Our Awesome Covid-Safe Thanksgiving

My kids drove 10 hours each way to camp in the windy, freezing Nevada desert in order to spend Thanksgiving with me. Am I bragging? Maybe. Am I appreciative? Oh, you bet. We wore our masks, and we were socially distanced, we didn’t eat together, and we were never indoors. Covid didn’t have a chance.

The adventure started with John and I picking out a probable destination, and then driving out there a day ahead to scope it out. The goal was something equal distant between all three households, and warm enough to camp. Serenity was coming from all the way up in Boise, so we basically had them drop due south. Laura and Alex headed southwest, and John and I drove northwest. We picked a spot just east of Las Vegas and just north of Lake Mead.

We sent the kids detailed google maps of our intended destination ahead of time, and hoped that the place would work. We could tell from google satellite photos that the final stretch involved driving through a sandy wash, and we didn’t know how passable that would be. We knew we might have to find an alternative location.

Another big concern was whether we would have enough cell service once we got there to be able to get cell coordinates out to the kids. Worst case scenario we’d have to find a camping place, then drive back out to civilization to catch enough cell service to be able to tell the kids where the camp was.

Here’s the sandy wash we had seen on google satellite view that were worried about.

Turns out the van was able to navigate it. Our van has large tires, even though it’s not 4 wheel drive. Also we carry traction pads and a hand cable winch in case we ever get stuck.

Success! Home for the night.

The next morning was Thanksgiving Day. John and I went on a couple of short hikes while waiting for the kids to arrive.

These were cool fuzzy plants:

We were very excited when everyone arrived safely that evening. Laura and Alex drove partway up the wash before deciding to park and walk the final quarter of a mile. Serenity parked on the main road and hiked the half-mile in; we met them at the road and helped carry everything to the campsite.

We had strong winds the first night. I felt very guilty sleeping in the van with the kids out braving the weather in tents. I could feel the wind rocking the van, yikes!

But they got up cheerfully the next morning, ready to go hiking. Laura had been up some that night with her dog, Zane, who had a learning curve around the concept of staying INSIDE his sleeping bag.

Here’s pictures from our Friday hike:

The masked desert bandits, lol

It started out cool in the morning, but got warm during the hike.

There were definitely no crowds to contend with. Every once in awhile a vehicle would go by on the main wash. We never saw any hikers in the region where we were staying. There were a few hikers at a designated trail head we encountered on Friday’s hike, but we didn’t hike the designated trail ourselves. We turned around at that point and went back the way we had come. We never saw any people or vehicles on this particular dirt road. We love the wide open spaces.