games, exercise classes, craft days, and potluck barbecues. I also went on several outings with the Emerald Coast Plein Air Painters. Each week, we'd meet at one of the little towns along the coast, paint for a few hours, and then go somewhere for lunch. Little did I know that this would be the last meal I'd eat INSIDE a restaurant for the rest of the year. (The things we take for granted.)
And then we came home to pandemonium in the name of COVID-19. People went nuts fighting over toilet paper and hand sanitizer as the city shut down one venue after another.
Gone were my plans to visit a different national park every month, because they were all closed. Instead I spent my time walking around the block, sewing masks, and socializing via Zoom.
I'll have to admit, that Zoom was probably my social savior during the lockdown. I became quite adept at hosting bingo games, sketchouts, a retirement party, and happy hours. We even opened our family Christmas presents via a Zoom chat on Christmas Eve - a little depressing, but better than no contact, I guess.
In some respects, it made meeting my 2.5 million step Fitbit goal a bit tricky. It's a lot easier to rack up steps hiking scenic loop trails than it is walking around the block. But since my sister, Janet, was doing the challenge with me (and constantly staying ahead), I actually managed to end the year with over 3 million steps (approximately 1,500 miles!). That's about the distance from here to Las Vegas! Of course, I had to buy new tennis shoes and a fitness tracker about mid-year, but what else am I going to spend my money on.
With the lockdown, I had to get creative finding ways to entertain myself at home (not easy when you're used to being on-the-go with total freedom). I tackled some home improvement projects, like painting the garage door, the garden trellis, the bathroom ceiling, and the woodwork in the sunroom. I did a lot of sketching virtually with the Chicago Urban Sketchers group (they are much more active than the St Louis group). I bought myself an iPad and created a coloring book for kids (robot-based, of course). And, like almost every other human being on the planet, I cleaned closets and de-cluttered the attic. Goodwill was so slammed with donations, they had to shut down for a while.
The governor finally opened the parks back up over the summer, so I was able to ride my bike. The city trails were too crowded, since everyone was working from home and taking "coffee breaks" in the parks. But thank goodness for the bike rack on my car. I got quite brave at crossing the Missouri River on the bike ramp along Hwy 40. And I finally got to try out the Rock Island and MKT spurs off the Katy Trail in Pleasant Hill and Columbia - some bike trails that have been on my bucket list for a while.
The pandemic introduced a whole new lingo into our daily vocabulary, like tele-health, social distancing, hybrid school, and the new normal. Restaurants and universities set up shop outdoors. Online shopping and home delivery services soared, while brick-&-mortar stores struggled. Robots were employed to re-stock store shelves, because human workers were afraid to go to work.
I think I would have enjoyed the technology aspect of virtual classrooms if I were still teaching. I even learned how to make my own Bitmoji (mini-me in graphics). But on the other hand, I'd miss seeing the students in person. We had to cancel our robotics competitions this year and it's still a bit up in the air as to how we're going to pull off remote competitions in February, especially if the teams are still restricted from meeting.
I lost a few close friends and family members this year. Betty and Eileen were teachers at Nerinx. Betty taught calculus and loved pink. She was the only person I know who could pull off a pink Christmas tree in her pink sunroom. She used to give her students extra credit points if they wore pink to their final exams. Eileen was a former medical technologist turned science teacher. One year she organized a research team of students to develop a water filtering system made out of used coffee grounds for poor people in Honduras. My aunt and uncle died within a week of each other. I'm really not surprised, because they were always such a fun couple, going to parties and laughing together. I figure they'll carry that same spirit up to heaven. I'm going to really miss my Aunt Donna, because she lived at the lake. And once a year we'd all meet up at the outlet mall near her house and go on a shopping spree.
Around September, we decided to quit waiting around for the pandemic to end and bought a house in Colorado. We've talked about moving for years, but since we spent so much time traveling, St Louis just seemed like a good central home base. But with the world enmeshed in such uncertainty and not many "active" years left in retirement, we figured if we're going to be in lockdown, we might as well be locked down some place near great hiking trails. Colorado seemed to fit the bill. So I rented a condo in Castle Rock and we checked out the available home sites in the area, finally settling on a 55+ community in Aurora. It's about as far east as you can get and still be considered within the city limits of Denver. Living in a brand new house will be a unique experience for us. Bruce worries that he won't have any house projects to work on, so I bought him a Rocky Mountain hiking trail book for Christmas. This has been a crazy year, and one I hope we never have to repeat. But I'm cautiously optimistic that 2021 will bring us some exciting new adventures.
