The US was the last country on our trip and clearly impacted by #Covid19 #Corona. In the end we shortened our trip and flew back to NL on 3 April 2020 instead of to Germany on 15 April. Nevertheless we had a great time in the US and feel lucky that we managed to complete our world trip almost as planned.
We landed in Dallas on 10 March, just a few days before Trump declared a travel ban on Europeans. From the airport we headed directly to Lena’s sister’s place in San Angelo. Here we also met Lena’s parents again so the “Wiedersehensfreude” (reunification happiness….some terms just do not translate well) was high. We spent a total of 6 days in San Angelo. The highlight was ofcourse Nora’s (Lena’s sister) and Russell’s wedding on 14 of March where Levin got to be flower boy.
Bride and Family 
Groom, Flower Boy and Best Man
From San Angelo the kids traveled with their grandparents towards New Mexico while we enjoyed a few childless days travelling into the same direction. Felix and Lena visisted Guadeloupe National Park for a 3mile hike and managed to do a bit of shopping around El Paso before all malls etc were closed down. We reunited again on 19 March by when all the places we were headed to were under pretty strict Covid19 measures: restaurants only open for take out, only essential shops open, 6 feet social distancing, National Park visitor centres closed, etc…. For us this meant that our agenda was now limited to driving, our hotel room (hotel amenities all closed) and enjoying nature. It also meant that our flights to Hannover, Germany on 15 April were cancelled and that we had to figure out what to do. Our mood was pretty low at that time with the uncertainty of increasingly restrictive Covid measures combined with miserable weather. El Paso has an average of 2 days of light rain in March, however, we managed to have 2 full days of heavy rain while there….
Luckily the weather changed and we were able to enjoy White Sands National Park in sunshine. What a cool place this is. You basically drive into the middle of nowhere and suddenly you are surrounded by white sand dunes everywhere. We did a short 1 mile walk through the dunes and then played, rolled, ran and jumped on the dunes.
Our next stop was Tuscon, Arizona, where we spend 3 nights as most activities had closed by now our activities centred around the parks. We wandered past the huge cactuses in Saguara National Park. On the next day we visisted beautiful Sabino Canyon recreational area for another walk/picnic. The hike will definitely remain in our memories since we had a close encounter with a rattle snake. We got a good scare when we suddenly heard the rattling right next us but luckily nothing more happened and we now have a great story to share 🙂 From Tuscon Lena’s parents returned to Dallas for an early flight home and we decided to rent a spacious appartment in Phoenix to figure out what to do next.
After 4 days in Phoenix the weather had improved further and we decided to continue along our planned route and closely monitor the travel advice in the US and Europe. Our next stop was Sedona and the Red Rock State Park. Here we did some pretty cool climbing on one of the hikes. We made it 2/3 up but then decided to turn around since Melia found it too scary (which it was). The next day we visisted the Barringer Meteorite Crater. All the indoor activities were closed but we still got to visit the crater hole, which was pretty neat.
From here we headed up to the Grand Canyon. All facilities were closed so there was no visitor centre, no shuttle, no cafe, however, there were also NO PEOPLE. We had the park to ourselves, which was a very special experience. When we drove into the main visitor centre parking lot there were a total of 5 other cars parked and we barely saw others while admiring the beauty of the park. We found a great 1mile walk through a forest to a remote area of the canyon where we sat close to the edge enjoying the views.
The remaining stops on our route were Horseshoe Bend, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon and Captiol Reef National Park. Unfortunately, Arches, Canyonlands and Dead Horse point had by now been closed so we could not visist them. We spent about half a day in each park with hiking and picknicking. The rest of the day we were either driving or in our hotel room. The landscapes were incredible, we had beautiful weather, and there were hardly any other people in the parks. We definitely enjoyed visiting the parks and it is almost impossible to choose a favorite. If we had to decide, Felix would probably choose Bryce Canyon while Lena would like to return to Red Rock State park for some more climbing.
By the end of March we decided that it would be best to return back to NL. Travelling with the uncertainty was clearly more stressful than normal travel and there is also only so much hiking you can do with 2 kids. As such we booked a flight from Salt Lake City on 3 April and safely returned home on 4 April. Luckily our flight was very smooth with empty airports and planes. The only surprise was that our luggage was not in Amsterdam. Apparently it got stuck in Chicago during our stop over and given the limited flights at the moment it took 5 days for it to arrive in NL. In the end we did get everything back and for the past 10 days we have enjoyed being back home.
World Xperience 