We are up early and eager to get on our flight and beat it the hell out of Europe. We have passed on the hotel’s gracious offer of a breakfast buffet for $25 per person.  We can definitely do better than $175 with breakfast inside the airport. The hotel is near the south terminal and we need the north terminal so have to take the railcar which Kyle walks in circles seemingly unable to find.  Not a good omen.

We arrive at the north terminal and go to the wrong section three times before finding British Airways. Another bad omen. Kyle has checked in online but we still have to check our bags so Kyle asks the agent which line to go to.  She responds by asking where we’re going.  “Antigua,” Kyle responds. She gets this look as apparently she wasn’t expecting that answer. “Are you citizens?” she asks. “No.” “Are you residents?” “No.” “Are you permanent visa holders?” “Ummm..no.”  The agent shakes her head as if to say “well then you ain’t going there” and says, “wait here I need to sort this out.”

Oh shit. Kyle had checked and Antingua is blocking the usual suspects of China, Italy, S Korea and Iran but who the hell knows as things are changing by the minute if not second with the Coronavirus these days. Kyle’s stomach has dropped through the floor and the 5 minute wait seems absolutely interminable. She finally re-emerages and says, “it’s ok, go to that line.” Kyle has lost count of the number of times he has almost passed out when things are blowing up and then doubled over in relief when it worked out. 

We make a beeline to the gate picking up our breakfast for well less than $175.  Kyle is pacing back and forth waiting for them to the start boarding the flight.  The boarding area looks deserted and Kyle is half convinced the flight is going to be cancelled. It’s a 9 hour direct flight on a huge airplane.  There just don’t look like enough people at the gate to cover the cost of food let alone the fuel. The sweat is pouring down Kyle’s back as he paces. 

It’s March 17th and the NY Times reports that a US Federal Plan forecasts that the pandemic could last 18 months or longer. Trump has pivoted and is now saying, “this is a bad one. This is a very bad one” as he unveils a 15-day plan for social distancing.  The EU is blocking all non-essential travel into the EU for 30 days and the US is blocking all travel from EU into the US.   France, Spain and Italy are in complete lockdown.  The US department of State has raised the worldwide travel advisory to level 3 out of 4 and is urging citizens abroad to return home.  

Kyle and Leanne’s friends are pinging them asking when they’re coming back? Kyle’s friend texts him asking where he is and telling him to find a place that’s as far away from civilization as we can find. Kyle says on the way to a deserted cove in a remote part of the island of Antigua. “Great job,” he responds, “things are about to get a whole lot worse in the US.”

Other friends are incredulous that we are choosing not to come back.  The US only has 6.3K thousand reported cases but our analysis concludes that the numbers are crap and the Coronavirus is coming to the US big time. Why would we rush back to the place that is about to explode?  

Manhattan Beach alone already has 5 times as many cases as the country of Antigua. The supermarkets shelves in Manhattan Beach are empty as well.  We did our analysis and made our decision not to return to the US yesterday but every time someone tells us we are crazy for not coming back, well, it does cause you to start second guessing the decision.

The overhead speakers crackle to life announcing the boarding process for British Airways flight 2256 to Antigua.  Relief floods over a nearly panicked Kyle for the second time today and probably 10th time in the last week. Although he could use a change of shirt that he doesn’t have right now. 

We board the plane and unlike the Cairo flight, it is nearly deserted.  We are in the back third section of the flight.  It is a big plane with a 3 – 4 – 3 seat configuration across each row.  The passengers are eyeing each other nervously and don’t even bother sitting in their assigned seats but fan out to claim a 10 seat row for themselves. 

A younger couple with that in love look is sitting in two seats next to each other. Before take-off the guy gets up and moves three rows forward.  Leanne quips to her, “guess he doesn’t like you THAT much, huh?” She laughs nervously but is left to wonder. 

Flower Duet, a beautiful opera song is playing on the speaker as the British Airlines flight from Gatwick to Antigua pushes off from the gangway.  It’s fitting as right now we are feeling like we are just a little bit closer to getting to our self-quarantine spot.

With each of us having a 10 seat row to ourself, the surrounding area disinfected, masks firmly in place, our hands curled and shriveled from the 3,000th application of hand sanitizer and most importantly, with the plane in the air and auto-pilot locked on Antigua, we let out our collective breath and manage to enjoy the flight.  Each of us took in 3 to 4 movies as we are too stressed / nervous to try to accomplish anything more serious like blogposts or schoolwork.