Right, the waiting in line, people NOT usually complying with even 3 ft of distance let alone 6 keeps me from wanting to be inside, in line.
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So where do you choose if the fast food places aren’t open and you don’t like gas station restrooms?
At gas stations it’s super easy not standing in line. Pay for gas outside at the pump.
I guess y’all choose what you want, but I definitely understand places restricting restrooms for customers only. Even pre-Covid our family “judged” those who came in somewhere just to use the restroom without buying anything at all from the establishment. It’s definitely “wrong” to me mentally to use people with no compensation. Someone gets paid to clean that restroom.
At official rest areas I have no problem skipping the vending machines. Our tax dollars go to those - or the tax dollars we spend in a state by gassing up, eating, or whatever do. It’s extremely rare that we’d use one in a state where we didn’t spend some sort of money. I can’t think of any at the moment.
I remember back in the day, you needed to be around someone with Covid for 15 minutes to catch it. Now they say it can happen in seconds apparently. When traveling on the road I will wear a good mask when going to bathrooms. and wash my hands.
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I have no problem with businesses restricting bathrooms to customers only. At the same time, I don’t have a problem with using a business’ bathroom without buying something if there is no sign prohibiting it and I don’t have an alternative.
I have stopped at the same Wawa many times driving my son to/from his campus, a 5 hour drive. Sometimes I need gas, sometimes I will buy a snack, but sometimes I just need to use the bathroom. In the last few months, I’ve noticed that due to what I assume is a staff shortage, there has only been one register open, resulting in a long line. I really doubt the franchise owner is going to be bent out of shape if I decide not buy a bag of M&Ms after using his bathroom. And I’m guessing the cashier is probably happier not having me contribute to her long line of frustrated customers just for the sake of using the bathroom. That said, the majority of the time I do buy something, but I certainly don’t feel guilty if I don’t.
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I googled and don’t see the time recommendation. I do see that folks should be wearing N95 masks now since cloth ones are only about 50% effective and surgical masks are 60-70%, but N95 are 95%.
Can you share where you saw the time? I had been figuring 5-10 minutes, but don’t even remember where I saw that TBH.
ETA: I need to read better. Here’s the site I was reading from courtesy of UC Davis and from Jan/22, so post Omicron:
“The CDC defines close contact as being less than 6 feet away from an infected person for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period.”
Say I fill up my tank and use the bathroom, go to McDonald’s and get a breakfast sandwich and Diet Coke. An hour later, the Diet Coke hits me, I need to use the facilities. My gas tank is full, I go inside to use the gas station bathroom. There are 5 people in line, I am the only one in a mask. The guy in the front of the line is turning in lottery tickets and buying more scratch offs. Maybe they are buying beer and cigarettes. They sell popcorn and there’s a person filling up their refillable bucket. One guy had a check in his hand. Lord knows what he was doing.
The other day was like this, I waited in line for 12 minutes (I checked). I was the only person not in a mask. Different circumstances, I was trying to buy drinks for the ride home, I was very thirsty and the next gas station is 30 miles away. I didn’t feel very comfortable.
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so apparently a brief opening of doors to grab food caused it to spread. I always thought it was 15 minutes but then how does someone catch it just “food shopping” since they will not be around the same people for that period of time since they are walking around.
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If we’ve been driving for an hour our vehicle will need at least a couple of gallons. If we haven’t been driving, chances are we’re home or at our hotel or wherever, but honestly I don’t feel like getting hung up on this issue. We’ve all said our reasons and we’ll all do what we choose anyway. Any of us are welcome to “judge” those opposite of us. Even if we weren’t welcome to do so, we’d still do it. We’re human. We probably just shouldn’t travel together. 
Otherwise, I’m more in the mood to look forward to our upcoming trip! I know we’re taking a Covid risk, but that’s a risk we’re willing to take with the precautions we’re using.
@deb922 I assume you meant you were the only person IN a mask?
I’ve been in similar situation driving back and forth to my son’s campus. Even when masks were mandated in that state and there was a sign on the Wawa door, people would still go in without masks. Unless I really wanted something, if there was a long line, I did not buy anything if the store had a lot of unmasked people.
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This is purely anecdotal and about 2 month old news. Not even a semi-rigorous study of any kind.
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I feel the same about using a grocery store bathrooms. Might be at another store, but often the same chain, and we buy A LOT of groceries 
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Interesting, but without more spread being seen that way my thought would be that they independently caught it somewhere else and just happened to be across the hall from each other at the quarantine hotel.
An “experiment” has to be consistently repeatable to be validated and that hasn’t been been highly reported yet. I would have thought it would have been with as much spread as has happened in the past 6 weeks since that article. I live in an area with high transmission and few masks. Those I know who have caught it have been able to tell me where they likely got it. It’s never been take out or super short interactions in places. (< 10 minutes) It’s been at school, in workplaces, from family, etc.
i heard a story today of someone who said the only place they ever went was the supermarket masked and they got covid. How much do we believe these stories I am not sure. I know when I got it , it was from being around someone for 3 hours during a dinner where they were contageous and I sat right next to them.
I tried to proof read but darn, thanks for the catch. Yes I was the only person in a mask. Customers, staff, the girl apparently that was just walking around complaining loudly on her phone.
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'Tis tough to know, that’s for sure. Our family has decided we’re simply going to be doing our best and moving forward. We can’t change what others do and we don’t want to sit around home missing out on what could have been. If the worst happens, we’re content with our belief in the afterlife.
For us, doing our best includes vaccines, as many boosters as deemed necessary, being mostly outside and not around people, wearing masks where it’s asked of us or we decide it’s worth it and choosing destinations where we think others are likely to be of a similar mind.
Taking the risk includes the airport, hotel, wherever we eat, and having our kids join us for a period of time.
I think the whole risk assessment we all make for ourselves is the new normal going forward, at least until there is more immunity out there.
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One could always throw a dollar in the tip jar without standing in line.
We’ve only travelled between New York and New England since the pandemic. Rest areas and Dunkin Donuts are all as clean and no more crowded than they ever were. We always get coffee and donuts at DD and usually are picking up a meal or gas at the rest areas.
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In our travels we’ve found Love’s, Pilot, Sheetz, and similar have all had really clean restrooms and have signs asking folks to let them know if anything isn’t up to snuff. I think they found they get more business when regular travelers know they can depend on somewhere nice to take care of needs.
Local places are more hit and miss.
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We just got back from a week in Havana Cuba. They have a 95% vaccination rate, and mask compliance was close to 100%—you even had to wear a mask outside, which I thought was overkill. Going into concerts and other indoor sites, they checked your temp at the door (which I consider COVID theater), provided hand sanitizer, and every other seat was blocked off.
We needed a negative PCR test for entry, and our tour guide was required to report our health each day to the local public health authorities. All in all, I felt safer from COVID there than on our flights to and from the US-especially our overnight stay in FL, LOL
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[quote=“Mom0f3, post:4179, topic:2092996”] a week in Havana Cuba.
[/quote]
Wow! 
An interesting cultural experience. Lovely people currently undergoing pretty significant hardship.
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