2020 was not the best year for everyone, but I prefer to focus on the new opportunities it brought for a nomadic lifestyle!

I could have called this post, “2020– My Travel Year in Review” because, unlike a lot of people, I traveled freely for most of the year.  I’m going to cover some of my travel stops below, but this was not exactly a normal year, so I have to talk a little about that as well.  Along the way, I’ll also cover how the “New Normal” has made nomadic life possible for more people than ever before! If you’ve been waiting for an opportunity to travel full-time, that opportunity is knocking!

Foreward: A Hater’s gonna hate, and a Writer’s gonna write.

I believe in the concept of “fair warning” and so, let this serve as fair warning.  The paragraph above was written for the search engines and doesn’t mention some of the OTHER things I’m going to talk (write?) about.  This post is unlike anything I’ve written on the blog before and so, it may not be to your taste.  It is essentially my experience traveling all around the country during a pandemic.  It also contains adult language that while not strictly necessary, is fun for the author.  I am not trying to make a political statement but someone might ascribe their US/THEM beliefs to it.  If I’m not on the ONE side, then I must surely be on the OTHER.  I’d ask that you try to read this post as something that just “IS.”  Likewise, I am not taking a position on what the vi**s is or isn’t, etc.  It just IS and just WAS through throughout 2020.  However, this is a travel and DIY blog and I have traveled.  I want to document some of the places I have been this year and I have a blog.  I’m going to write about it and if that bothers you, don’t read this post.  If you feel the urge to tell me how I’m a mass murderer or something, then it’s likely you have never read my first “vanlife” story.  The one where I say, “my opinion of later is jaded”.  If an article about me traveling without a mask is going to make you angry, then you can go to the postscript at the end of this post and feed your rage.  That’s right, I put something there just for you that’s going to feel like a tasty episode of MSNBC or Fox News 🙂

Intro: There’s Something Afoot!

February 2020. Have you seen the news?  There’s something bad “going around” and if you just landed on planet Earth, you might think it’s the end of the world.  I’m of the opinion that this may be the start of a golden age, especially for nomads.  That is partly what this post is about, but… if I mention the specific thing that is going around, too many times, I could be blocked by search and social platforms or given a “dangerous and misleading information” label because I was not vetted by the Ministry of Truth.  Therefore, I will be referring to something called “this bullshit” throughout the post.  First, an explanation of why I’m using adult language in a generally “safe for kids” blog… The host of one of my favorite podcasts was talking about how the Texans near him refer to “what’s been going around”, as “this bullshit”.  Rather than use the popular name ending with a number, or calling it a pan****c, they just say, “This Bullshit”.  As in, “when all This Bullshit is over, I’m going on vacation!”  If you are writing a blog, there is another reason why you wouldn’t want to use certain words; censorship.  As Search and Social platforms attempt to “stop disinformation” they are blocking articles that contain certain key phrases, which means, you might not see this post when I put it on Facebook (or Insta, or Twitter, or…).  So, when I need to refer to what’s going on, I’ll just say, “this bullshit”.  It does not mean that I am dismissing the effects of this bullshit or that you should or shouldn’t wear a muzzle to keep said bullshit in or out.  It just IS.  I’m going to sidestep taking any position because I’m not arrogant enough to think I know what is going on any more than anyone else.  You do what YOU think is right, based on the information that you believe to be accurate.  OK, on with the show!

 

Part 1: Pre-B.S.

This story is going somewhere, but first, let me give you a little background on how I spent the first days of this year.  I was working on the road when I first heard about this bullshit going on in Asia (no country names either).  For those that don’t know, I buy and sell machine tools (exciting, I know) and this type of career includes travel and working remotely.  It’s a nice fit for my part-time camping and park travel.  By the way, that’s also why the blog is called Odyssey Camper and not some variation of “Full-Timing in a Van”– because I still need to work.

