Another Change! Going back home to the U.S.

Posted on by Lea Ann Reynolds
These photos are all from Akaroa, New Zealand on the Sheep Farm. The grapes were beautiful over the porch.

Its truly amazing how fluid this coronavirus has been. The changes are now daily. Our plans to travel to Panama were quickly squashed by the Panamanian Government after they closed the borders to non-residents. So, back to the United States it is! Fort Worth to be exact. 


Our next experience was the unbelievable long wait times for the airlines. Made 2 calls to American. First was disconnected after an hour of being on hold and just as she was taking our credit card and the second call was another hour waiting in queue for an agent. We had to start over because the previous agent wasn’t able to put on hold since she didn’t have our credit card info just yet. Both agents were really nice. Our original flight to Panama was canceled. 

Cute cowbell they use instead of knocking on the door.

With the first agent, we had a flight leaving the next day, Tuesday, but by the time I was back in touch with them that flight was filled so we were booked on Wednesday. On this very morning, I woke up with a bad sore throat. Didn’t think much about it other than the inconvenience. When scrolling through Facebook I saw a post from a friend that mentioned the virus may start in the throat. I didn’t know that. I’ve always heard about the 100.8 fever and shortness of breath. Well, that’s when it gets worse, not how it starts. I got on the internet and started looking at symptoms. Pretty much the same as the flu except for the shortness of breath. But, I just had a sore throat, no big deal.



I have no other symptoms. The morning before we were to leave, I woke up with a low grade fever. The first thing I did was start praying. I did not want this virus. It really woke me up to the seriousness of this virus. Chuck gave me some Tylenol for the fever and I started on some cold/flu medication we bought for the cruise. I kept monitoring my fever and other symptoms all day. Only sore throat and mild fever. Other than getting Coronavirus, I was afraid they wouldn’t let me leave the country without at least going into quarantine for 14 days. The morning of our flight I woke up and my fever was gone, my throat was much better but I was still going to wear a mask the entire trip.

A dolphin statue in a park near the water.

God took care of me and I’m so very thankful. He definitely listens to our prayers. We had an easy check-in at the Sydney airport. It was so hard to leave when we wanted to stay. The good news (I guess) was they didn’t scan us for fever. I think they just wanted to get us out of there. 


We flew through Los Angeles to get to Dallas/Fort Worth. It was a good flight. We had good seats. They feed you every few hours, so you don’t go hungry that’s for sure. Lots of movies, a blanket and pillow. Very nice 14 hour flight but it sure was long. Chuck can sleep anywhere and in any position. I, on the other hand want to lay down flat! I’ve always had issues sleeping on a plane. Also, we left at 11 am so we had just slept 8 hours. Our bodies weren’t tired. We arrive at the Los Angeles California Airport and I thought for sure they would either quarantine us or at least take our temperatures. Nothing. Didn’t even ask questions.

One of the barn cats. He has missed any mice that’s for sure!

The only time we were asked anything pertaining to the virus was when we checked in on our phones, it asked us if we have been to Mainland China or Hong Kong. We were totally shocked that the U.S. didn’t do more. As I understand it, they are doing more now as are other countries. Australia has now closed it’s borders. Customs in Los Angeles was a breeze. We love having the Global reentry and TSA Precheck. It makes our traveling life so much easier. No lines hardly at all. Since we were coming into the country we had to have our bags rechecked and go back through TSA. They had only 2 scanners working and one was slower than 2 Christmases. It was ridiculous and the the TSA agents weren’t paying attention 1/2 the time. It took an hour just to get through the TSA agents. We were handed a red card when we arrived because our flight was due to leave around 2 hours upon arrival. If we showed this card we were expedited. Well, that didn’t apply here. We made it to the gate with about 15 minutes before loading. It was crazy. This flight to Dallas/Fort Worth was 1/2 full. Nice easy trip and pretty quick compared to the first leg of the trip.

We thought this was cute. I waven’t looked to see if any are in the states.

So, after about 24 hours total travel time we make it back home to Texas. I think I’ll always call Texas home no matter where I am. When we are asked all the time where we are from, typically because of our accent. Chuck was always saying Florida. We finally changed that and he says Virginia, I say Texas and then we say but we get our mail in Florida!  Then we go on to explain our situation. 


Our first plan was to stay with our son David for a few days and then move into an apartment we were looking at for 30 days. After my fever and sore throat cropped up, we felt it was better to go directly to the apartment and self-quarantine for awhile. We checked into the apartment and were so amazed at how clean and stocked everything is. We are their first client. I typically wont book anything on HomeAway without looking through reviews. This place had none! I knew it had to be the first time it was posted but I only had a few places to choose from and this was the perfect location so we took the chance.

Chuck being “painted”

It is indeed the first time it has been listed. After being in many condos, homes and apartments all over the world over the last 9 months, we are very impressed with the management company and the apartment itself. It’s so well stocked with everything we need and more than we could ask for. They’ll definitely get an outstanding review from us for their first listing! So we’ll settle down for the next 30 days here in Bedford, Texas, visit family after our quarantine is sufficient and rework our plans for the future. We aren’t scheduled to be anywhere until July 1st so we have time to figure it out. I’m sorry I wont have many photos to post until we are out and about. I’ll post some from past places we visited that I had left over. I have way too many!

God is good. May He bless and heal our country!

Chuck & Lea Ann

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