Hilton Head Island: exposed and eluded

From mid-March until yesterday Carol and I had been within six feet of other human beings only a handful of times and never for more than a few seconds.  Yesterday that changed.  Big time.  We have now been around hundreds, some of whom wore masks, some of whom did not, and we continue to be around many more each day.

O’Hare’s Terminal 3 seemed slightly less busy than before the pandemic, but only slightly.  Social distancing was difficult, sometimes impossible.  We flew on American Eagle on an aircraft that was almost full.  American requires passengers to wear face masks and all did, but one young man in the row in front of us and on the other side of the aisle kept lowering his to turn around and talk to his friend behind him, until another passenger asked him to stop.  He apologized and did.

At Savannah Airport where we landed, most passengers wore masks, but few of the employees in the various airport businesses, including the car rental agency, did.

The Marriott Hotel where we are staying for a couple of nights is ten stories high, by far the tallest building on the island which has been intelligently developed and does not want to become another Miami Beach.  I don’t believe any other building on Hilton Head is more than four stories high.  The behind the scenes story of how the Marriott got permissions might be interesting.

All the staff of the hotel wear face masks, almost none of the guests other than us do.  We have seen a few more masked today.  Only one other yesterday.

In response to the pandemic the hotel does not provide room service and rooms are only made up every three days or, of course, earlier at the end of your stay.

We had an appointment with the contractor at the condo this morning.  He failed to appear for reasons yet unknown, but a plumber and two painters were there, along with a foreman, all unmasked.

We’ve gone into a Whole Foods and a Fresh Market, in both of which all employees and customers were masked, as were all in a Spectrum store where we picked up a self-install Internet kit.

The numbers of cases and deaths per 100,000 in South Carolina are not yet high, but they are in steep ascent.

Of the condo itself.  Much work has been done and is outstanding.  Unfortunately more needs to be done than we expected.  The place is still a construction site.  A mattress is scheduled to be delivered Wednesday.  We had planned on sleeping there that night.  Whether we will remains to be seen.

Hilton Head Island is beautiful and continues to elude us.