I spent late December and the first part of January, visiting customers in the southeast quadrant of the US before I headed west for the SHOT show in Las Vegas.  On the way, I stopped in Quartzsite for RTR 2020 (a disappointment compared to the past events) and then visited my friend Doc John Leathers and his cat Derek.

Derek grabs the overwatch position. My friend lives in an RV and has experienced an awful year, health-wise.  He’s been battling and is still battling some difficult forms of cancer.  Through it all, he’s been positive, and although I’m sure he’s had dark moments, fearless.  In more than one way, he reminds me of Walt from Breaking Bad, hence the next photo.  But, January was better-times and we enjoyed steaks and drinks with Derek the Adventure Cat.

After that, I headed to the SHOT show in Vegas, for a work gig researching the market for a device that can map the inside of a gun barrel.  I thought this technology might be something that firearms manufacturers or law enforcement would be interested in.

S.H.O.T., aka “the Shot Show” is a business-to-business trade show for the firearms industry.  Almost anything you can think of that has to do with hunting, guns, accessories, or law enforcement is represented at SHOT.  60,000+ people attend and it’s not exactly the kind of place you’d go if you were worried about some bullshit getting passed around.  I was at that time, well aware of the news from the Far East and made sure to carry some hand sanitizer with me.  You might find that a laughable strategy almost one year on (as I write this), but it’s served me well at trade shows.  I used to catch some cold or flu after every show I did (a lot of handshaking) but since I started using hand sanitizer, I have not caught anything at a trade show in about 13 years.  I was aware and on the lookout for anyone who looked infectious, but most of the attendees at this show were from North America, which might explain why I did not notice any sick people.

I also got to talk to the FBI and the ATF at SHOT (voluntarily even!).  From Vegas, I headed back up to the office in Michigan, stopping in Ouray, CO for the ice festival.  That was a cold night, LOL, but what a cool place!

Two weeks after I returned to Michigan, I flew back west to Anaheim, CA for the mid-February MD&M West trade show.  This is a convention of manufacturers of medical devices and their suppliers.  Since I had to fly to the show, I booked a room at Paradise Pier in Disneyland (hey, it really was the cheapest room in the area, boss!).

Trade shows are very boring if they are not in Las Vegas, so I’ll spare you the photos. Part 2:  Something is “off”  By the time I arrived in Anaheim, we were all getting wind that something big was coming.  I mean, CNN didn’t know yet and politicians were still encouraging us to gather in large groups in Chinatown or NYC, but everyone else was catching on.  There were small warning signs at the show, explaining the alien concept of handwashing and warning people to stay 3 feet apart (3 feet!  Oh Death, I Laugh at Thee!).  They even gave us little bottles of hand sanitizer as an extra safety measure.  MD&M West is frequented by people from Asia who are buying and selling into the industry.  Roughly half of the people I judged to be from outside the US (from their language, clothing, mannerisms, etc.) were sweating, sneezing, coughing, or otherwise not looking their best (this is very interesting to me in retrospect because we now know that this bullshit was already in California by December 2019).  I’ve been to China on different occasions and widespread coughing, sneezing, and runny noses, are not particularly unusual.  The cities are densely populated and something is always going around, but people go on with life.  I was there during swine fl* and it was pretty much business as usual, other than SOME people wearing masks and everyone checking your temperature (also, they had those creepy thermal imaging cameras set up going into Korea and would pull you out of the immigration line if you were the wrong color…on the screen I, mean!). You’ll also remember that there were some seasonal things going on back in January, as there usually are in the winter.  Many people were already sweaty, runny, sneezy, and coughing.  I arrived at the Anaheim Convention Center and set up my booth for the next day’s show.  The following morning, my partner in the booth called in sick on her first day.  Then she called in on the second day, then the third… At that point, I was like, “Hey, just stay home and get well” which I admit was partially a selfish act.  But I got through the show, two airports, and 8 hours on planes, without contracting anything.  That’s usually the case for me.  As I mentioned, I use hand sanitizer at these things, don’t put fingers in my orifices, and thus I haven’t been sick with a cold or flu in close to a decade.  I think I caught nearly everything there was back when my kids were in elementary school, so maybe I’m immune now! (2022 update:  Nope, not immune.  I eventually did catch this in November of 2021 after moving to a Massachusetts town with a claimed “95% vaccination rate…).

