Weekend getaway to Gateway Canyons Resort — and thoughts on fall pandemic travel

Twenty-one years of marriage deserves a little getaway, right — even in a pandemic? I say yes. Quent and I booked two nights at Gateway Canyons Resort, south of Grand Junction, Colorado, over our anniversary weekend earlier this month.

Here’s the thing. I sort of spaced that this resort — actually located in the tiny town of Gateway — is in a desert climate. It’s a lot like Moab, Utah — a place I wouldn’t rush off to in mid-July with its temperatures that can soar to 100°F easily.

Doh!

Still, we kept our reservation, even though we realized it would be hot and we could have canceled and rebooked somewhere in the more temperate mountains nearby. Our plan was just to hike on nearby trails (in the early morning), cool off in the pool(s), eat well at on-site restaurants (outdoors!), nap, and read. No big ol’ off-property exploring planned.

Turned out, it was a pretty great getaway, though physical distancing and safe pandemic precautions were always top of mind.

We always felt safe at the 72-room resort. Even though it was 80 percent filled to capacity, we never felt on top of anyone. We were always able to get restaurant tables outside in the shade (important!). There was Plexiglas separating me from front desk staff at check-in. The resort advertised enhanced cleaning procedures in the rooms and public areas.

That said, there were a few snafus and things we didn’t expect:

• One of the cafe/markets was closed. I’d been counting on buying some take-and-go muffins or bagels in the morning before hiking. Instead, we just hiked and then sat down at a restaurant for a nice brunch. No big deal, but had the resort advertised online that the market was closed for takeout and coffee to go, we might have packed some extra breakfast food. We were told that the cafe/market was closed because of staffing issues.
• We moved pools one afternoon in order to order drinks from the pool bar, only to get there to find an employee closing it down (2 hours before advertised closing time). He said, “Staff needs to move where we’re needed.” Okay!
• Sometimes food service was a little slow.
• Generally speaking, staff wore masks, though in the prickly heat they seemed to slip and slide — and we spied at least one staffer wearing it at a restaurant underneath his nose.
• One morning we arrived at the pool to find no towels on hand — none on the chairs and none in a cupboard (as they had been the night prior).

None of these slips were super egregious. But at a resort that advertises itself as a luxury property, I expect service and amenities to be top-notch. At least I did prior to pandemic times.

Sign of the times for pandemic travel? And our (tentative) autumn plans

But maybe this is be par for the course for travel during the pandemic. As cases continue to rise, and the economy continues its free fall, can hotels, resorts, vacation spots, airlines keep up the customer service we’ve long enjoyed and expected? It sure seemed like Gateway Canyons was staffing the bare minimum number of employees required to make the resort run — economic common sense, but perhaps not ideal for clientele.

Generally speaking, I’ve had no complaints about on our road trips this spring and summer, where destinations seemed pleased to have guests. I’ve also felt safe, namely because we tried to avoid as many people as possible. That’s not so possible on a plane.

My husband’s and my original plan for travel this fall, after getting the kids off to their respective college campuses in August, was to celebrate our empty-nest status with a 10-week stint in Sayulita, Mexico. We can both work remotely, so why not live by the beach for a bit? We went as far this past January to set up a spreadsheet of links to potential rentals. We looked at the prices of round-trip plane tickets to Puerto Vallarta. We were pretty set on a plan. You know, until COVID-19 hit.

Still now there’s just too much up in the air as far as containment of the coronavirus goes — as I write this, we just hit record high number of daily reported cases (75,000+) in the United States. Mexico isn’t faring any better. My kids are expecting to study on their college campuses from mid-August through Thanksgiving… but will that stick?

We toyed with Hawaii — if you’re living there for 8–10 weeks, what’s 2 weeks of quarantine (if they roll back the planned “test before you arrive” policy that begins September 1)? And we’re even curious about Barbados’ recent announcement that they’re making it easy for remote employees to live and work there for up to a year.

However, that doesn’t allow us much flexibility if we’ve rented a place for a couple months and one of us gets sick and we want to be at home. Or a close family member gets sick. Or our college kids have to boomerang home in an outbreak.

So, now we’ve become beyond obsessed with buying a used RV (Class A or Class C) and taking it on the road (avoiding any hotspots!), heading north (the Dakotas) and east (NY and NH) in September and October, and returning home to Colorado by Thanksgiving in order to totally renovate it!

We’ve been poring over used rigs for sale at RVTrader.com. I’ve started following full-time RVing couples on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram (not that this is our plan — we’ll never give up our Colorado home). I’ve spent hours watching before/after RV renovation videos.

People go ALL OUT transforming their used RVs — you know, the ones that typically come with dull beige carpeting, cheap furniture, plain light oak cabinets, and painful-to-look-at patterned window coverings. Check out these before/after pics — that kitchen area could be out of a brand-new apartment!

Here’s a before/after from a 2007 35-foot Winnebago currently for sale in Arkansas:

Crazy cool, right?? (Love love love the bright white cabinets with new hardware!)

Can we stay put in Colorado this fall? Absolutely — we live in a gorgeous part of the country, with lots of opportunities for breathing fresh air right outside our back door. Might some call us irresponsible for not staying “safer at home”? Maybe.

But why not join the RV parade? We can stay self-contained in our rig and continue to avoid strangers and potential exposure. I dig the idea of a “quarantine on wheels” — sure we’ll be stopping at gas stations, RV parks, sightseeing spots, and grocery stores. But armed with plenty of masks, gloves, Clorox wipes, and avoiding crowds as much as possible, I’m certain we’d limit our exposure to the virus (and others’ exposure to us) nearly as much as we would at home.

I haven’t been this excited about a plan in a long time. It’s been rough not having any concrete travel plans (and I know my fellow travel enthusiasts will understand this) — or frankly any plans in general. In an RV we can be nimble; we can explore parts of the country I’ve never been to; we can safely visit friends and family back East; and perhaps most important, I’ll be distracted, not despondent (after 5 straight months of family togetherness) when my kids move out, because hubs and I will be off on our own adventures ourselves!

Stay tuned. Will see if this pans out. Cuz if anything I’ve learned in this pandemic is that flexibility is key to maintaining sanity these days. I’m game to pivot. But in the meantime, it sure is fun to have something to look forward to in the coming months, when so much is unknown and unsettled regarding the state of our country — and the world.