Rolling down the West Coast.
WinCo, Beaverton, Oregon (suburb of Portland).
2.7% air is rebreathed. Insane in here. Insane to be in here.
MAYBE 3% in masks. Maybe.
Gobble, gobble.
Cannon Beach, Oregon.
Insane NOT to be here.
495, and no one around. Suspect I have to recalibrate.
Wearing an N95. Because my face is FREEZING!
Lots of folks having family, COVID safe Thanksgivings. At the beach.
Shove towels under the door. Crank that window, and wait until the room is perfectly aranetted.
Which means to air out a room until it hits the outside CO2 ppm.
"I can't wait to aranet and crash "
"Do you want to argue about what kind of take-out until the room has aranetted?"
I waited until the crowd had left before getting take-out and eating outdoors.
Restaurant was crazy busy inside. And the air crazy free of COVID outside.
Cannon Beach, Oregon as I get ready to head south.
Front door open on the marketplace, very few folks inside. Low CO2
Cannon Beach Gallery. Door open. Excellent C02.
Rockaway Beach, Oregon.
Grumpy's Cafe & Bakery must have very bad ventilation, I assume, from the general grumpiness and skeletons.
And turkey in a bathtub, next to the skeleton dancing on a telephone pole like it's a stripper pole.
Strange things afoot....
Strange things afoot in Rockaway Beach, Oregon.
The towns people are a particularly surly lot.
Hustling to move out of this swirling CO2 Bermuda Triangle, a falcon with a fish, crosses over the road, affixing a baleful eye on me.
Go in peace, Falcon Man, go in peace.
They wait, hidden in the beauty.
For the unsuspecting.
Meg's Beachwood Bar & Cafe,
6425 Pacific Ave, Cloverdale, OR 97112
1000 ppm CO2 with just 2 bartenders, a lounge singer (playing piano in vid), and me in the 3MCool Flow Respirator.
Freezing, so sat next to the infrared quartz fake fireplace.
If it was propane? Easily could twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
have been the source of the CO2.
Both employees were flushed and tense when I went in, so suspect a yelling match.
Bonus:
One had the ole Covid cough.
COVID in a bar? Also called the Devil's Punch Bowl.
Which I also stopped by.
Now? Sprung for a motel with no shared HVAC. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Has own door, and I am running the bathroom nonstop to make sure that even if it shares a stack?
No backflow will happen. I used the old tissue check to confirm.
Some shots from along the way, below.
(Food from Meg's was amazing and I took it to go. The tots were dandy.)
Newport Bay, Oregon. Stopped off at the Pirates Plunder, after seeing a beautiful marina and waterfront.
Antique malls typically have pretty bad ventilation.
It got up to 1040...which is not bad for these places.
But my bigger concern would be the cramped aisles with the little cubbies. Those cubbies, like plexiglass, would act as little dead zones of concentrated aerosols.
Fun store - if you are in an N95 or better.
Yaquina Lighthouse Interpretive Center, Newport, Oregon. Bathroom up to 900.
The rest? Someone has been upgrading the HVAC. Damn good, @BLMOregon. Wow.
They also had HEPAs everywhere They don't clean CO2, so those 500 readings are just amazing.
Wow. Just impressed.
Tight trails, I thought, to see Quarry Cove, so had N95 on. Some yutz gave me the stink eye.
Gave it right back because I'm a member of the big ole boy club.
Jump in the car and random Longhauler conversation on NPR.
Affirmations and confirmations are out there. Clean air. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Sea Lions Cave Gift Shop, Florence, OR.
1241 CO2.
No one with masks on - a lot of Indians in here (I've off-shored off enough departments to India to recognize the language at least.).
Plexiglass surrounding the cashier's station.
Below is the Heceta Lighthouse.
The sun set on the nice weather.
Camping out deep in the woods, using the app iOverlander amongst others to spot free camping if possible.
Woke up to rain, which should see me out of Oregon. Very grateful for the two beautiful days I had.
Getting breakfast at Dishner's Fine Dining in North Bend.
Hit above 1000 ppm while waiting for my take-out Avocado, Bacon, and Cheese omelet.
The "Leaven No Trace" sign-funny.
