News reports say that the mask requirement for transportation situations is extended to January 2022:

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... culation=1


Brian

We are back under an indoor mask mandate in Oregon, and just today I received an email that Providence Park, a soccer stadium in Portland, will be requiring proof of vaccination in order to enter again, as they had prior to a month or so ago. I'm good with both of those things.

Link to the TSA announcement: https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/releases/2021/04/30/tsa-extends-face-mask-requirement-airports-and-throughout

Now would be a good time to use some of those photos I posted earlier at your organization.

The headlines this evening announce that the CDC Director has decreed that those who are not vaccinated should not travel during Labor Day weekend. How wonderfully considerate of her to wait until September 1 to announce this new directive.

PC

Just accept it and quit declaring it is not so; This thing is nowhere near beat and we're going to be dealing it for a very long time to come.

Millions of Americans have discovered in the last year and a half that you can live quite happily while simultaneously avoiding events and activities that require contact with large groups of people.

PC

As I travel around the country visiting various operations, I try to ask each group how they are handling the mask requirements, as our group has a large local event coming up in which we participate. A well-known group I visited this week in the upper east had one of their people flat out insist that they were an "attraction" and thereby not covered by TSA regulations. I wonder if they somehow found a loophole?

I asked to speak with the person in charge to have a private conversation about it, but that person was tied up on the phone and I couldn't hang around.

I have well over a thousand dollars and probably over 100 hours of planning and research invested in the trip in question, the first time my wife and I have been able to travel extensively for leisure in about a decade.

The CDC can, as Bender of "Futurama" so eloquently put it, "BITE MY SHINY METAL [posterior]!!!!!!!!!

I have found that a stimulus check, used with a recreational vehicle, provides just about a perfect solution to mask-free living and travel. Use the "Allstays" website to locate the municipal and fairground camping where you just put $20 in the payment envelope and pick your spot, and it provides a really nice travel experience. You may be able to find a campground near a railroad museum, where you can wear a mask.

PC

As it turns out:

1) At the places we're going, campground and RV reservations typically have to be made a year OR MORE in advance, in part because hordes of people are choosing outdoor mask-free remote recreation instead of resorts or the like. We were told by people who know that what we got (four nights in national parks) was the result of extreme luck.
2) The trip has been upgraded to a "once in a lifetime experience" akin to a two-week trip through Europe, not your classic "family vacation."
3) The classic lodging options--think the lodges at national parks--when even available now, have been priced to confiscatory levels, a result of added expenses (sanitation, etc.) and tightened labor supply. And as I type we are receiving alerts to certain facilities in question shutting down or modifying options (like no hot breakfasts, pools closed, etc.) due to lack of labor. (In fact, one of the railroads had to cancel the excursion we'd booked and replace it with a modified service--we get *A* ride, but not the one I built much of the itinerary around--but that's due to emergency track work, not labor shortages.)
4) Though this is not really a "railfan" trip per se, there are a myriad of places we wish to go that are "completely unsuitable for caravan travel," as the warnings in Britain's AA atlases signify for certain "short cuts." (There's a remote local freight still running with a caboose I may get to chase for a couple miles, and I'm NOT chasing a train in an RV!!!)
5) I don't own an RV, but I live around the corner from an RV dealership. Yes, they can be rented. That would triple the cost of the trip. And you can't drive an RV as fast as you can the vehicle we rented for peace of mind: A crossover SUV with sport suspension.

So what you're suggesting is akin to ditching a carefully planned railfanning itinerary through Europe's heritage railways and rail museums, and replacing it with a package tourism tour through Buckingham Palace, the Louvre, and a Munich beer hall.

Should I repeat Bender's motto again?

take the shot or put on the mask you loser

Only a matter of time until the CDC/DOT mandate that to travel on public transportation you will be required to show proof of vaccination period. Proof of recent negative Covid test will not be sufficient.

All persons 12 years old or older with be required to show proof of vaccination. Kids 11 and younger must show a proof of negative Covid test within the previous 48 hours.

No exceptions. Only a matter of when not if.

IMHO-Ross Rowland

I’ve been out to several tourist lines the last few weeks and I’ve been extremely disappointed in how tourist railroads are just making up rules. Very little mask use by employees or guests.

Signs posted saying “masks required” but even the crew don’t wear masks. Sad.