Around the time I returned to the office in Michigan, the “news” was spreading to the infotainment channels and everyone was getting a little squeamish.  People were avoiding door handles, washing for extended periods, and our office personnel were split into two workgroups: Mon/Wed/Fri, or Tue/Thu.  I drew the second group which was fine by me.  Since I pretty much lead a nomadic work life anyway, I moved to the home office (instantly becoming more productive) and went on with life.  I watched people who normally live the cubicle life, struggle with Zoom, Skype, and the other collaborative software that I had been using for years.  I normally have lots of stuff stored at the house for van camping (yep, toilet paper too) so l adjusted my Butcher Box delivery, and literally, nothing else changed for my family.

Nomad Note #1 That’s where I’ll leave the ME part of the story for now and look at some of what was changing elsewhere.

1.  People whose job did not require them to be at a specific location were now starting to work remotely,  If you were in Sales, Purchasing, Accounting, Engineering, or 100 other positions, you started working from home.
2. Students finished their terms online.  In many cases, they are still online or have online learning as an option.  My daughter was among them, getting her degree from UT Austin, remotely (we returned in July to shoot our own “graduation” photos and pack up her remaining belongings).
3. Social distancing became a thing and people started marking off distances on the floor (clue for the next go-round, each tile is one foot…)  Suddenly, I was no longer an anti-social outcast!
4. Many people lost their jobs (me too, in the end) and many more were working shortened workweeks.
5. Contactless Delivery became a thing, which made me wonder, “How much were they touching my food BEFORE this bullshit started?!”

Part 3:  Social Distancing and Lockdowns

This post is not JUST about all the bullshit that went on this year, but it did happen and I think it’s important to at least outline what March and April were like from my perspective.  After my January/February travels across the country, I remained home for March and April.  I wanted to be at home with the family until we figured out what the actual threat and risk was, from this bullshit.  I’m not a germophobe by nature, but I am always skeptical of government-supplied information, especially that coming out of communist countries (I remember Chornobyl and the somber music on state radio whenever a Soviet premier did not die…) so I was a little spooked by the initial information leaking out of Asia.  I figured that the truth would be worse, not better than we were hearing.  So we stayed put, I left my mostly empty office, the governor locked everything down in Michigan, and life was likely the same here as it was where you were.

At the end of April, some states had decided that the worst had passed and so, they set a schedule to reopen.  However, in Michigan, they doubled down, kept the restaurants and services closed, and prohibited the sale of random things like seeds.  That’s a true story.  At a time when planting crops and a garden might prove to be the difference between life and death, the governor deemed seeds to be “non-essential”.  That might sound a bit hyperbolic to future readers, but this was at a time of distribution problems and local shortages of pork, chicken, and milk.  Nobody is going vegan if the crops don’t get planted.  That particular ban aside, I should point out that the state WAS experiencing some of the highest death counts in the country and I think they were panicking a bit.  We now know that the high numbers at that time were because sick people were put with the healthy population in local nursing homes, resulting in half of the Michigan deaths being in nursing homes.  But we didn’t know that then.  So with Michigan experiencing climbing rates of infection, traveling to an area that did not have high infection rates seemed logical, especially since I’d effectively been kept out of the population for two months.  I was starting to look at customer visits I could make and then someone called me and asked if I could help them with a machine in Charleston, SC.  I was still a little apprehensive about traveling, but then I was also having trouble believing that something that killed 5000 out of 9 million (Michigan numbers), 50% of them in nursing homes, was worth worrying about.  As I write this, the death count (taken at face value) is much higher, but that was the number at the time.  If you followed my VIRTUAL trip on Instagram, you might have noticed that I said I would continue it until things normalized.  In the last week of April, things went back to normal for me… while I was considering the trip, my wife looked at me and said, “Enough of this bullshit, I’m not living my life in fear” and so, we went to Charleston.       A word about my wife here.  She has spent her life afflicted by glaucoma and various autoimmune diseases.  She’s on medicines that suppress your immune system and make you much more vulnerable if you do catch something.  She is also fearless.  As near as I can tell from the last 30 years, she is not afraid of anything, except maybe sharks.  When she said, “I’m not living my life in fear”, she did not mean that there wasn’t cause for some concern, just that she wasn’t going to let it alter her life.  Honestly, when we hit the road, I was the one dodging close contact, avoiding people, and handling the gas pump like it was made of dog poop.  Social distancing?  That’s pretty much my thing ALL the time, but even more so with this bullshit going around.

