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:

		Miles	Time
7-May	Friday			TPA – SFO		8:00 AM – 12:46 PM
8-May	Saturday			San Francisco
9-May	Sunday	48	1:10	SF – Napa
10-May	Monday	136	3:55	Napa – Muir Woods – Timber Creek
11-May	Tuesday	199	5:23	Timber Creek – Petrolia
12-May	Wednesday	264	5:36	Petrolia – Coos Bay
13-May	Thursday	272	6:05	Coos Bay – Portland
14-May	Friday			Portland
15-May	Saturday			Pre Cruise – Portland
16-May	Sunday			1 -Hayden Island, OR
17-May	Monday			2 – Astoria, OR
18-May	Tuesday			3 – Mount St. Helens, WA
19-May	Wednesday			4 – Columbia River Gorge/Stevenson, WA
20-May	Thursday			5 – The Dalles, OR
21-May	Friday			6 – Pendelton, OR/Richland, WA
22-May	Saturday			7 – Clarkston, WA
23-May	Sunday			8 – Clarkston – Salt Lake City – Tampa		6:10 AM – 4:37 PM

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