This Chinese CDC study on rock solid evidence of outdoor transmission is now effectively changing my behavior to be even more protective of my lungs.
Picture from yesterday. A tree's shape reminds me of lungs.
No time to search for a study to confirm, but I'm sure the shape of both is similar for functional reasons...thus evolutionarily optimal.
Empire Donuts & Dawgs. Coos Bay, Oregon...523 ppm CO2.
Had to stop because where else can you get a doughnut AND a hot dog?
Is this where their empire starts?
Doughnuts were pretty doggone good, I have to say.
#NovidROADtrip-. Passing on CO2 measurements and airborne disease transmission prevention tips on a very practical level.
Walking the walk.
Reached Brookings, Oregon. Blue Coast Inn, just north of CA border.
Check in to motel room with no shared air? ✅
Preferably single
story so no shared ventilation stack (bathroom fecal aerosol transmission)? ✅
While wearing N95, checked in and opened room up to vent out until CO2 matches outdoor CO2 and another 15 minutes to be sure? (I turn bathroom fan on to expedite the process.) ✅ 👇
Motel room has its own door? ✅
Ruminate on the fact that the ARANET4 CO2 monitor also reminds of us of how much CO20 is already in the atmosphere? ✅
Ponder how big insects and aliens will get again in the future as the Earth warms? (No, but a fun thought.)
The #NovidROADtrip tour continues. Last interpretive center in Oregon before CA. Oregon's ventilation in these centers is top notch. In the 500s....
The #NovidROADtrip tour continues.
Checking out the Stout Grove, in the Jedidiah Smith Redwood State Park.
Trails get pretty narrow so wore my N95.
Taking lots of pictures, but scale is hard to show with these huge trees.
Turns out the N95 makes a fine scale tool.
In this first pic below? Look up.
I have to confess that I was cracking myself up climbing all over these huge trees, and putting the N95. Donning protocol:
✅ Yellow straps could not be visible.
✅ Had to look at plausible as possible. (Hee hee ...so silly of me).
The #NovidROADtrip tour continues.
Got soaked yesterday, so needed to hole up and do laundry. Cheap motels are booked as everyone else is in the same predicament.
So, this hotel - which is actually a motel with every room having it's own door. No corridor shared air!
Complementary breakfast with excellent CO2. But I just do not like inhaling shared air while inhaling my complementary Chex, OJ (like drinking Caviar at its prices), biscuits and gravy.
The #NovidROADtrip tour continues.
Hitting the Drury Chaney Groves trail. Trails are narrow.
Wind? None. 46 degree F.
Yep, wearing the ole @3M 8311, available at every @Lowes.
Walk past a few folks, felt their air.
Too cautious? I can't evade their aerosols as well
as the latest variants can evade the vaccines (decreased efficiency), or evade ALL MAbs including bebtelovimab.
Every day delayed is a day closer to a cure for LongCoVid.
You get LongCoVid? It doesn't come with a Fast Car from Tracy Chapman.
It comes with.
Loneliness. Pain.
It comes with loneliness, because those with chronic diseases? Have a long history of being left.
At the Redwood Gifts Redcrest Resort, a 708 ppm CO2 does not seem bad. Till you realize that was just the owner and myself in there...and whomever was in there before I walked in.
#NovidROADtrip- had a pleasant chat with a fellow traveller from Washington. Let's call her, Clara.
Clara, like most of America, is stuck climbing the Sisyphean hill that is the @CDCgov Confusion Hill
She is eating in restaurants, and thinks COVID is over.
She mourns the
loss of her COVID careful friends, and even the fact that most places in small town America continue to have shortened hours.
She can't go get a cocktail after work, anymore.
Of course, the real story? Her COVID careful friends know it's ongoing.
More Americans than not,
know it's ongoing. Thus the shortened hours? Caused by a lack of customers (staying at home), and employees (LongCoVid).
Know what businesses hate more than anything? Confusion.
Biden will be reaping what he has sown. And making cake from it.
One more thing Clara shared.
She lost her 63 year old best friend best friend on August 20th. He was hanging with her at her house and all of a sudden pitched to the right and over her deck's fence.