Nomad Note #2 Another interesting thing that happened in 2020…RV sales went through the roof.  Depending on where you were, the local dealers couldn’t get enough stock to fill the demand.  I think some of this was people just looking to “get out of Dodge” but certainly, there were some folks that realized they could work even MORE remotely, as long as they had WiFi or a cell signal.  While I don’t think everyone wants to start a nomadic lifestyle, certainly some have realized that their jobs no longer require them to be in a specific zip code.  I’m willing to bet that at least some of them will never come back… uh, let me rephrase that… I’m willing to bet that they stay on the road, never to return to the old ways. Ironically, many of the services that full-time RV nomads require, became unavailable.  Camping, laundromats, restaurants, and even pit toilets were severely restricted in many places.  In the National Parks I’ve been to recently, it seems that many of the food services are unavailable, as are most of the hotels.  The campgrounds that are open in popular places are fully booked.  This forced a lot of people who never boondocked to find new places to stay and to learn how to live without hookups.

Some people have suffered a severe economic impact from this bullshit, for sure.  I know many people that have lost jobs or had their hours cut (my work was drastically impacted as well and one of the companies I worked for, set me free).  Others that I’ve talked to have decided that they “better do this now, while they are still being paid” and actually spent money on a new RV.  I’m speculating, but I wonder what will happen when the work doesn’t come back.  Right now, there are people that have not paid rent or mortgages in eight months.  That eviction protection runs out soon and then what?  Do we think they will come up with 8 or 10 months of rent all at once?  While some segments of the economy are chugging along (Walmart, Amazon, Target), others are collapsing (most restaurants, many small businesses, gyms, etc.) in some areas.  I think we are heading for dark times indeed, but I only point this out to contrast my next point. In 2020, many people discovered that their jobs could be done remotely.  More importantly, their employers realized that they could be just as productive from a remote location.  All of this is happening at a time when 5G is rolling out, which will improve data speeds.  This presents a golden opportunity for many to “live the dream” and work from the road.  Some people might lose their houses but be able to hold on to their RV.  Others will lose everything and hence, have “nothing to lose” by hitting the road.  I’m not saying that’s a good thing…it just IS and it leads to my prediction: A massive increase in nomads and nomadic workers in 2021 and 2022, along with MANY people leaving jobs that have tied them down for years, if not decades.  If you are planning to travel in an RV, make your reservations NOW.  Just like in the 1930s dustbowl period, people will travel to find work, only this time I think there will be multiple migratory patterns. Some will move to cities for cheap rent, others will flee to the road, and some will just adopt a nomadic lifestyle of renting the homes that others have left behind.

Opportunity!

