I am in the process of planning a road trip from my home in eastern Pennsylvania to Florida, possibly as far as Key West. There are two main reasons for this, one boring to you, dear reader, and the other of more universal appeal and, I hope, less boring. The first is a need to get away for a while because of some distressing personal matters that have recently occurred. The second is because, dammit, I have the right!
Planning such a trip at this time is rather more challenging than in “normal” times. Normally this trip could be accomplished simply by jumping on I95 near Philadelphia and heading south. But “ronastrictions” complicate this. For example, current rules in Maryland require anyone entering the state to quarantine for 14 days. There are no qualifiers on that rule – cross into Maryland and you must quarantine. As far as I can tell, not even offering to immediately turn around and leave allows an exception to the rule. Therefore, I will have to bypass Maryland on this trip.
Examining other states’, it appears that, barring changes to their rules, I will have to cross Pennsylvania, go through Ohio (which only states that travelers into the state “should” quarantine), then Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and finally into Florida. I first thought that I could cut through West Virginia then travel along the Tennessee border (North Carolina is a no-go) but an article in the Wall Street Journal that a friend sent me, dated May 20, indicated that WV’s rules are stricter than I thought. Hence the detour through Ohio.
There doesn’t seem to be a problem with Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia but it’s quite possible that crossing into Florida will be an issue. The latest I’ve seen, on that state’s pandemic web site, is that there are checkpoints on the interstates at the borders with Louisiana and Georgia. I’m going to get off I75 just before the Georgia/Florida border and try to cross on a minor road.
It’s also possible that my out-of-state plates will entice some power-tripping gubmint officer to stop me but I’m willing to chance that. I also wonder if the fact that I’ve effectively been in quarantine for over two months now (I work from home anyway and I’m a hard-core introvert) will count toward the 14 days that different states require. Probably not.
I’m going for the reasons I stated above and to hell with the now-ridiculous quarantine rules. Wish me luck.
6 replies on “…It’s “Who’s Going to Stop Me?””
Good luck with your trip, it sounds nice and it looks like you will really be taking the scenic route through some beautiful country!
How are they enforcing these quarantines on travellers? Escorting you with flashing lights to a motel and putting an armed guard outside your room for two weeks? Or perhaps making you sign an affidavit?
When the outbreak was looking bad in New Orleans, the Texas governor tried to “close the border” into Texas from Louisiana. First they said there would be checkpoints starting the next day. The next day people reported that there were no checkpoints. Then they said they would not actually prevent anyone from coming in, but they would “advise” them that they were directed to drive straight to their destination and stay there for 14 days. (Which would work really well if they were going to El Paso, which is only 847 miles from the border.) Then they said there would be checkpoints at every single road entrance along the entire border(!). I think I saw something about actual state troopers on I-10 for a few days.
But all this time I was scratching my head wondering how they were going to enforce this rule, and why they thought this was an effective use of state resources. It seems to me to both impossible and ineffective without escalating to using the national guard to literally roadblock the border and not allow anyone through except the Charmin and Wal-Mart trucks with their tailgunners.
I don’t know how it’s enforced. I was going to take the time to find out but I want to get moving before things open up and half the fun (beating the stupid system) is gone. 🙂
I’ll try to post updates as I go.
Please do!!!
Good luck! Florida man here. Down near Tampa. I haven’t been up to the border since Christmas, so I can’t speak to the checkpoint status, but be advised, if they’re serious about checkpoints, then they’ve already thought about your “backroad approach”. They may still be there waiting and eager to hear the story about how a Pennsylvania man got so far off the beaten path 😂. If you make it into the state, you’re golden 🙂 things are great here. I say go for it!
You could save a bunch of time and go to Destin on the Gulf Coast, near Pensacola. I understand everything is open there and you wouldn’t have to go back to the east.
Also, maybe Nashville.