I travel for work. Usually just within the USA, but far enough away that it's not feasible to drive and so I end up flying more than I would like.

When the pandemic started around February-March 2020, I had work scheduled weekly for the next few months. One by one, my customers contacted me and told me to stand by until they figure out what was going on. The world shut down over the next few weeks.

I spent about 2 months working from home. It was the longest I had been home in a very long time and it was nice to be able to catch up on things. Then, a customer was having a serious problem and gave me a call to ask if I was willing to travel and so I made arrangements to travel to Texas

Going to Texas

At that time I was flying on American from O'Hare most of the time. I took a mid-morning flight to DFW and so left the house around 08:00. There's normally a lot of traffic that time of the morning, but there was none, and I mean none. I assumed that there would be more once I got to the airport entrance but it never picked up. Pulling into the airport was creepy, there was absolutely nobody around, no triple parked cars, no cops yelling at people to move, nothing.

I got dropped off at Terminal 3 and headed inside to check in. It was exactly like what they were showing on the news at the time, about 10 American gate agents standing at the desk with nothing to do and nobody checking in. I got checked in, walked through security and couldn't believe how empty it was inside. I started taking pictures because it was so weird. For some reason I was thinking about this the other day and wanted to post some of them.

When I got to my departure gate there was nobody around. After a while 3 or 4 other people showed up and that was about it. It was one of those 737 flights with 5 people on it. The gate agent showed up and said something about filling out a form for your quarantine plan in Texas. I didn't know anything about this but was going to Texas to work, not sit in a hotel for 2 weeks quarantined. What I found out was that the state of Texas was requiring anyone traveling from the states of New York, New Jersey, Illinois and California to quarantine for 2 weeks on arrival. The form was to let the state know where you would be at so that they could check to make sure you were actually there in quarantine.

There were Texas State Troopers waiting for us at our gate in DFW to collect the forms. They weren't being jerks or anything, just asking questions and collecting the forms. I let the trooper know that I filled out the form but was there to work for a steel company (a Homeland Security essential industry) and would have brought a formal letter of request but didn't know, etc. He just took the form and said "your good", so it was not a big deal.

I picked up my bag and went to the rental car center. I had read that the rental car agencies had been selling off cars as fast as they could but had no idea the extent of offloading they had accomplished in such a short time. I have never seen so few rental cars at DFW.

There was a lot more traffic and people out and about in Texas than Chicago. I got to my hotel and checked in. I was there for 3 nights and was the only person there, which was really weird. Just me and the person working the front desk. I saw the State Troopers stop in a few times to check on the front desk clerk, but that was it.

Heading Home

I finished my job and headed back home. I was really surprised at how busy DFW was on the way back. It definitely wasn't normal capacity, but more people there than I expected.

The video is in the O'Hare terminal 3 arrivals area where I was waiting to get picked up. This was probably a Friday afternoon, which is usually insane busy down there.

Afterwords

I got very busy after this trip and ended up flying at least weekly.

I made an emergency trip to Canada to assist a steel mill that was having problems. This was a massive pain in the ass because the border was still closed. The company hired an immigration attorney to put a package together to get me into the country, but Canada required a negative PCR test less than 72 hours old and it was almost impossible to coordinate. I flew into Buffalo NY the night before and found that NY (the state) was still requiring people arriving on flights to quarantine for 2 weeks (but driving in was Ok). They blocked off all exits from the airport secure area so that you had to go through health department screening and complete a form telling them your quarantine plan. I completed the form and noted I was leaving NY to go to Canada. The NY state health department actually called me a few days later and wanted to know where I was at. I let them know I wasn't staying in NY and was in Canada, like I noted on the form, etc. Getting into Canada was not a big deal, but I was confined to the hotel and only allowed to go between there and work. In hindsight I probably should have declined the trip.

I managed to not get COVID for 6 months or so. I was pretty sure I would get it from an airport or flight but it never happened. I ended up getting it on a trip a lot closer to home. I drove to a facility and gave training to a group in a closed classroom with poor ventilation. Most of the people in the group refused to keep masks on and apparently someone had it. I thought it was just allergies but got tested anyway and was positive.

I ended up contracting one of the variants the next year or so after everything opened up and masks weren't required on flights. There was a guy a few seats in front of me hacking his lungs out and I was thinking it would be good to have an N95 on, but I didn't have one. I came down with it a few days later and it was a like a bad cold, a lot worse than the first time. This was after already having it once and being vaccinated twice. It really made me question what good the vaccine was.