I'LL HAVE A SHOT...MAKE THAT TWO!
Tess and I have spent most of the past year in Mexico. We were down in Mexico when Covid really took off and our flights home ended up being canceled. Our next three flights were canceled and what was supposed to be a 2-week trip, turned into a two and a half month stay.
We probably could have found a way home sooner, but Covid was rapidly spreading in our home city of New Orleans and for a while, it had the highest cases of Covid, per capita, in the world. Nope, we’ll just stay here on the beach and head home later.
We were in a very remote part of Mexico and they really took a lot of precautions, way more than they did in the US and we felt safer there. Tess has an auto-immune disease, so our first priority was to be in the safest place possible. With our events being canceled, it seemed like the best choice at the time.
Little did we know that we would spend 10 months in Mexico from March 2020 through March 2021. Eventually, Covid made it to the small little community on the Oaxacan coast and we decided to fly home. We figured we could limit our exposure until our turn came up to get vaccinated.
We thought we would have to wait a couple of weeks, but to our surprise, the day we landed back in the US we had a message that we could get our vaccine. We called up our local pharmacy to see when and they asked “How about tomorrow”.
That sure was quick and we were happy to finally get the vaccine. We both got the Moderna vaccine and we had no adverse reactions. Our arms were just a little sore, right at the injection site, but other than that, nothing.
As I write this, we are scheduled to get our second shot immediately after Easter. We are already planning a day off, dedicated to recovery in case we have any reactions. From what we have heard from others, the second shot usually can cause minor flu symptoms, so we will be prepared.
That’s a small price to pay for our freedom.
Currently, there are still restrictions in most countries that limit US visitors and you still have to get tested before returning to the US from any country that does allow US travelers. Soon, vaccinated people will have options to travel to many more countries, and testing requirements will be waived.
Several countries are going to allow travel, at some point, but only to fully vaccinated travelers. Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Regent Seven Seas, Crystal Cruises, Virgin Cruises, and many more are requiring vaccinations for all guests and crew for summer 2021 sailings.
Right now, the US is vaccinating 2.25 million doses per day. Soon, our country will be able to vaccinate over 5 million people per day. At our current rate, half of the US will be vaccinated by May and we should reach 70% (which is needed for herd immunity) by June. I am hopeful that we will reach those goals even sooner.
Several states have already opened up vaccine appointments to everyone in their state. Progress is really starting to escalate and soon there will be more shots available than people to vaccinate.
You can get a lot of great information and daily updates on vaccination progress at this link:
See How The Vaccine Rollout is Going in Your State.
What does all this mean? It means that this is going to be a summer with travel and event options for the first time in 17 months and that cannot get here fast enough.
We know there are plenty of people that will not get the vaccine and there are many reasons why, this article is not meant to be a debate on whether or not to get a vaccine, it is simply a snapshot of what is going to be required and how the progress is going.
We will have quite a busy summer, with Naughty N’awlins taking place in August, we are going to immediately head to Belize as soon as the event is over for our Naughty Island adventure.
We also plan on going to the Xcapades Lifestyle Convention in Houston Texas, on June 3rd, Burning Man at the end of August and we just announced our Naughty Cancun trip to Temptation Resort November 6-13th.
In addition to the annual lifestyle events we are planning to attend, we are looking forward to the New Orleans Jazz Fest, Halloween, French Quarter Fest, and lots of great live music and shows this summer.
We are just thrilled to be able to make plans again. Having goals and something to look forward to is why most of us work in the first place. Without vacations, events, and fun times around the corner, we are just working to work. That’s pretty depressing when you put it that way.
Well, we are simply celebrating our first shot and if our nurse was a bartender, we’d say “I’ll take another." Come on Easter, it’s time for us to get our freedom back.