He landed on his neck, 12 feet down. Despite them doing CPR, he never
regained consciousness.
I gently asked if they thought he had a heart attack or cardiac event, and she softly said yes.
She is not COVID careful, so chances are this was a COVID event.
Fortunately, the @CDCgov is looking into this and will let us know if we should go out
of our way to avoid Covid.
These things take time since 2 years have come and gone since the CDC started looking into this.
They'll let us know, right?
They'll let Clara know, right?
#NovidROADTrip. Got a burger at a small casino near Point Arena Stornetta Nat. Monument (also camped in their parking lot, using iOverlander to find free spots).
Amazingly low CO2....but I never eat inside, so ate in the car. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
This morning, down at the Pt. Arena Pier for breakfast. My first Avocado Toast! Anyone who makes fun of that should be mocked for at least 15 minutes.
As should those who mock us for being COVID Conservatives.
For in reality, do we not actually walk that damn walk?
We don't want to waste our money on hospitals.
We don't want to waste our lives being sick, when we could be spending them enjoying the outdoors. The hunter - the conservative.
The pic above - the fisherman? Conservative.
The farmer? Conservative.
So, although the cafe was deserted with excellent CO2?
I still didn't know if the barista would suddenly cough (18 feet), sneeze (27 feet) - both which can be autonomic and out of our control.
Like a good COVID Conservative. And good things come - like a very happy random dog!
#NovidRoadTrip. This will be controversial, but so be it.
I am in Bodega Bay,where Alfred Hitchcock shot part of "The Birds."
Obviously, only non-flying birds like emu's need be feared (disembowel you with one kick).
But other flying/floating things like aerosols
can cause you horrendous GI issues.
Such as with COVID.
I always carry an N95 with me.
And yanked it on before I walked up to the people on the trail below. They gave me a look, but I'd rather get a look, than have them give me Covid.
Point Reyes! Home of the Bovine Bakery and Palace Market with excellent CO2, and every single employee in KN95s - and a surprising KF94.
Also, a killer public phone booth, and a thrift shop with an awareness of ventilation?
No wonder Monica Gandhi is so comfortable advocating
for demasking.
Marin County, like Newton, MA, has busted out the ventilation awareness.
Impressive...much like the National Monument, itself. As impressively beautiful as the fog in Sonoma County.
The Point Reyes Visitor Center has low CO2, impressive air volume, and a HEPA, Medify Air MA-112.
Not a recommendation, but here it is:
medifyair.com/products/ma-112
As always, cleanairstars.com to make your air cleaning recommendations.
At Sausalito, across the water from San Francisco, at Target, doing an informal survey.
2 out of 35 had any kind of face covering on.
Evidently, Covid stops at the Golden Gate Bridge.
(Just a little bit of snark, because just up the road at Point Reyes? Employees in respies.)
Every big city seems to have a Mission Street. Cruised up there and parked and just listened.
The coughs were impressively deep - and loud.
The well-to-do get infected less, but when they do, cough in the comfort of the home.
Same as it ever was....
#NovidRoadTrip - what makes this possible besides an ARANET4, N95S, N100s?
A 2007 Honda CRV with one rear seat removed and a small sleeping platform built-in. Top cargo carrier for things rarely accessed. Rear cargo carrier for cooking gear.
Reflectix blinds cut 4 windows.
7 gallon water container for water.
Pop-up privacy shelter and pop-up toilet.
Cooking gear and a 7 day cooler.
Only stay at motels with outward-facing doors.
Because I am using the app iOverlander to find free camping spots? Gas and food are my primary costs.
If it is
raining? Take-out!
Finally, the knowledge that #COVIDisAirborne - and the simple knowledge that comes from needed to travel safely.
(The picture below was fascinating to me to see such a deep crevasse lined with pampas grass.)
#NovidRoadTrip....Davenport Bluff yields an amazing tableau after walking along a skeeeeetchy "I'm gonna die, worth it cause beautiful" cliff path.
Across the street the bakery has amazingly low CO2. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
After determining how many blue berry muffins and Chihuahuas are there?
484 on the ole CO2 Richter scale.
Why? Two front doors open, and the rear door open with the constant ocean breeze pushing air through the restaurant.
