Day 24 - California Reopening Plan - Phase 3
The Mii Amo Spa - the view is included.
Thursday. 6/18/20
California is experiencing a surge in Covid-19 cases after reopening. Governor Newsom orders Californians to wear masks.
My alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m. so I go downstairs and wake up the dog, then get my coffee and return upstairs. I drink my coffee in the shower, feeling miserable - I have to sit down in the shower, I feel so bad (no sleep). Why do I do this to myself?
I dress and finish packing all of my toiletries in my suitcase, then load my suitcase, bag of cleaning materials, pillow, and mini ice chest and insulated lunch bag filled with snacks and food in the rental car - I also pack several waters. L. and I have been to Sedona before - there are no decent places to stop and eat along the way. I also load the TJ snacks that L. purchased into the car.
6:30 - 7:30 - still no L. so I’m able to unload and then load the dishwasher, clean the kitchen, and purge a few more items from the fridge that won’t make it while we’re gone. I water ALL my plants in the back yard - 38 - and make sure to give them huge drinks as I won’t be back until Sunday. I also pick up the dog poop.
8:00 - I wake up L.
8:30 - we leave, but she wants to stop at Starbucks, so we go through the drive thru on the way to the freeway and get our coffee on - she orders a Venti ice green tea, no sweetener. L. goes to sleep.
10:30 - We stop at Adelanto (still in California) and it feels like Children of the Corn territory. The Adelanto shopping center is a common stopping point for me when I’m traveling this way and I usually use the CVS bathroom. L. and I go in, and they actually have the entrance to the public restroom barricaded by empty reading racks. We move across the parking lot to Albertsons and use that restroom instead, but it’s very odd here…no one is masking, except for L. and I, and it seems like everyone is staring at us. As we leave the public restroom, two women open the door and brush past us, no social distancing and no masking. It is very unnerving.
11:00 - 2:00 - Back in the car and we return to the road. Enterprise guidelines dictate that L. can’t drive a rental car until she’s 25. She returns to her nap and I drive the rest of the way, alone. I listen to The Daily; What a Day; Start Here; the first two episodes of the new season of Uncover; Martinis and Your Money; Fresh Air - about a book called ‘Empty’ - A Lifelong Struggle with Eating Disorders, and A to B Organizing.
2:00 - We stop in Kingman, Arizona, at a Shell station mini-mart, to fill up. People don’t bother masking at the pumps, but a few do once inside the store. There are big panes of pexi-glass hanging from the ceiling by chains, in front of the cash registers, but the pexi-glass is hung in such a way that they dangle right above my nose and mouth. If I wasn’t masking, I would be breathing directly on the cashier. Although the cashier’s an employee, she’s not bothering to mask - it dangles around her neck. I don’t understand…
2:30 - I fill up and L. returns to her nap. I listen to two episodes of True Crime Garage.
5:30 - L. wakes up and helps guide me through the series of roundabouts in route to the Enchantment Resort.
6:00 - We’re here!! It’s so beautiful and just as I remembered - the red rock is stunning. We stop at the gate and the employee is masking. He directs us to the exclusive Mii Amo Spa parking lot…truly, only the rich can stay here.
6:15 - Before we’re even out of our car, a member of the concierge comes out to greet us. Although she is masked, she breaks social distancing to drape native american ‘welcome’ beads - similar to Hawaiian leis - around our necks. We check in and are then led to our Mii Amo adobe bungalow. It’s beautiful - natural woods, white walls, and an adobe gas fireplace. There are cards on the counter, congratulating me on my retirement and L. on her high school graduation. A small patio is outside with a chaise lounge and two chairs on top of pea gravel - several large pieces of slate serve as stepping stones. I love it.
Inside the closet are the coveted blue robes that are only issued to Mii Amo guests and sets us apart from everyone else. The ‘riff-raff’, or people from the Enchantment Resort, only get white robes. The Mii Amo spa is “robe friendly” and we are expected to wear our robes 24/7 throughout the facility as we wait for our various treatments. As a parting gift, L. and I are given two, brand new blue robes to take home.
6:30 - All meals are included at the Mii Amo Cafe and we never need a reservation. The staff ask us our names and then they never forget the rest of the trip. We have dinner at the cafe - I order a scallop dinner with sides and L. tries lamb meatballs for the first time. I have a glass of champagne (not included). The food is delicious - did I mention all meals are included? :-) We have to hurry in order to make our 90-minute Deep Tissue Massages at 8:00 p.m.
8:00-9:30 - We have assigned lockers inside the actual spa for the duration of our stay where we can store our clothes when we change. The spa area is great, but I do miss the fruit-infused water, novelty tea, and specialty snacks that used to be arranged on the sideboard. The hostess is masked and takes our temperatures with a forehead thermometer. We pass and are allowed to enter the Treatment lobby. A strong female Swede, complete with accent, is my masseuse. I’m plagued by a hamstring injury, manifesting primarily in my right leg, and the pain radiates down to my calf when I’ve been sitting for long periods of time. When I say what I’d like her to focus on, she works hard on my hamstrings and leads me through some intense stretching exercises, which are hard to do, but really work, as my right leg feels so much better after my treatment. I mask the entire time and so does my masseuse. It’s not as inconvenient as you might think.
L. and I meet back at the locker room, after our treatments. L. also loves her deep tissue massage, stating it was the best massage she’s ever had - she usually shies away from ‘deep tissue’, but tonight’s treatment seemed to work for her as L. suffers from, what I’ll call, “frozen, tennis shoulder.” She played tennis in high school and this seems to be a residual injury that plagues her pretty consistently, causing her back, shoulders, and neck to perpetually tense up. During the treatment, L. said she masked when she was on her back, but pulled the mask away from her nose when she’s on her stomach…of course, it’s impossible to social distance. What would be the point of the treatments?
9:30-L. and I walk to our bungalow and try to watch Forensic Files, our go-to whenever we travel. The TV doesn’t work and says, repeatedly, “No Signal.” I need to establish a record of the problem so I call the Front Desk and a repairman arrives and works on it for about 20 minutes, enabling us to watch four channels - he is not masked, which I find shocking, because in California, all repairman who have entered my home in the last three months are masked and gloved. As soon as he leaves, the TV reverts back to “No signal.” I call the Front Desk again and the same repairman returns - he is fat, sloppy, and dirty - and is still NOT wearing a mask. He says there is a problem with the internet company’s signal and they will call the vendor tomorrow. He leaves and the problem is not resolved. If L. and I contract Covid-19, this is the moment when the exposure occurred.
L. takes a shower and I have a glass of champagne and get ready for bed. I never want to leave.