Training, Travel Changes and Trusting the Science

 It’s been a long time.  

After 19 months, we are finally embarking on another traveling adventure. It does feel great to start another journey, even when it begins being packed like sardines in Coach.  Clearly, even a pandemic can’t change this situation for that long. 

We are headed to Sicily to see a few million things on our itinerary and then hike to see a few million more. We have never been to this southern Italian island and have been looking forward to all of its history, its Greek ruins, its food and of course, the cannoli, where it all began... at least as per Stanley Tucci.

My training to hike for five days was a bit altered this time around. It wasn’t that I took advantage of long walks in the great outdoors or regularly (if ever) used our pandemic purchased Peloton to make sure my body was fit enough to take on the terrain of Sicily. I couldn’t do any of those things because I was too busy going to physical therapy. 

My first injury embarrassingly happened during a class I was taking at our local YMCA called, “Studio Walking.” What’s most disconcerting about this particular injury was that it happened in a class that, at nearly 61, I was one of the youngest exercisers that day and that I was partaking in a physical exercise that I have been doing for about 60 years. I’m blaming my exercise fervor, which led to my  knee injury, on the Broadway Show Tunes being played by the teacher. I’ve always been a sucker for any song from “A Chorus Line.” 

I have absolutely no idea how I injured my left shoulder. For all I know, I sighed too hard. 

Understandably, post-COVID travel has dramatically changed the requirements for safe travel. There are new forms that must be completed and uploaded (in our case, with some assistance from our kids) and of course, taking the the requisite COVID tests to make sure that passengers are COVID free before boarding an airplane. 

Here, we hit a glitch. 

We were not too worried about taking our rapid antigen tests 48 hours before our flight.  We are both fully vaccinated and actually both had a mild case of COVID earlier in the year.  We thought the test was a minor inconvenience in preparing for our trip.  Imagine my surprise when I received a call from a CVS health agent who wanted to talk to me about my results. I knew immediately that a conversation starter like that is never good news. When she told me my test was positive, I yelled, “But I’m going to Sicily in two days!” Fortunately, she became a healthcare professional and not a diplomat because she then said, “Uh, I don’t think so.” She did tell me, in between my near hysteria, that this test frequently had false positives and that I should get a PCR test, which is much more accurate but usually took 48 hours to receive the results. I figured that would put our plane somewhere over Nova Scotia by that time. 

We were frantic looking for a time slot opening for the test, but nothing seemed to be available anywhere. Fortunately, my husband thought to look on the airline website for COVID testing assistance, which included links to pharmacies serving United passengers. Low and behold, for the low, low price of $199, I could get a rapid PCR test in only four hours at our local CVS. We figured it was worth it if it could save our trip…and it was, because this test came back negative.  

And so now, with hand sanitizer in my purse and an N-95 on my face, I’m sitting in Coach and waiting for another adventure to begin…and for the plane to take off.