We had not been on the road since before the covid-19 pandemic when we left Southern California for Utah at the beginning of April. The drive from Newport Beach to Park City was pretty easy. There were stretches where the amount of traffic seemed about normal and other places where I-15 was empty. Even though it was the weekend, there were plenty of big trucks on I-15 going in both directions. We imagined them all full of toilet paper on their way to grocery stores. I-15 was particularly empty as we drove through Las Vegas. With all the casinos closed, the road was deserted. There’s a place just before Barstow — exit 178 , the Lenwood Road exit — at which we’ve stopped before. On the west side of I-15, there are three big truck stops and a McDonald’s. On the east side is a big shopping area with lots of stores and restaurants. It’s normally very busy – so busy there are two Starbucks directly across the street from each other. But when we were there on a Saturday, it was a ghost town. It felt very spooky, and very sad. Finding food and open restrooms on the road wasn’t always simple. When we’re on the road in normal times, we often stop at Starbucks for lunch, snacks, and bathroom breaks. But we found Starbucks either closed or offering only drive-thru service. For restrooms, we went to truck stops. And every time we stepped out of the car, we worried about how close other people were and what we were touching.
We stopped for the night in Saint George, where we stayed at a Clarion Suites. For dinner, we walked next door to the Black Bear Diner where, as everywhere else, our only option was take-out food. We ended up eating pretty unpleasant food with plastic utensils out of Styrofoam containers on a tiny table in our hotel room. The road is romantic. But not every night on the road is romantic.
As we drove into Nevada, there was a large sign telling everyone — residents and nonresidents alike — arriving in the state to self-quarantine for fourteen days. That makes it tough to enjoy Las Vegas. And did it still apply to us even though we were through the state and into Utah in just a few hours? Rhode Island is trying to keep out cars with New York license plates, and Florida and Texas are discouraging people from certain states from entering, and, if they do, requiring them to self-quarantine for fourteen days. If you try to drive into Texas today on I-10 from Louisiana, you’ll be stopped at the state line by the Texas highway patrol and forced to explain yourself. Will we get to the point where states will begin closing their borders to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus? A worthy goal, but under our constitution, do nomads like us have an argument that states can’t close their borders to residents of other states – even though we’re not residents of any state?
Early on Sunday morning, after we left Saint George, we got off I-15 and drove over to Zion National Park. The park was closed. But no one was manning the toll booth at the entrance, so we just drove in. Instead of being in traffic and having to deal with crowds, we were able to visit parts of park on our own. That part of Zion near the entrance is one of the most beautiful places in the country, and we had it to ourselves for a short time in the early morning light.