If you’ve already adapted to a part-time or full-time nomadic “#vanlife”, you are better prepared than most because you’ve had some practice.  Whether you are traveling between Air BnBs or sleeping in your minivan, you know how to trim things down to the bare necessities.  If you’ve only dreamed of such a lifestyle, it’s time to prepare in a more serious manner.  Life may force your hand at some point.  To that end, when I traveled this year, I did so with the mindset that a nomadic lifestyle may become the norm for me, whether I want it to or not.  So, I’ve spent May to December traveling around in the vans, staying at rental units, and taking advantage of dirt-cheap hotel rooms.  During these times I worked, visited customers, sold and fixed machinery, and maintained my online businesses (note, this blog is NOT my online business, it just makes enough to cover the hosting and some equipment. If it was a source of income, I would not write a rambling post that could piss off half my readers 😉 If you don’t have a job that gives you the opportunity to work from the road, check out my post about ideas to make money on the road.  If you are curious about how I make money while traveling, you can check out this video. I’m telling you all of this because it IS possible to figure out how to work remotely and travel some in the process, even in the end times!  If your job involves working from a computer and you aren’t already working remotely, talk to your employer about it.  If your job cannot be done remotely, see what other openings your employer might have available. If you are fearful because there is some bullshit going around, I understand.  If you are in a high-risk group, some risk management is in order.  But don’t be gripped by fear because what’s the point of hiding out at home to preserve life, if you aren’t going to enjoy that life?

To paraphrase one of my favorite podcasters (Jack Spirko), “Someday you will have a headstone with two numbers on it.  In between, there is a dash.  That dash represents your life.  What are you going to do with your dash?” This is what I did last year, with MY dash:

Part 4: Travel in the Apocolypse

Am I being hyperbolic by using the word “apocalypse”?  Well, I think so, but if you listened to the “news” this year, it would be hard to overstate their exaggerations of a worldwide disaster.  Certainly, dying earlier than you expected would be a disaster for YOU personally, but if you think about it, when the Grim Reaper finally does come for you, it will be a disaster then too.  As Jim Morrison said, “no one here gets out alive” and I can’t help but think of all the people who have hidden inside for 2020.  How sad would it be to die of non-bullshit causes next year, knowing that you wasted this one?  I’d probably wish that I had taken a chance… and so I did. Leaving Michigan

Back in the spring, when the lockdown was ending everywhere else, our state governor decided to double down and kept many small businesses closed.  Even after the state legislature and the supreme court overruled her, she continued to use her State police force to harass and fine people who ran small businesses for VOLUNTARY customers.  Luckily, I can operate interstate and do not need to stay in one spot.  If Michigan does not want my money, I will go elsewhere. First stop, Charleston, SC (with 5% of Michigan’s case count).

Charleston is a beautiful city with an interesting history as a major port and unfortunately, as hub for the slave trade. It’s also where the US Civil War started.  William Tecumseh Sherman lived here in the 1840s and was stricken by what he saw after the war.  His march to the sea did not include Charleston, but the city was not spared the damage of war.  He had this to say, after the war had ended, “Anyone who is not satisfied with war should go and see Charleston and he will pray louder and deeper than ever, that the country may in the long future be spared any more war.”  Food for thought. The first drink out in two months was fantastic. Ice cold pear cider! It tastes like…Freedom! Rainbow Row, Charleston, SC As long as I have internet access, I can do my job from anywhere.  However, when I’m expected to be available or am working on something, it’s much easier to stop in one place than to be moving.  I was thinking about whether I should tell anyone that I was not at home and then it registered in my tiny brain….nobody cared WHERE I was as long as the work got done.  I guess that isn’t TOO different from my usual life except that in the Old Times, I usually went to an office when not on the road.  But for some people, working remotely is a big change.  Around this time, I realized that many many were now working in a way that enabled a nomadic lifestyle.  My phone and computer worked just as well in Charleston as they did in Detroit.  As a bonus for me, South Carolina was just opening up and we went out for drinks and dinner for the first time in months.

Charleston was my first stop after fleeing the dystopian state of Michigan and it was a little like that movie Logan’s Run when they finally make it outside the dome.  It was not what they told me on the news, but not what I was expecting either.  Although people were out, they were nervous and keeping a good distance apart.  Limited and outdoor-only seating was something I had not anticipated or even thought about.  You could not order an adult beverage without also ordering food.  My first glimpse of the bizarre rules that would become the “new normal” in the coming months.  On the bright side, I was picking up a ton of hand-wipes for camping!

