Travels are on pause. Two days before we were to leave for our big Irish adventure, travel restrictions were announced for the United States, and we were (and still are to an extent) devastated. The coronavirus pandemic had finally hit home at an alarming rate causing a shutdown of our county and others around the world.

Emotions ran high. I struggled with emotions to begin with and still do at times. I was mad because we were so excited to be leaving in two days to the rolling green hills of Ireland and now in one short announcement we had to cancel the trip. Not to mention, this was now the second time I had to postpone. I also felt bad for being mad because so many people were sick around the world and here I am sulking healthily at home because I can’t go on my vacation. In the end, I realize that it’s okay to have different emotions about this trip that was sure to deliver pure joy and wonder. It was and is okay to be angry, sad, and grateful that I have good health during these hard times of lockdown.

Cancelling a trip is very time consuming. I was waiting in the queue for a callback from the airline for over 12 hours. Brittany and Heather even longer. I’m very grateful to the airline for being so helpful during this time. Others have had mixed emotions about that. The hosts of the houses we were to stay were wonderful as well. What I thought would be a nightmare to cancel, turned out to be a fairly easy process.

What’s next? We still plan to schedule another trip as soon as it is safe to do so. Some restrictions are starting to lift in Tennessee and the surrounding states so I’m sure we will have some weekend trips in the near future as further lockdowns are over. I was able to visit the Smoky Mountains National Park one day last week since the Parks are beginning to open again. We have been talking about the mountains, the beach, pretty much anywhere we can go safely. Hopefully, we will have new adventures to share with everyone very soon!