The last week in February and first week of March I had a big trip planned to Nevada, Arizona, and California. My grand scheme was to attend the Western Veterinary Conference in Las Vegas for four days, drive south to Arizona to spend time with friends and family in the Phoenix area for four more days, and then to spend six days camping in the desert to chase wildflowers to photograph. The first part of the trip went exactly as planned.

On the drive to Arizona though, about half way I started to feel tired and achy. By the time I made it to Cottonwood (I took an indirect route to Phoenix to visit my grandfather’s grave), I was really feeling sick. I stopped by a pharmacy to buy a COVID test, and sure enough it lit up like a Christmas tree. I called my friends and family and told them I didn’t hate them enough to come stay with them, grabbed one of the few hotel rooms I could find at a casino in nearby Camp Verde, and enjoyed the unique pleasure of shivering through chills in a bed far from the comforts of home. I would have been more than happy to keep staying at that hotel, but they were sold out the next night. (It was Friday night, and in addition the Interstate just north of there was temporarily closed due to winter weather; there just weren’t hotel rooms to be had.)

I crawled into the car and headed towards Phoenix. I ended up at a flea-bite hotel for a second fun night; that second night with COVID was better than the first though.

Tired of cheap hotels and feeling brave enough to get a little farther from hospitals with ventilators, I hopped in the car and surrounded by a sea of spent tissue drove west to camp in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge.

I wanted to photograph the Milky Way there, but it was overcast the first night (and honestly I had no energy to crawl out into the dark and cold…). By the next night the skies had cleared and I was definitely feeling better; I was able to get up and shoot the Milky Way.