After a week in SC, we went on to St. Augustine, FL, and soaked up the sun (along with, um, more drinks!).

Second stop St. Augustine Beach, FL. Photos from this area were shown on the national news, right after Florida opened up. The photos showed thousands of people flocking to the beach to spread “the bullshit”. Except, the bullshit was in the news reports. This is what it actually looked like on the weekend. Much like the YouTube video I did about “trash in the National Parks” the “news” is full of made-up lies to try to get you to tune in for the next broadcast. Kill your TV.

Heading back toward Michigan, we decided to stop at Cowpens National Battlefield.  Cowpens is significant because it’s the spot where Banastre Tarleton’s forces were annihilated by Daniel Morgan in a double envelopment.  It was a very clever trap and turned the tide in South Carolina, during the Revolutionary War. Tarleton was the commander of the dragoons in the area and an all-around dickhead.  You can read about the battle here or if you’d rather watch a movie, check out The Patriot.  The character of Tavington was based on Tarleton (but Tavington was more loveable), and aspects of the Cowpens battle were used in the final battle of the movie.  However, I’d stop short of calling it factual and instead say that it “inspired” the battle in the movie. In real life, Tarleton ran from the battle and escaped.  Not nearly as rewarding as the end of The Patriot.  The battle at Cowpens is still studied as a textbook example of a difficult to achieve, but very effective, double envelopment.

After Cowpens, we headed back to District 6, aka Michigan.  That gave me a chance to do what I needed before heading to the Upper Penisula, to camp with friends for a few days (thanks for the parking spot, Bob!). The rest of the year was a blur… Houghton/Hancock, MI

Badlands National Park, SD

Winchester, TN

Natchez Parkway Threet, AL to Natchez, MS

Johnny Cash’s Boyhood Home

Padre Island

Rockport, MA

Yellowstone and Grand Teton, National Parks

These photos are just some high points from all the places I went to in 2020.  I left out the factory visits and work stuff.  As it turns out, the apocalypse was a good time to travel!  Traffic was light and there were few people in the parks compared to “normal” years.

The End?

Was that every place I went to in 2020?  Nope, not even close.  You can check out some of my other travels on my Instagram page.  However, the unholy combination of iPhone photographs and WordPress (every photo uploads upside down and needs to be edited, plus many won’t upload at all) means that this has run on long enough. Besides, I think you get the point. In February, I thought I’d be writing about my winter travels by May.  Then I held off until the fall because I didn’t want to hear about how I was jeopardizing everyone’s safety by refusing to stay home.  That concern was not unfounded as many of my longtime readers said similar things and a couple unfriended me on Facebook (gasp!).  Now it looks like this bullshit may go into 2021.  As I write this, the 2021 SHOT show and most other trade shows have been canceled or pushed into late 2021.  Some will never return.  My cynical friends say, “This goes away after the election” but I don’t think so.  There is too much power and money at stake to let this crisis go to waste.  Again, I’m not joining either side of a dichotomy, but I don’t think this stops in the immediate future.  So, I will get on with life and suggest that you do the same.  Turn off the TV and hit the road.  Make it your goal in 2021 to figure out how you can live the lifestyle you want regardless of what “bullshit” tries to get in your way! –Darren at OdysseyCamper.com

Postscript:

Second trigger warning!  You’ve been warned—proceed at your own risk.

There is not a single person reading this post, who thinks EXACTLY the way I do. Imagine if everyone did think alike…that would make for some creepy dystopian fiction (as if we aren’t living through some now)!  If you agree or disagree with 100% of what someone thinks, congratulations, you are in a cult.  So we don’t agree… big deal.  We are both here because we share a COMMON INTEREST.  But, if you are one of those people who really wants to feed your internal rage machine, here is how I look at things.  Again, I’m just accepting the facts about this “bullshit” at face value because it matters not a whit to my argument.  Whether or not there is actually a significant risk from this, is up to you to decide.  It’s also up to me to decide.

