Judy and I are fighting two bugs: the Coronavirus and the Travel Bug. Clearly, one is more serious than the other. But the older we get the more we realize that, tick-tock, our traveling days aren’t infinite. So, can we find a way to safely fight both bugs?

Here’s the plan. We’re doing a West Coast trip that involves one day in San Francisco, one day in Napa Valley, a six-day road trip up the Pacific Coast Highway ending in Portland and then a seven-day cruise up the Columbia and Snake rivers.

We are of course fully vaccinated with Pfizer bug juice. We plan to keep pretty much to ourselves and do most of our touring outdoors – no museums, cathedrals and crowded restaurants. When around people, we’ll wear masks. We’ll wash our hands religiously. In other words, we’ll try to behave as if we weren’t vaccinated.

Is this plan risk free? Of course not, but the risks seem small – probably no greater than staying at home – and with the vaccination, they say our risk of serious complications should we catch the virus is reduced.

So off we go, and you’re invited to follow us via daily blog posts at jonandjudy.com if you wish. I won’t be sending out daily email reminders as I’ve done in the past but if you’d like a daily email, let me know and I’ll send you one each time I make post an update. The rest of you can go to jonandjudy.com whenever the spirit moves you.

I’ve taken a solemn vow to keep the word count to a minimum this time: no long drawn out history lessons nor social commentary. I’ll try to let the pictures do the talking. We’ll see how that works out!

Here’s a more detailed itinerary:

We’ve booked hotels in San Francisco and May 15 in Portland. The road trip is open; we’ll see how far we get each day and hope we can find a Motel 6 somewhere each night.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome. Enjoy!

Jon and Judy