For a brief while, it appeared as if the Covid pandemic might be dwindling to a close, but it was sadly not to be. After a brief respite, thanks in great part to Trump stupidity and the profound ignorance of his followers and much of the Republican Party, it blossomed again in a terrifying outburst of death and disease. The failure of many people to get one of the approved vaccines made for a population that was undervaccinated and ready to spread the infection while, in many cases, dying themselves. So travel, which appeared to be loosening up, became more problematic again and, as a result, my own travels were kept to a minimum. Now, fully vaccinated, my wife and I have decided to venture out once again. A repeat trip to Africa, planned shortly after we returned in 2019 from one of the greatest trips ever to that part of the world, will hopefully take place in 2 weeks.
It is not, however, as if we travel unconcerned. Being on a plane for 14 hours remains a risk, we have to be tested several times along the way, and while our vaccine status most likely restricts the severity of our illness, we can still turn positive and require quarantining somewhere along the way, which would demolish this trip. Hopefully, we will be sufficiently cautious to remain well and Covid negative.
In the meantime, my photography has once again ground to a minimal level. My posts on Instagram are often repostings of prior images, though there have been some new efforts, but it has mostly been biding time until we got up the courage to resume travel. The image here is one of the few that I took during our trip to Minnesota a couple months ago. We had tried to get to the West Coast, but no accommodations were available, as we were booking last minute. We then decided to go somewhere that we had never traveled to previously, and wound up arbitrarily picking Minnesota. We did have a lovely time, though the good images were few and far between. This sunset, however, was quite lovely and made our day. Now, tentatively on to Africa!
Sunset, International Falls, Minnesota