Freedom is coming!
I am deciding whether to go out of my house….here in Utah, Governor Herbert has dropped us from RED ALERT to ORANGE ALERT. This new alert is an in-between, and hopefully a sign of progress. Our bars and restaurants are open again, but everyone is in masks and wearing gloves. There are social distance boxes taped on all the floors, and the food and drink are all handled with far more care.
This is hopeful progress, and a positive sign that we can start visiting some destinations, as new guidelines to control the COVID-19 virus are gradually put into place. HE Travel President Phil Sheldon is maintaining charts to track the number of COVID-19 cases in all of our tour destinations, as well as travel restrictions as the world opens back up. These charts will be made available on our site shortly and updated regularly.
We are getting signs that many of our late summer and fall trips will still launch as planned, and I cannot wait. Because Quarantine, here is the deal…I’ve really come to love you. You made me stop and smell the roses, and consider my life, and how it could be better. Even as they threaten to free us from our semi-voluntary house-arrest, I will not forget you. I will not forget the lessons you taught me, the memories you have reminded me of, or the things we have done together.
I mean, look at the progress we made on the stone road to the Chicken Coop!
Look at the progress we made refinishing the cedar fence. Nobody even knew we were doing that!
Our new website is ready to launch now…well, sort of…just as soon as I finish staining this damn fence. It feels like it is a mile long. Two Coats! Did you know you have to do TWO coats of this waterproofer?!? Aughghh@#!%! Why not just make it thicker? Anyway, just watch HeTravel.com, because it is going to just randomly be a different site any day now. Could be Monday, could be Friday. It will be like BAM! Suddenly more beautiful, suddenly more user friendly, suddenly, with no real warning. Just pure, unexpected, newness.
Do you know what else quarantine taught me? I learned how to tie my now ridiculously long beard into what looks like a normal beard. Mind Blown! Now I could be almost anyone. A chameleon.
I think I am getting Stockholm Syndrome…I really need to get back out into the world…
Speaking of back out in the world…
…there seems to be a surge in domestic travel demand. As travel restrictions are being lifted, the calls are coming in. If you want a local tour, we are expecting these upcoming domestic summertime trips to launch as planned.
SPLASH! Grand Canyon Rafting: with National Parks opening, both of our August Trips are moving forward as scheduled. The Grand Canyon only allows 2,000 total people each day at the bottom of the river, throughout the entire 280-mile river course. Talk about socially distant….
Main Fork of the Salmon River: Take a breather and enjoy the peace that comes from escaping a city quarantine. Private tents, fresh local produce, and miles and miles of clean rushing white water.
Colorado Gay Dude Ranch: My personal favorite trip. Enjoy the best that Colorado offers. Ride horses and learn how to shoot a shotgun too. All good skills after being freed from quarantine. I will actually personally be on this trip. However, I will arrive late because I am giving a TEDx Talk in Ogden, Utah on the first day of the tour. It’s worth being late. The title of my talk is “Using Ancient Technology to Terraform the Earth, First.” I am so excited to share my revolutionary climate change reversing/energy storage concept.
On the international social distance traveling front…
It looks like our Alpenglow Swiss hiking tour is likely launching as planned. Switzerland has opened restaurants and bars locally, and they are getting ready to begin receiving international travelers again in their hotels soon. If you’re interested, we still have a few spots left.
Finally, The Utah Governor’s Race:
I was eliminated at the virtual Democratic Convention. I took second place, without enough votes to take it to a public primary. I would have liked to continue gathering signatures to go straight to a Primary, but unfortunately, COVID-19 said no more signature gathering by Governor’s orders. Oh well, keep moving forward. The next political disruption to be announced soon!
I hope to see you on tour!
Warmly,
Zachary Moses
CEO of HeTravel.com, OutWestAdventures.com, Perch Innovations
Write-In Candidate for Utah State Governor 2020
Check out last month’s notes here!
