Our trip to Rocky Mountain National Park started off well enough. The 5 of us made it to the airport without incident. We managed to check bags weighing just under 40 pounds, avoiding a hefty penalty from Frontier. We made it through security and our biggest challenge should have been: which snacks to buy for the airplane.
Once we were finally were through security, Shira was able to get my attention: babe, M doesn't look so hot. He seems congested. We huddled up: what should we do? If M was sick, flying to Denver was a terrible idea. But if we were overreacting, then leaving him behind would be devastating.
As we brainstormed I suggested: you know, we could just ignore this and get on the plane. Shira wasn't having it.
I realized that in my dop kit I'd added some single use thermometers. Perfect, we could see if M had a temperature and make this go-no-go decision based on hard data. Then it occurred to me that at the last minute, I'd checked my dop kit. Ugh.
I hit up the newsstand seeing if by some chance they were selling thermometers and found what I was really looking for: an overpriced Covid test. I bought it. We used it. M had Covid. Damn.
At that point, we really had no choice but to leave M and his brother and sister at home. Shira and I weren't sure what we should do (had we been exposed, too?), but I pushed Shira to get on the plane. I explained the problem to the gate agent who managed to get the kids bags off of the airplane and was generally cool with the situation (of course that was only after they took all three bags off, and then began return to ours to the terminal and put the kids back on. D'oh).
And so Shira and I found ourselves flying to Denver on a romantic couples trip, rather than the kid friendly adventure we were planning. Everyone was gutted. It was such a surreal situation. We replayed the events of the morning over and over again, looking for what we could have done differently. Other than having the kids test before we met up, there wasn't really anything we could have done. And even then, the outcome would have been the same.
Other than being massively disappointed, the flight to Denver and the drive to Estes Park were we easy enough. By nighttime we found ourselves in an oversized and quite nice Airbnb. The scenery was gorgeous, but all we could think about was how the kids would have loved this.
I so wanted to fix our trip right then and there. But that wasn't going to be an option. Our cheese had been moved and it was time to get back into the maze.
Rocky Mountain National Park, here we come!
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