In A Year Of Dunno, It Wouldn't Be A Trip Without Dunno.

The mandatory 2020 pre-trip worry post to follow.

Back from Turkey Vegas, got that one in more or less unscathed, but now more possible clouds on the horizon for the Xmas trip. COVID cases are ballooning all over the place, and things are escalating rapidly in terms of how governments are responding to it, and trying (in vain) to contain it.

CA has imposed a curfew and rollback to basically lockdown, and there are rumblings that a travel quarantine may be put in place. This would obviously mean having to isolate for whatever arbitrary period of time after, say, a trip to Nevada. Can only assume this would be enforced at airports, not sure how they could do it on cars without causing traffic meltdowns. If it came to that, I could drive again (ugh), not ideal but I would do it if it meant a trip happening or not. Can't see Nevada putting one on, it would effectively be a death knell for the resorts.

Speaking of Nevada though, next week Tuesday is the end of the 3 week "pause" that the Gov there put on to reduce cases. If they continue to rise heavily, he may be forced to go into some sort of March-style lockdown too. Resorts or at least bars could close again. Once again as with a travel quarantine this is probably unlikely because the economy there is on the verge of collapse as it is, but if he feels like he has to take action there's not much more he could do that he hasn't already done.

Then there's the possibility that my job could put on some sort of travel quarantine too. They have been more or less following city/state guidelines but they could get twitchy and force anyone traveling to self-isolate for a period too. I could get around that by just straight up lying and saying I won't go when I will, but there are obvious risks in that as well. If a co-worker sees me there I'm cooked.

If things stay as they are for the next 3 weeks and I can do a Thanksgiving-style trip it will be fine. I can navigate those restrictions with no big issue, it just means making reservations and avoiding small-capacity venues. Even if a few more places close down due to current restrictions, there are so many places to hang on strip that I'd still be OK. Bars closing down again would give me pause but as long as it was the August model again it would likely still be a go. It's probably all going to come down to if there's a huge spike from the Thanksgiving travel or not. If yes it could be shut down and sayonara, if not I might be OK.

I don't really have any personal concerns about catching it by going on the trips at this point. I've done three Vegas trips this year, one w/o masks, and have felt safe and protected each time. The resorts do a good job of distancing and everyone wore a mask on the last trip - the mask mandate seems to have even sunk into the conservative Neanderthal skulls in the last couple months. I feel no less safe there than I do here.

The worst case scenario is I just can't go. I take the time off but just sit in my room and do fuck all for 9 days. Which might drive me nuts. I've done Vegas every Xmas since 2013 and it would be crushing to miss this one. But I'm trying to be sanguine about it. It's out of my control and if I can't go I'll just have to deal with it. Hopefully, things don't escalate to that point. I'd call the odds maybe 65-35 go/no go right now. I'll update as the next couple weeks clarifies things.

UPDATE: Per the always excellent @VitalVegas twitter feed, apparently Governor Sisolak has been contacted by several casino execs informing him they will NOT be shutting down for the holiday. The Gov technically has the power to do so but the resort industry has the REAL power in NV so an interesting week coming as the 3-week "pause" ends Tuesday. We'll see what happens. On the CA side, the Gov here is "strongly discouraging" travel outside of your county, but no outright ban yet. Don't see how there could be one during the month of December anyway, how could you possibly enforce that? The drama continues...