After concluding a successful week and a half in Denver for systems and procedures validations, my captain upgrade class was all sent to St. Louis for simulator training. I had a couple days off in Denver before flying to St. Louis, where I would have one last free day before I was expected to start training. I appealed to the famous Nicole to join me on my off days. Despite massive numbers of people flying all over the country for the holiday weekend, Nicole miraculously got on a direct flight to Denver AND the same flight as me to St. Louis. What luck. Or was it?

The day we flew to St. Louis, I had a bit of a dry mouth/throat. I didn’t think much of it because this was not uncommon for me while staying in Denver. The very dry air, altitude, and air conditioning had combined on numerous occasions throughout my stay to cause me some sinus grief. We touched down in St. Louis and went to the rental car lot, where Nicole had rented a car for the day so we could explore.

After checking in to the Drury Hotel next to the St. Louis airport, we drove downtown to check out the famous Gateway Arch. It is still there. We walked around the nearby park and settled for a perimeter walk as opposed to taking the elevator to the top. Then we drove to the northwestern part of the city, a town Nicole had discovered called St. Charles.

St. Charles is a very quaint, old-timey, “Main Street USA” kind of place with cobblestone streets and American flags everywhere. It basically vomits red, white, and blue. Our primary destination was a bbq place, where I had a brisket sandwich and Nicole had some pulled pork. We ate outside and were protected under an umbrella as a rain shower passed through.

The rest of the town was full of establishments that are illogically in business. There were at least three antique shops, two places specializing in homemade cookies, but a third that makes homemade cookies for dogs, and an entire store just for popcorn. It is unclear how much business they could actually do, but the absurdity of the businesses certainly adds to the quaint atmosphere of the town.

As we walked around the town, I found myself a bit fatigued feeling. We stopped to sit on a bench for a spell. I don’t generally tire easily, but the weather was quite muggy and hot, and was certainly a difference to my system from the dry air of Denver. After regaining some strength, we went back toward the airport and the Drury hotel.

I was beginning to feel a little under the weather, and shockingly not because of the billboard in the parking lot. Without hesitation, I started contacting the company, my simulator instructor and my partner to make sure they were prepared to continue in my absence. I took a rapid Covid test, which I thought was negative, but Nicole thought she saw an extremely faint line, which I could see upon further examination. I now had a fever of around 101º.

Nicole made some purchases while she still had the car — many of these were medications or cleaning supplies. We wore masks around each other, but the damage had most likely already been done. Fortunately, we had made decisions throughout the last couple days that hopefully minimized any spread beyond the two of us. We ate outside, flew with masks, didn’t cram into an elevator going up the Gateway arch etc… That being said, I felt pretty crummy. We slept in masks that night, separated by a barrier of pillows.

I took another rapid test the following morning which was undeniably positive. I followed that with a PCR from CVS which confirmed the result. Despite my best efforts to prevent Nicole from getting it, she would suffer the same fate the following day with a positive test and similar symptoms of aches and fever. I was asked by the company to quarantine in the hotel for five days before I could be flown back home. My entire simulator schedule was wiped clean. They would wait to reschedule when they could confirm that I was getting better. Occasionally someone from the company would call and check up on me to see if I was improving.

These calls unsurprisingly stopped around the July 4th holiday. It was also a difficult day to find food with many businesses being closed. We had Five-Guys that day. It seemed appropriate to have hot dogs and burgers on America’s birthday. I get a certain amount of per-diem when I’m away from my base, but it only goes so far. Delivery fees are pretty ridiculous for the most basic items. It cost about $20 to get a Subway sandwich delivered. And now you know… Though the company emphasized that I should have food delivered to the room, they never got further than the lobby so I had to keep traipsing around the hotel (in a mask of course), but it just seemed weird to be the spreader of the thing that Nicole and I have tried to avoid for years.

When we started feeling better after a couple days, we would venture outside to get some better air. The air in the Drury’s room is very mildew-y smelling. The hotel is very dated, and natural light is severely lacking as well. All in all, it is possibly the worst hotel to be asked to quarantine in. It made for an interesting week to say the least. Tomorrow I can finally fly home. While I would rather have finished my simulator training in a week as originally planned and be done forever, I think it will be good to go home and recharge and come back fresh (and presumably better protected against the current strain of Covid-19).

While we were able to see some things around the area that were of interest, the whole thing leaves a bit of a sour taste in our mouths. There just seemed to be a huge disconnect between the two of us hiding away with our masks while the Missouri outside our windows could not be bothered to even provide hand sanitizer at different businesses. When I board my flight tomorrow, I expect to be one of the few people wearing a mask. And I just took another rapid test. I am definitely still positive. But per the CDC guidelines, that’s all fine. They have somehow calculated statistics that there is a 90-95% chance that at least one person on your plane has covid. Well, make that 100% for anyone on my flights tomorrow. If the people sitting next to me had any idea, they would probably be wearing masks too, but as I’m departing Missouri, I’m not expecting much. All the political ads here are men pretending to be tough by either holding firearms or blowtorches and slow motion shots of children ripping masks off. Good luck, everyone.