779 Days
Two weeks to flatten the curve. Of course it was never two weeks. But I never thought it would be two years of remarkable government intrusion into our lives. Monitoring our movements, locking us down, forcing vaccinations, restricting social gatherings, and the list goes on.
So much changed from when we had decided how we wanted to spend the first decade or so of retirement. That dream of travelling full-time in our motorcoach was destroyed. When we could not travel anywhere but Ontario, we knew we had to get back into a property. And, in our part of Canada, that came at a cost of about a million dollars.
Now we face the consequences of government economic policies. When governments print money and rack up debt, there will be economic pain. My sense is that it is only just beginning. Inflation, price corrections in stock markets and real estate, supply chain breakdowns, doubling of fuel costs along with activist governments attempting to solve the climate crisis amongst other global challenges.
The future does not look as promising these days.
However, we were able to finally resume travels.
After 779 days of being locked down, we crossed the border into the United States on Wednesday.
The US border agent did ask for our proof of vaccination but seemed confused that we had the Janssen vaccine.
“They have that up there in Canada?”
I get that Canada is a bit of a mess, but yes, we do have the Janssen vaccine. I would have preferred not to have taken any vaccine at this point in time. Seems to be ineffective in terms of infection and transmission although some continue to push the narrative that when you do get Covid, it will be less severe if you are vaccinated.
I’ve had Covid a few times now. Not fun but there it is. We are jabbed. We can resume travels. Until our government decides that it needs to restrict our mobility. Which it may well do again. Although current policies appear to be making travel so expensive that most won’t be able to afford to do so.
We are in the Great Smoky Mountains for a couple of weeks. We found an isolated cabin at the very top of one of the mountains. Beautiful spot with amazing views. The picture above is from our balcony. We’ll use the time to rest and recover from the events of the past 779 days.
We hope to continue our travels and take advantage of the early retirement years while we can.
Glad you finally made it across. We refuse to wait for things to “get better” and continue to travel in our bus, even with gas prices high and the stock market down. These are our prime retirement years, and we are not waiting.
I don’t blame you. Unfortunately in our situation, we had little choice in Canada but to park our bus between October and May and, after two winters, we decided we needed a spot to hunker down during this chaotic time. Real estate where we live is very difficult for both renters and owners. Cost of fuel and stock market lows don’t help of course but if we were in the United States, we would have had more options to keep going in our coach. Not as easy to do in Canada due to harsh winters. Enjoy your travels!
Yep. It’s a very different situation living north of the border.
A BIG hello to my Canadian Buddy!
And a BIG hello back! 🙂