I was being halfhearted when I told my therapist two Thursdays before our trip that something inside was telling me that it was time for a break. I wasn’t really serious. Two weeks to arrange something wasn’t enough time. On our last trip to Europe in 2019, it had taken us nearly nine months to finalize an itinerary. But plan we did anyhow.
Like a travel novice, I had thought that all the pent up frustration about how things were going would magically dissipate the moment we hit the asphalt. In truth, the opposite happened. Poor Bob. He had to take the full brunt of my snippiness.
From March of 2020 to July 7th of 2021, the day my company required that all headquarter employees return, we had one positive COVID-19 case at the office. Up till then, the powers that be had been extra diligent about protecting employees: N95 masks, protective eye wear, hourly disinfections, socially-distanced cubicles. Then from the beginning of July till the week of our trip in late September, five positive cases had been reported at corporate. COVID protocols and enforcement seemed to have slackened and employees, for the most part, were left to fend for themselves. Management was mum about the cases, resending the company’s rubber-stamped pandemic policy after each occurrence. Policy violations were blatantly ignored; nothing was being done about them.
There was also a greater struggle that I had been dealing with internally. Why did it seem like people were going about their lives like the pandemic was already a thing of the past? Hospitalizations had risen higher than any other time before. Had we collectively forgotten what we had gone through the last year and a half? Were we so fed up that our compassion and patience had worn thin? In our darker moments, did we, for the briefest of seconds, intentionally turn a blind eye to the anti-vaxxers and naysayers, hoping for the worst so this could be all over? Why did those rare moments seem to come more often?
Under normal circumstances, a sweet treat for the road, like a peanut butter and strawberry jelly donut from Westernco Donut, went far in soothing the frustrated beast. Not so on the first day of our vacation.
Our destination was Johnston Ridge Observatory on Mount St. Helens. We had been meaning to visit the place, just not this early in our lives. It was intended as a stop on our RV road trip after retiring.
The eruption of Mount St. Helens occurred at 8:32AM PDT on May 18, 1980. For one reason or another, my typical amazement that I was alive (though just a kindergartner) when it happened didn’t make much of its usual impact on me. The exposed crater was cool and maybe even a little breathtaking. Had I been in a less irritable mood, the experience would have probably been much more enjoyable.
I tried to be as enthused as I could about what was towering before me but the same old nagging question kept repeating in my head: why did we come this far just to see a crumbled volcano from a distance? More broadly, why waste time and money looking at natural wonders when they were a click away on the internet? The only seemingly redeemable part of the stop was seeing my first ever chipmunk in the parking lot and contemplating whether it was inhumane to feed an already pudgy rodent pieces of a dark chocolate, nuts and sea salt bar.
Bob only added to the frustration. He had thought we had enough gas to get us up to and back from the volcano. We clinched our sphincters tight the entire ride down the curving mountainside, hoping we would have just enough fuel to coast into the nearest gas station. Thankfully, we did.
After a forgettable lunch of shoyu ramen, shrimp tempura, and miso soup and a round of slot machines at Ilani Casino in Ridgefield, we headed to our motel for the night. Why was it that other casinos advertised in the backyards of their competitors? A giant billboard for the Ilani (according to the COVID reminder before entering the casino, pronounced “ay-lahn-ay”) stood off on the roadside after leaving Muckleshoot Casino. Who would be foolish enough to fall for such aggressive marketing?
TRAVEL TIP: A co-worker told me that the best thing to get a caffeine boast while on the road and avoid annoying rest stops were chocolate-covered espresso beans.
I thought I found a silver lining that evening when were looking for dinner: Georgian food at Dedikos in Vancouver! Incidentally, Vancouver has a cool vibe and, if the cards had been dealt differently, someplace I would have seriously consider living in.
But things did not come to pass, the restaurant was fully-booked that night. What were all these people doing eating out anyhow? There was a pandemic! Try as we might to shift our trip plans around, there was no chance of trying Adjaruli Kachapuri unless we went out of our way or Mr. Roof was willing to make a personal house call!
Dinner plans were not a complete bust though. I got to try Haemul Dolsot Bibimbap (seafood Bibimbap) for the first time, at K-Town Korean BBQ.