The ONLY employee with no mask on? The chef....
Which is ironic given that BY DESIGN, restaurants have air flowing from the front of the house to the back.
And cooks have some of the most Covid dangerous jobs.
And it does not have to be this way.
Hong Kong mandated 6 ACH for all restaurants.
King County in Washington had their Air Investigators hand out free HEPAs.
#NovidRoadTrip - While waiting to see if @Costco will make their pro-infection policy a little less @friendlycovid19, and a little more friendly to those of who are #immunocompromised or have #LongCovid.
I don't, but if you have it, getting Covid will
lay you out flat - again.
And hey...that's only 30% of the 100 million Americans, @Costco - but who's counting?
Anyway, tonight I'm in Santa Cruz.
Not really wanting to cook, so in my handy N95,I find Charlie Hong Kong.
With an order and pickup window. Outside
(side-eye @Costco.....).lp
Before I got to Charlie's though?
$20 for a shower pass @24hourfitness.
I was there about 6:30 pm, so was expecting worse CO2 at 1017 ppm - when I first walked in, while holding my breath.
So, that 1.5% of the air being sucked in that humid locker
room? Was air straight from others lungs.
Not mine.
N95? You damn well know it!
My lungs are a CoVid-free zone. And boom shock-a-locka comes the @readimask. The only N95 that I would trust with haircuts or showers.
It keeps my lungs as beautiful as the murals here!
#NovidRoadTrip
@k_macC_ - thank you for the Gayle's Bakery recommendation in Santa Cruz!
The Ham & Cheese Croissant was amazing.
As was the lack of masking. Wow!
While the CO2 was low at 743, that will not matter with the near field aerosols.
There were so many people
coming and going, there was no way I'd eat even on the cute benches outside.
The C02 in the attached tent structure? Worse than the building itself.
Now, that could be if that fire was propane.....
At @Vervecoffee getting a cup of coffee before scooting down to Monterey to pick up an Amazon shipment.
Oof. 1272 ppm CO2 (2.2% of each breath just in your neighbors' Covid lungs) thanks to 50 people yolo'ing. (@k_macC_).
A shame. Two huge opposing doors could be open.
#NovidRoadTrip
After a quick take-out "Bacado" omelet from Monterey's First Awakenings, where the CO2 hit 831 ppm, eaten down at the waterfront. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
It was time for the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
This one I was in the GVS, P100. Because people get UP CLOSE in aquariums.
Did you know that turtles have ACE2? They were thought to maybe be an intermediate host.
pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.10…
In November 2021, the Aquarium gave the sea otters vaccines.
thedailybeast.com/monterey-bay-a…
But the variants are now immunoevasive. When I watched the feeding, I did not see N95s - ahem @MontereyAq.
If you look at the CO2 inside at 710 ppm? Not bad, but not consistent.
A crowd of people had just been in this area...it went up to 2570, but I snapped the shot at 2013.
But the CO2 was all over the place.
As were the unmasked. And the sound of tiny coughs from some of the children, most of the toddlers and every single baby.
Hacking guys pushing in next to me, behind me, in front of me.
Completely worth the $49.95.
Today.
But like their "Real-Cost Cafe" points out. That bluefish tuna is tasty today, but at what cost?
In the cafe, a CO2 ppm of 921, placed ironically by me above the hand sanitizer.
No sign asking people to mask up.
At what cost are we just letting Covid rip?
At what cost is the aquarium not requiring masks?
What are a few sea otters or sea turtles?
Just like people, we have more, right?
Right?
Best coffee in Monterey, CA is Captain Stoker per the Googs. Kudos to the partially opened garage door and front door to get that lovely sea air diluting.
636 CO2 ppm, but man, it was packed.
Ugh. Turns out the owner is one of Panantir's Thiel's right-hand men.
My coffee just curdled.
montereycountyweekly.com/news/cover/for…
#NovidRoadTrip
Big Sur Lodge - little store attached next to it had amazing ventilation 506 ppm CO2.
And a very interested, yet confused, cashier.
"That measures the same CO2 as with climate change?"
"Wait, why hasn't the CDC told us about reinfections are worse?"
"It's
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