I write and edit this blog post from the Bob Shetler campgrounds in the Saylorville Lake Dam area, which is managed by the Army Corp of Engineers. The lake and campgrounds are 12-miles northeast of Des Moines, Iowa, and yes, it is literally in the middle of America. The following photos reveal a beautiful, tranquil location in the middle of America.
Why the middle of America, well, as of 2019, the state of Iowa has 3.155 million residents, and the town of Perry Iowa, where I purchased my Little Guy Max twenty 20-miles north of Des Moines IA, has less than 8000 people.
My other RV purchase option was Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the city is suffering through a COVID-19 spike in contagious people. I believe my purchase and travel spirits were watching over me.
When the World Health Organization announced the pandemic, I imagined how the American people would handle this information. The word “skepticism” quickly emerged from my thoughts, and in the weeks to follow, skepticism is still prevalent.
I considered where I could isolate to avoid becoming an infected statistic, and the desert was my first choice, mostly as I was already there.
But, that was in March of this year and since my time in the desert, with my closest neighbor twenty to forty yards away. Since that time I have isolated in Air BnB’s, and now my Little Guy Max.
When the National Parks began to open, I patiently waited as the mixture of summer crowds, and Covid19-isolation survivors stormed the parks.
Several National Parks were overwhelmed, like Zion and Arches National Parks visitors, amassed to be so many that the park authorities closed the parks to avoid overcrowding.
Uniquely, my travel life has changed to avoid populated areas and states experiencing spikes in Covid-19 cases.
I continue wearing my gloves or at the gas pumps and utilize Walmarts curbside pickups.
I am quite comfortable with curbside pickups, and drive-through window where employees hand me my purchase wearing a mask and glove.
My travel anxiety of 2020 will be searching for secluded trails to day hike for wildlife and landscape photographs and avoiding crowded places. But, the summer of 2020 is becoming a reading and writing blog posts.
Everyone in the world is awaiting a vaccine to be developed. But, I will patiently wait forty or fifty days after inoculating begins.
Why may you ask?
I want to be assured of not growing a third eye or nipple.