| Pedestrian |
Oct 14, 2020 7:39 PM |
Quote:
Goodbye, Sunny Florida. Hello, Frigid Winter. Covid Strands Canadian Snowbirds
By Paul Vieira
Oct. 14, 2020 12:08 pm ET
For the first time in a quarter-century, Carol Barlow and her husband, Dale, won’t escape the Canadian winter.
Normally, the Barlows climb into their car in November and high-tail out of Davidson, Saskatchewan, a farming town in the Canadian prairies where the winter temperature averages about 7 degrees Fahrenheit. Their destination is sunny Mesa, Ariz., where they own a mobile home.
Like many of the million-strong flock of Canadian snowbirds, the Barlows have been thwarted by the coronavirus. In March, the U.S.-Canada border was closed to land crossings by tourists going either direction. A reopening isn’t immediately in the cards, Canadian officials have said, and the federal government has a travel advisory discouraging all nonessential travel abroad.
So this winter, Ms. Barlow is stocking up on sweaters because she and her husband are trading balmy Arizona sunshine for Osoyoos, British Columbia, just north of the Washington state border, where the average winter temperature is 32. “We think we are safer in Canada,” says Ms. Barlow, who is 77 years old. She knows it will snow in Osoyoos, “but it should be gone the next day,” she says.
The Canadian Snowbird Association says its members are retired or semiretired people who travel outside of Canada for 31 or more consecutive nights a year, mostly in the winter. The group estimates that 60% gravitate to Florida, with sizable contingents also heading to Arizona and Texas.
“We really find winter to be very unpleasant—not just the weather but the shoveling of the snow,” says Jacques Caron , 71, a retired financial consultant from the Montreal area. “And the driving is god-awful.”
He and his wife, Elaine Poirier , spend half the year at a property they bought in 2016 in Sebastian, Fla., on the Atlantic coast, and the rest in their trailer in a private campground about 40 miles east of Montreal. “It’s a different lifestyle,
Some RV owners are eyeing British Columbia, where winter isn’t as harsh. Canada’s westernmost province is home to some 100 year-round campgrounds with RV hookups, many of them on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands . . . .
Although the land border is closed, Canadians are allowed to fly into the U.S., so long as they haven’t visited certain countries and regions in the 14 days before . . . .
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-s...s&page=1&pos=1
The article also notes that some Canadians have an even bigger problem besides the travelling restrictions: They no longer own any winter clothes. |
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