[A. Spectre]

My bride and I just returned from The Virgin Islands on a belated honeymoon late last night, I would like to share my experiences concerning the virus with you.

First, I really did not believe AA would actually fly there, kept checking my messages from Expedia or AA prior to departure. So, we get to O'hare the per usual 3 hours in advance to be poked, prodded by the surly TSA (who did NOT want to be there, who could blame them?) Kept checking the flight departure board to see if it was cancelled, but no, we were a go.

The plane holds over 150 passengers, there were 8 of us on board (including the crew!) It was wonderful and ghostly all at the same time.

The Virgin Islands only had 2 confirmed cases of this virus and all of us were doing normal things like dining out, boat rides with others for the first 2 days. THEN, the stay in place order came about. Since the tourist trade is 90% of the islands GDP, naturally ALL the shop keepers were alarmed. NO more dining in, NO more shopping anywhere except 1 grocery store (only 3 allowed at a time.)

One shop keeper told us on Thursday, the Governor has ordered a 30 day no visitors to the island. People were scrambling to go back home, a mad house of sorts. Our return flight was cancelled, rescheduled 3 times. We were redirected to Miami which was a bummer because Florida is turning into such a hot spot. I noticed over 95%of all of AA's flights were cancelled. It was eerie being at an international airport with only a handful of people. Nothing was open, the flight attendants were pissed off (who could blame them?)

The flight was 45 minutes early due to no waiting to taxi, no waiting for other planes to land or take off. Anyone remember the airport scene in The Langoliers? I would not have been too disappointed to wait out the curve of the virus in St. Thomas, but we are happy to be at home with our pooches.