April 30, 2020

Last month I wrote that, instead of leaving like we had planned, we were staying-in-place—‘place’ being Bandera, Texas— because of Covid-19, and it was the right call. At that time there were about 3,000 deaths in the U.S. attributed to the corona virus; today’s count exceeds 60,000!

Actually, being here longer than expected turned out to be better than I could have ever imagined. April in the Hill Country is truly splendid. Cypress trees, so barren in the winter, come alive with leaves. Bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas, are profuse and adorn fields and roadways with various shades of lavender. And prickly pear, yucci and cholla cacti have come alive with flamboyant blooms.

Dave and I continued our weekly Meals on Wheels route on Wednesdays. As Winter Texans, only here for a few months out of the year, we’re grateful to be absorbed into their network of drivers. There are 24 “clients” on our route and they are always happy to see us, not to mention appreciative. It’s hard to express the joy we get out of being able to serve, but it’s definitely a symbiotic relationship. I think it’s been a major contributor to our well-being throughout this lockdown.

There are only a few of us remaining at this RV park and, thankfully, we have all stayed healthy throughout this ordeal. Everyone has been respectful of everyone else’s personal space, but we’ve still managed to socialize somewhat while remaining socially distant. It’s been good for our mental health to keep the lines of communication open and realize we’re all in this together.

Now that we’ve come to the end of the month though, we are getting both frustrated and anxious and we’ve been talking more about leaving. Texas summers are notoriously hot and already we’ve felt tinges of what that feels like. We’re thinking about possibly heading out around May 10th and driving up to Dallas to have some maintenance done on Felix (an oil change, chassis lube, air bag and hydraulic inspection) and have the air conditioner in the dash, which gave out more than a year ago, repaired. Just now it’s talk, but even that is promising.

We’ll see. Much depends upon how Texas deals with opening back up, set to begin tomorrow. Of course, if staying put is the safer option, that’s what we’ll do. Time will tell. Until then, Bandera isn’t a bad place to be.