Originally Posted by
DougG
Your comment about food reminds me of what I'm finding difficult about riding during this shutdown. I usually end up riding solo, so in lieu of a group consensus on where we're going, I always set some sort of goal or significant destination. By "significant" I mean someplace that usually involves food, whether a cafe for a late breakfast or lunch, a coffee shop, or just a DQ for ice cream, and that hasn't been possible up to now (although I think that some counter-service places such as DQ are now operating). It has also been difficult to get my DW to ride with me since her first thought is always "where are the bathrooms" and most of those along our rail-trails are also closed -- even the vault toilets that are her last refuge.
Tomorrow I'm gong to try a favorite route that takes me out to a rural town that usually has someplace to eat and see if anything is open yet. Grabbing something at a gas station convenience store is just not the same thing...
Also our situation on our tandem, long time group riders, now just us. I plan our routes to somehow arrive at a grocery store or similar at midpoint. There are enough rural roads around here that many routes are possible using a few different stores. They have toilets and we are Dove Bar fans, though we'll take substitutes. We wear masks in the store and eat our snacks outside..
We don't plan on eating indoors anywhere for a very long time. Social distanced indoor seating is not a sensible concept. Indoors, you're all breathing the same air no matter how far apart you are. It's a time-in-zone kind of thing. A quick in and out somewhere, no problem but the longer we're in there and the smaller the airspace, the more viral particles might get inhaled. Once we see no new infections in our county for a week, then we might eat out. We still have ~200/day in Washington and traffic is picking back up again.