Topic: Goodbye/Vacation Thread

Cheerio @Ralizah! Stay safe, hope you have a fantastic time on your vacation and see you soon!

I'll respond in more depth tomorrow, but I did want to note that I'm back. It was... quite the vacation.

Among other things:

• I got to see multiple locations in Alaska, which was really cool.
• Went to Canada for the first time. I hate poutines. Sorry.
• My entire family and I caught covid-19, so we were unable to fly back to our home state (Tennessee). We couldn't hunker down where we were, though, because my mom was lacking more than a few days worth of her pills, and our animals were going to evicted from the boarder on Friday regardless of how much we were willing to pay extra.
• As a result, in a desperate bid to avoid these problems, we drove 2500 miles over the course of 2.5 days from Washington to Tennessee. Practically a trip from one coast to the other in less than half a week. Imagine being infected with covid, going 39 hours without sleep (at present; I intend to retire shortly), and completing the car ride from hell at the same time!
• Finally, just a few hours ago, I discovered my sense of smell was gone, and my sense of taste was extremely muted as a result. It's very weird to not be able to smell anything or taste food properly.

So, I'm gonna go sleep before I start hallucinating or something.

@Ralizah Welcome back! Hopefully there were better things to remember about your visit to Canada than Covid and crappy poutines 😂 Hope you feel better soon!

@Ralizah
... And the moral of the story is that you shouldn't wander to far from your comfort zone!?

Hope you get some well needed rest and all recover fine.

P.S. Off to Google what poutines are.

Well... Damn that's one hell of a mad dash to get home @Ralizah that I'd certainly never want to partake in! 😅

Hope you all recover quickly and enjoy your well earned rest!

@Jimmer-jammer Honestly, I'd like to return one day. I only saw bits of Vancouver and Toronto.

@sorteddan It's unfortunate, but travel is always going to come with these kinds of risks when a pandemic is going on.

Better than coming back with ebola or monkeypox or something!

@lolwhatno I hadn't either. Once my brother-in-law described it to me, I knew it was exactly the sort of unique international food item I had to try!

@RogerRoger Thanks!

Yeah, gravy and cheese curds on french fries is... different. I wanted to be open-minded, but I don't get the appeal.

Then again, I've heard many non-Americans have similar reactions to our biscuit and gravy meals, and I love those, so I guess it just depends on what you grow up with.

I also ordered pancakes in a restaurant and received gigantic bread patties that weren't anything like the flapjacks you'd get in the States. Those actually didn't taste bad, though.

@HallowMoonshadow Thanks. Yeah, I feel a little more like myself now that I've gotten a few hours rest. Although I'll probably continue to take it easy as we figure out how the disease is going to progress. Top priority is keeping my mother comfortable, given her pre-existing conditions that make covid a big risk factor for her.

@Ralizah That is pretty wild. Did you all share driving? And how bad was the covid? And how bad was the traffic?

If it was quiet roads, and I wasn't very ill, and I was doing shifts I think I could handle it just about :') That's still a long way though.

@Ralizah What a nightmare! So sorry to hear about the struggles. Being a fellow American, I know how long and far of a car ride that is! Did you have to rent a car then? What a small fortune that must have cost in the current car shortages and exorbitant gas prices, notwithstanding the torture of crossing the wide open West and Central US.

And I sure hope the COVID is mild for you and your mom. Fingers crossed 🤞🏼

@Ralizah Damn, that’s quite the “adventure”! I hope you’re all doing alright though.

And Western Canada is amazing. We went out and did Jasper, Banff, Lake Louise, Kelowna, Vancouver, and Vancouver Island. Highly recommended!

My first thought after reading you'd all got Covid was of your mother Ral (as I recall the few conversations that have sprung up regarding her and Covid). My fingers are crossed that she especially makes a speedy recovery and all of you are a-ok as soon as!

@Ralizah Bloody hell, that’s quite the trip! Hope you all recover fine, Covid has a nasty habit of sticking around and making you feel like crap even weeks after you’ve seemingly got over it.

@kyleforrester87 People traded driving duties pretty constantly, yeah. Traffic was pretty clear on the highways, apart from a few nerve-wracking truck convoys, and the covid, while unpleasant, wasn't life-threatening. So we were just able to make it.

@Th3solution Yep, in both Canada and the U.S. My BiL rented a canadian car to cross the border into Washington, then rented an American car, then he and my sister drove back back into Canada, and then returned over the border again in just the American car. The next day, we set out on our trek.

Gas was insane each time as well, although we did find a few pumps in small little towns that somehow managed to stay in the lower range.

@nessisonett Yeah, I'm really hoping we don't have any persistent "long covid" problems.

How long did it take you to make a full recovery?

@Thrillho Yeah, it was a full couple of weeks, that's for sure.

I'll probably avoid international travel again as long as covid is still a factor, but once it's not, I'd love to spend a few weeks in Canada and 'see the sights.'

@HallowMoonshadow Her oxygen numbers aren't great right now, but we're having her use some whiffers and breathing treatments via her nebulizer to see if we can get her to a better place. COPD + covid is an ugly combo.

We're not prepared to take her into the ER atm unless it gets worse, though. People with covid are treated like lepers in hospitals, and she's not keen on being isolated from her family.

@Ralizah That's quite a wild turn of events. Hope things get better for you and your family soon.

@Ralizah hell of a journey, hope your all OK and on the mend!! The smell thing with covid is weird, I only realised it had gone after burning toast and everyone else in the house complaining how bad the smell was!

I bet she isn't keen. I wouldn't if I was in her shoes either.

I'm not familiar with all the medical lingo used there (til I looked it up at least and I can only imagine how bad that could be for her with both those conditions)

Here's hoping that everything turns out ok for you all Ral 😊

@ThereThere These name changes are always so confusing 😂😂

Welcome back!

@ThereThere yeah same old, same old around here buddy… what you been up to?

@ThereThere Welcome back, and interesting choice of new identity 😀

@ThereThere Welcome back Mr. I Changed My Name Again for Whatever Reason.

@ThereThere

Hmmm what have you missed???
Probably me and the colonel congratulating each other on sone number of platinums...
Rog entertaining us with some articulate reviews and buying some game merch...
Ness probably playing some retro stuff...
Kairu & Render setting times I could never hope to match on GT7...
Lolwhatno getting involved in the most random conversations wherever possible...
KilloWertz having relevant opinions on seemingly every game released in recent memory...

You know. Same old Push Square.
Welcome back. How you keeping.