Arizona 2020:
Day 1 - Driving

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Arizona 2020: [Day 1 - Driving] [Day 2 - Mesa] [Day 3 - Mesa] [Day 4 - Mesa] [Day 5 - Mesa] [Day 6 - Driving] [Day 7 - Driving]

	Tuesday, April 21, 2020: In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Debbie's stepmother passed away and we needed to go to Arizona to deal with her father's condo. Faced with the options to drive or fly, we decided that it would be safer to drive for 24 hours than to fly, plus we'd have the option to bring belongings home.
	We dropped off Claire at her dad's house and fortified ourselves with some McDonald's for dinner.
	We had our trusty masks with us and used them in every drive-through and at each stop.
	We were in Illinois in no time ...
	... and realized that we had a theme for this travelog: documenting how different the world looks during a pandemic. Every state we travelled through had pandemic-specific messages on their highway signs.
	Farmers have no trouble with social distancing at their jobs.
	Gas prices were incredibly low. This was one of the lowest prices we saw until our return trip.
	At least one out of three rest areas was closed along our route. Good thing we planned to hover on the edge of dehydration the whole trip.
	We really liked the logo of this trucking company. This turned out to be the first of many trucks in its fleet, despite not really noticing this company's existence ever before on previous road trips.
	Pretty sunset over Illinois farmland. Debbie's brother and sister-in-law had departed from the Seattle area the day before and were sending pictures from their journey, so this was Debbie's first photo contribution to the conversation.
	The roads had very few cars on them, but there was the usual number of trucks out. Thank you, Amazon truck drivers!
	At our first rest room stop, we saw a few new items: ...
	... COVID-19 informational signs ...
	... and hand sanitizer dispensers.
	We sent this photo to Doug and Susan to announce that we had reached the Gateway to the West, so we were practically in Arizona.
	Meanwhile, the sun was finally going down in the actual West, where Doug and Susan were driving through Nevada. What's that in the middle of this photo? It's Maersk! Good find, Susan!
	At our first gas stop, Tom had his mask and gloves on. It didn't take long for us to realize that gloves didn't really help us at all, because you're still touching common areas and then your own possessions. So, we gave up on them and relied only on handwashing at the end of each stop, followed by hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes once back in the van.
	Shortly before 10:00 Central time, Tom got set up on our makeshift bed in the back of the van. It featured a simple inflatable beach mat as the mattress, topped with a sleeping bad and a pair of pillows. It was surprisingly comfortable and allowed him to sleep while Debbie drove for the next four hours. Day 2 >