Day 1 July 4, 2022 afternoon

A negative rapid antigen test was required to go on this trip. They wanted proof you were not spreading any nasty, infectious virus critters. You may remember that when we checked in the day before, the hotel clerk gave each of us an at-home test kit. After spending the morning of Day 1 tramping around Fairbanks and napping, we decided we should brave the test. You need some background here.

COVID TEST HISTORY

On Friday, July 1, before we were to leave Austin for Fairbanks on Sunday, July 4, we got the results of the PCR test we’d done a week before through the City of Austin. You know, the test that the City gives you results in two days. After a week, John started contacting the city and asking about the results. (Thank goodness he pays attention to these things.) The email we received told us that a week before on Friday, June 24, we tested positive for Covid. WHAT?! I knew we’d been sick, but I thought it was RSV or a cold. Surely, the mild sickness we had wasn’t Covid. Evidently, it was.

I spent all day Friday, July 1 calling my doctor and our tour company often in tears trying to figure out what we could do or did we have to cancel the trip. The nurse at my doctor’s office explained that since the positive PCR test was more than five days before our trip, according to CDC guidelines we were no longer infectious. The company representatives told me that if we had a letter from our doctor saying we were no longer infectious, we could still go on the trip whether the rapid antigen test was still positive or not. Bless my doctor’s office, they were very helpful in telling me what to do and emailed me a letter on a Friday afternoon. That’s damn good service, I’d say. We got a letter from John’s doctor, too, just in case. They were also quite helpful and charged us $25.

RAPID COVID TESTS

In our room on the afternoon of Day 1 of the trip, we did the Covid Rapid Antigen tests. Via text, Tom, our guide, instructed us to take a picture of the negative test alongside our driver’s license and text it to him. We waited the required fifteen minutes for the results. Even before the time was up, I could see a very pale positive line developing on my test strip. Bother! The photo above stayed in the camera never to be seen by our guide (I cropped out the DL part of the photo). I took it for memory purposes only.

The process would have been easier if the test had been negative. Thank goodness I had the doctor’s letter. I took a picture of the letter with my driver’s license and sent it to Tom. In reply, I got a long, clearly pre-written text which said that the front desk had run out of test kits to give to people when they checked in and I should run down and get one. I assumed he was busy getting everything straight with our group and didn’t really read the first text. I texted him back and told him I’d tested and it was still faintly positive. Also, I added that I’d talked to the Nat Hab main office and they told me to give him the doctor’s letter. He replied he now understood and he’d see me at dinner. Yay!

Covid requirements met! John’s test was negative, so he could just take a picture of his test strip with his DL and he was done. I felt relief to have gotten the last hurdle completed and we could relax a bit.

WE RELAX AND THEN GATHER

After Cathy and Karen got back from the 2 o’clock movie (John happened to be gazing out the hotel window and saw them return), I sent Cathy a text asking if they wanted company or to rest. She said to come on up to their digs, but autocorrect made it “dogs,” which made me smile. Damn, autocorrect. I went to their room, chatted for a couple of hours, and went back to our room at about 5.

The group gathered at 5:30 in the lobby for orientation and dinner. When we got to the lobby, I saw eight people seated in the breakfast area with an older woman hanging back from the circle behind a half wall in front of the entry door to the hotel. When Tom showed up, he talked to the hanging-back-woman. I overheard a little of their conversation. She’d not sent him a photo of her Covid test, so they did it again. It was positive and she had to quarantine for five days. How devastating for her! I marvel at our luck or planning or divine intervention that made our Covid experience and that trip work for us. I tested positive, but my letter trumped the test. Whew!

COVID ORIENTATION

Tom came back to the group and explained we were supposed to have been a group of 13. Due to Covid, two dropped out before they left home and three were quarantined in Fairbanks. Two of those three had been on a pre-trip and tested positive once they got to Fairbanks. The last one was this lady who tested positive right then. Wow. Talk about attrition.

Our group was now these eight and a guide. I like a small tour group, though I’d rather the members of our group hadn’t been chopped down by Covid. Tom showed us to our private dining room (that looked a little like a storage room, too. Evidently the hotel made multiple uses of that space.) He talked about Covid precautions and scared us all plenty. He told us we are doing the public bus in Denali (the only way to get deep into the park) – a possible Covid risk. We are taking a private boat tour from Fox Island and the captain wanted us to mask up. Her boat…her rules.

I decided to see if I could find something other than the N-95 masks I brought. Boy, I hate those things. I get so hot under them. John brought his cloth mask but I didn’t. Anyway, we still need to be cautious. Later, I did find some surgical masks I’d packed in one of our smaller bags that were not N-95 (though I had those too) that were more comfortable and I wore those throughout the trip.

DINNER

Next: dinner! The food was from the restaurant that turned us away the first night and it tasted quite good. John ordered a red cabbage salad that was huge and I helped him eat it. I had the grilled shrimp spinach salad and would have been happier if it had been half the size that it was. I ate all the goodies and left about half the spinach. It was good though the shrimp were cold.

Sometime during dinner, Krista made the comment that everything happens for a reason and I couldn’t help myself but comment that I really didn’t think that was the case. I think we create a reason or at least make up a story for everything that happens. I brought up Kate Bowler’s book, Everything Happens, where she crosses out the “for a reason” part of the saying. Of course, I couldn’t remember her name then. I looked it up on my phone. Tom mentioned she had a podcast by the same name. I’ve added her podcast Everything Happens to the ones I listen to and have really enjoyed it.

I had ordered cheesecake for dessert but rescinded that order after my really large shrimp and spinach salad. John got it instead. Good thing we didn’t get two. It was a very big serving. The waitress brought an extra spoon. I thanked her and told her she was a genius. The group included Cathy and Karen, John and I, another couple Tammy and Sam, and Krista and Ron were our singletons. After dinner, we chatted about our travels until the party broke up at about 9. We were in bed by 9:30. Travel starts tomorrow, Day 2. The schedule for the day included viewing a section of the Alaska Pipeline, the Large Animal Research Center, and travel to Denali National Park.