My wife and I rented an SUV on Friday and drove 1,700 miles from Phoenix to Chicago to take our daughter’s belongings to her as she starts life in a new apartment there. We flew home last night.

Empty road for miles in the middle of Kansas

This country is different state to state. My home state of Arizona loosened up restrictions, but driving into New Mexico there were signs everywhere about wearing masks, rest stops were closed, and I just got a general sense of fear in the air. In Kansas, seems like things are back to “normal,” as we ate at a restaurant and stopped at a tourist attraction in Wichita. Missouri was also “chill,” then Illinois and especially Chicago were all about COVID prevention. I think it’s appropriate different states/cities handle things the way they need to.

We stayed at two Hampton Inns and one Hilton Garden Inn along the way. I won’t go into much detail as that’s not GT’s target demographic, but …

Hampton Inn Albuquerque
Masks on, no public restroom in lobby, pool and fitness center closed, no breakfast buffet, no take-out bags, nothing special for Diamond guests other than premier parking in a mostly empty parking lot.

Keeper of the Plains Statue in Wichita

Hampton Inn Wichita Airport
Newer, nicer property. Welcome snacks, fitness center open — I just had to tell them when I was finished so they could clean equipment; of course, I wiped down like I would anyway before and after. Pool closed, buffet closed, but had breakfast bags to go in the morning.

Hilton Garden Inn Springfield, Illinois
Masks, bar/restaurant closed, pool closed. Didn’t check fitness center. No breakfast bags, but said we could grab something from the pantry by the front desk. Got a few snacks/drinks. Got take-out for dinner and ate outside on the hotel’s picnic table area.

Flight home ORD–PHX on American Airlines
Nothing different about dropping off rental car with Avis; took shuttle to airport from rental complex. We walked right up to PreCheck, lowered masks and breezed through security. Airport was eerily empty. Decided to go to Admirals lounge to check on upgrades. Lounge itself was closed, but three agents were there, eager to help; they thanked us for stopping in — probably broke up the boredom for them. I was No. 1 on the upgrade list, but my wife was No. 5. The agent made some change so my wife would use my 500-mile vouchers instead of hers and bumped her to No. 2 on the list.

Maybach in the parking lot of our Hampton Inn

We found the one open bar in Terminal 3’s K area, where there were four bar stools six feet apart. The guy said he’d serve us but we’d have to stay six feet apart. So we each got a drink, reached out for a cheers and carried on our conversation before we bought a couple to-go meals from the bar for the flight. Then we went to the gate. I approached the gate agent about the upgrade and 10 minutes later we were in 1A and 1B. We boarded and kept our masks on unless we were eating/drinking. As we boarded, every passenger was handed a paper bag with a water bottle, an oatmeal cookie and an individual Purell packet. No pre-flight drink was offered in first class; 1D was kept open for a crew member to use during take-off and landing. The rest of first class was full, and coach looked pretty full, too. After we reached cruising altitude, the flight attendant walked into the cabin and just kind of looked at us. She wasn’t allowed to offer us anything — everything was request only. So I requested a Woodford and my wife requested a ginger ale. She gladly served us and actually was sympathetic, saying “I wish service wasn’t like this.” Later in the flight we each requested one more drink, and we landed early. Deplaning in PHX was like normal. Uber was 50 percent more than usual — perhaps because it was Memorial Day, so we took a taxi home.

All in all, we felt safe, our anxiety levels were low, and we felt blessed we were able to take the trip to support our daughter. All our prayers were answered. I’ll be glad to return to more travel, but I’d like to see more amenities return first.

— Eric Ludwig, Globility Board member