Local snowbirds re-evaluate winter plans

With the Canada-U.S. land border closed to non-essential travel due to COVID-19 and health concerns about the virus itself weighing on people, staying home is a popular option this year.

Some local snowbirds have already made their decision while others are taking a wait-and-see approach.

“We love to travel, we love to go see places and different things and enjoy life, just some things aren’t worth risks and we decided this year we’re staying home. It’s one year of our life,” says Shawna Gale.

For the past seven or eight years, Gale and her husband have gone south in the winter to locales like the Bahamas, Cuba and Mexico. They started out as week-long trips but last year it stretched to a month. She said the plan was to go for a month this winter and the length of stay would likely slowly grow as the years passed.

After a lot of thought on the safety of travelling and flying and the different possibilities and scenarios, Gale – who already cancelled an October trip to Disneyland – and her husband decided to stay home this year.

“If you do get sick there of course you’re not flying home, they’re taking your temperature upon flight. If you’re already sick then you’re relying on a Mexico hospital and what kind of care you’re going to be given there,” she said, adding the possible financial losses were a whole other conversation. “It was too much of a risk to take for ifs, ands and maybes.”

Anne Carrier and her husband are usually at their property in Mesa, Ariz. from October to March, returning to Medicine Hat for a few weeks around Christmas to see family and renew health care. For now, they have no plans to go in October unless things drastically change in the U.S.

“My husband and I talked it over, and this is our opinion only, we are being cautious,” says Carrier. “We’re at a vulnerable age although we have no health issues, fortunately. So we’re just being cautious. We’ll tentatively look around the first part of January and see where things are at then.”

She adds many of the amenities at the park are closed or restricted at the moment, so there’s not enough of a draw at the moment to make up for the potential risks of being there.

Even in Alberta Carrier and her husband are being cautious. They have teachers in the family and grandchildren going back to school next week, and so they are keeping an eye on how the school re-entry goes. She adds they’ll probably draw back on visiting them just to be on the safe side.

“We’re respecting it. We’re not scared of it, we’re respecting it,” she says of the virus.

Gale now has her travelling eyes on the future.

“COVID has its own little surprises for us and I’m hoping that this is one year,” she said.

by Chris Brown

Local snowbirds re-evaluate winter plans

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