We either have protected rights, or we don’t–there is no compromise.

In the United States of America, we have a founding document called the Constitution.  It is the law that we all agree to live under as citizens.  Ask any legal immigrant and they will tell you how this point was explained to them and they were quizzed on it.  Ask any official elected to a Federal office and they can tell you how they had to pledge to protect it.  Ask any sheriff or soldier….well, you get the point. Our constitution was primarily written by a group called the Federalists who wanted a stronger central government than the Articles of Confederation provided for.  During its drafting, some people (including Jefferson, if memory serves) were concerned that there was no expression of natural rights and so, James Madison wrote 10 amendments commonly referred to as the “Bill of Rights”  because they enumerated the rights you have as a human being.  These rights are not granted by men and cannot be abridged by any law.  200+ years of legal precedence (and the constitution of most US states) tells us that these rights are recognized throughout the Union.  If we can believe the historical record, the reason the Federalists did not enumerate them in the beginning, was that they seemed obvious to them.  Who would argue that a human has the right to talk, associate, travel, or worship, as they wish?  Who indeed… I’m going to belabor this point for my readers in other countries.  The rights enumerated in the US Constitution are recognized as something you were “endowed with by your creator” and no man or law has the right to take them.  A law that does, simply put, cannot be recognized in the United States.  Of course, you have to realize that the US Constitution is an aspirational document and not perfect.  It also hasn’t prevented a large and bloated bureaucracy from developing.  It is a constant battle to remain free and keep these rights when a large number of our people think that rights are something GRANTED by their government. So anyway, in a list of 10 priorities, which one did the authors of the Bill of Rights place at the top of the list?  The First Amendment and it reads as follows: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. So Congress can’t make a law that shuts down a church or stops what I’m doing right now or stops people from gathering as they see fit.  Note that it doesn’t say, “except when there is a damn pemic” or “except where the governor of Michigan says so”.  Well, I guess Michigan didn’t exist then so they wouldn’t have said that 😉  Considering that smallpox, polio, measles, and numerous other diseases could cripple or kill you back then, these words were written with the acknowledgment that an epidemic could exist.  The right of peaceable assembly, be it in a church or a pub, is the primary right that our national government cannot abridge. FU Whitmer, I consider my freedom pretty fu(*ing essential! “OK, but the individual state and local authorities can do what they want, right?” You’d be forgiven for thinking that, but the nice thing about the Constitution is that it is an aspirational work.  It can be amended and so when certain despots tried to hold on to the institution of slavery, a 14th amendment was added to guarantee equal protection under the law for all citizens.  In the 20th century, a series of decisions found that the “due process clause” guaranteed the rights listed in the Bill of Rights, to every citizen.  It’s why the police need a search warrant in any state and why they are breaking the law when they don’t get one.  The same amendments that reaffirmed the rights of freed slaves also reaffirmed the rights of everyone else and prevented the individual states from abridging them.  Don’t take my word for it though, read it for yourself: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/due_process The Constitution is the law that we’ve all agreed upon as the basis of our country.  The Bill of Rights is protection for ALL citizens FROM government overreach.  It does not say, “except in cases of a vir**” or when someone decides what the “greater good” is.  There is not a despot in history who did not claim what they were doing was for the greater good.  Ergo, when someone tells me that I must stay home, wear a mask, not buy seeds, eat in a plastic bubble, shop at certain stores, not work because I’m non-essential, or abide by some other oathbreaker’s stupid rule, I say screw them.  If a business decides to go along with these arbitrary rules, it is their right.  It’s also my right to never buy from them, or eat in their establishment, ever again. But shouldn’t I do what I can to protect others?  No.  I have no obligation to do that.  My body, my choice (tell me how this is different).  We could have a discussion about how that might make me an asshole, but from my perspective, I’m just trying to live my life with the rights I was born with.  