What can I say? What happened? What didn't happen? Basically, everything didn't happen.
After a ridiculously blessed 2018 and 2019, I hunkered down prepared to have a somewhat quieter 2020 given that I was spending more money than I'd ever spent on a vacation for my 50th birthday bash in Zambia. It was a full-on splurge, no holds barred, no expense spared, business class fare on Emirates, elephant hide sleepout. It was the stuff of dreams. Until it wasn't. In March 2020, all of the US went into lockdown due to the damn coronavirus and just like that, my dream milestone bash was snuffed out.
I won't complain because people have lost their lives to this and I've been kept from my Dad and my friends because of this and have spent the last 10 months basically prisoner in my own home. But it still sucks.
I kept myself busy over the summer contemplating rebooking the whole trip, but with no real idea when this will end I just wanted my money back and to sit quietly in a corner and lick my wounds. Easier said than done. While I'd not paid for the entire cost of the trip (they were letting me wait until 30 days out to see what the situation was in Zambia, since Zambia's borders were indeed closed to tourists until early August), I was still out almost $7000 on my deposit. Yes, you read that right. The airfare, my business class seat on Emirates, was the easy part. By flying business class, part of your fare benefit is to get your entire fare back if you cancel. So that was a no-brainer. But my trip insurance didn't cover anything related to pandemic-caused cancellations unless I myself caught the virus and couldn't travel. I had a conversation with the insurance company at one point when the border was still closed and said "surely you don't expect me to fly there knowing the border is closed?" and they said yes, but that they'd "cover the early return home once you arrived and were turned away." That made absolutely no sense.
Over my birthday while I was still in decision-making mode, my Dad took a turn for the worse and he was placed in hospice care. I cancelled the trip then and there, obviously, and filed the paperwork that the doctor gave me to get my refund. It took 4 months but I got it all back, except the $700 that the insurance cost me. Dad is still with us and still under hospice care, which I'm thankful for, but the long story short is that without that ill turn, I'd be out $7000 in deposits. No travel insurance policy contemplates anything having to do with this pandemic. Read your fine print, read it again and then call and talk to an agent with pointed, specific questions before you buy any policy.
At the same time, we had trips planned for two Morrissey shows in NYC in March, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's induction of Depeche Mode in May, Chicago for a Frida Kahlo exhibition in June and Las Vegas for a 5 night residency by Morrissey. All of those were cancelled. JetBlue refunded every penny of the airfare and the only thing I was out is one night hotel in Cleveland, which was part of an air-hotel package and not refundable but it is still good this year. If we get out there again.
All told, I had a very lucky recovery from all this travel that wasn't allowed to happen.
During lockdown, I've started thinking about where I'll go when I can. We've started to research Israel, Jordan and Turkey. I also want to support some of the places and people who've been suffering during lockdown that I miss: my hotels in Paris and Florence, my guides in Kenya. I also want to tick off more adventures on my bucket list: chimps in Tanzania. It's still too early to book now but never too early to dream.
