Getting Away During a Pandemic

In January of 2020, Justin and I planned out our entire year.

I thought a long weekend of hiking would be perfect. I booked a hotel and started working on an itinerary. The month before our trip, cases started to spike and a discomfort came over us. We decided to cancel our hotel and look at other options. We knew if we stayed within the DMV, we wouldn't have any travel restrictions. I looked at best hiking in the area. Of course, the best hikes were in VA. We had previously discussed spending the night in Roanoke on our way to Gatlinburg, which is why we decided to would be our destination of choice. I started researching hotels and things to do on TripAdvisor. I found a Hilton resort that was reasonably priced in Downtown Roanoke. Turns out, it was also on Trip Advisors, top 10 places to see. After booking The Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center, we decided to also book a night in Shenandoah National Park. I booked a night at Fell Cabin at Skyland Resort. We had discussed staying here years ago when we hiked Old Rag, but it was completely booked. Thankfully, I was able to snag a cabin for this trip. I can't say that I was completely comfortable traveling and staying in hotels. This was a very different experience than any other trip. I overcame some pretty big fears. I wore my mask without complaint and made the best out of our time. I brought Lysol and Clorox wipes to sanitize our rooms. In years past, nothing like this concerned me. I may have had a concern for bed bugs, but that's about it. I will say for both locations, everything was clean. I felt a little discomfort for the first couple nights and that all disappear as the week went on. Overall it was a great trip and I can't wait to go back and do some of hikes we didn't get a chance to do.

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