Those rights are not allocated by the government.  If you chose to walk up to me (exposing us both to additional risk) to tell me to mask up and bow to the decree of the local dictator, I will ask you why, if you are so worried, are you out in public at all?  There is a real risk for some people.  Those people should stay home.  They do not get to abridge my rights, even if the group agrees.  That’s called Tyranny of the Majority and it’s why our form of government is a republic, not a direct democracy.  The abridgment of the rights of individuals is called collectivism, it’s evil, and it’s responsible for 100 million deaths in the 20th century alone.  Evil. Evil is a strong word, so let me give just one example of the evil that has resulted from these tyrannical decrees of politicians.  In many states and cities, children have been forced to stay home from school, even though they are in the lowest risk group.  Hell, we still send kids to school in a bus driven by someone you wouldn’t let mow your lawn, but we are worried about this tiny risk?  Kids go to school with peanut allergies that could actually kill them and we make accommodations, we don’t keep them home. Forcing children to stay home from school when that may be the only way they get away from an abuser, get a hot meal, or get medical attention, is evil.  Putting the fear of parents and politicians into children is one of the evilest things I can think of.  I suppose you could tell me that the rules are there to protect the teachers (also a low-risk group) and I’ll say, “OK, but don’t ever use the words HERO and TEACHER, in the same sentence again.” Now that I’ve got you all ragey, I’ll say that most of my travel does not involve interaction with others.  Social distancing solved.  I’ve also never infected anyone….because I’ve either never had “the sickness”, or I did and I’m immune. Mask problem solved.  I have used hand sanitizer almost every time I get back in my van.  So, no germs are coming from there.  Oh and I sneeze in the crook of my elbow because actual testing (not a bureaucrat’s decree) has proven it to be more effective than a hankie… or a hankie strapped to your face. I drive a lot and driving is inherently dangerous.  It would be less dangerous if I didn’t have to drive around other people who don’t drive as well.  However, I can’t tell people they cannot drive because they are endangering my life, or claim their travel to Walmart and McDonald’s is non-essential.  I also can’t tell the politicians and movie stars not to travel during a pandemic and they don’t get to tell me either.  We were born with the freedom to communicate and gather (which implies free movement, since you have to get to the gathering) as we see fit.  This is why when communist revolutionaries carrying the colors of socialism, gathered en masse, I had to agree that it was their right… at least until they started rioting, breaking windows, burning businesses, and attacking bystanders.  (That’s not considered to be a peaceable assembly, but I guess they got a pass while business owners were visited by the governor’s Gestapo). My traveling doesn’t mean that I don’t care about other people.  It just means that I’ve assessed the available information and found the risk to be minimal.  I have not visited my elderly mother, or my friend undergoing cancer treatment, because they have compromised immune systems. Still, even if I’ve lick the nose of a dozen infected people (with their permission, of course), and run through a crowded market, nobody has the right to interfere with my free movement and liberty.  My body, my choice.  It is my right and yours to be free or to kill yourself, either slowly or quickly.  As I like to say, what part of “Give me Liberty, or Give me Death” do you not understand? If you are someone who will get really angry after reading this, then I suggest that you reach deep down inside and question whether you have it in you to oppress other people or support those who do.  Maybe you are evil.  It happens; some of us have to be EVIL so that we can recognize GOOD. Or, maybe you are just angry that you are obeying “the rules” while others disobey them and that green-eyed monster is eating away at you.  Maybe you are just afraid, and that’s OK.  However, I do not wish to live by the parameters of your fear.  I’m sorry, but you just don’t have the right to take my rights and neither does any government.  If you think the government should force people to do these things, then I suggest you read Amendment II to the US Constitution, because a lot of people are going to disagree with your position.  It would be a really dumb reason to dissolve 240+ years of progress. After reading all of this, feel free to contact me to tell me why I’m wrong and you are right, or why that even matters.  I’ll be happy to tell you then, what I REALLY think 😉 To paraphrase Johnny Cash…