My Harley sits contentedly in the garage as I have no intention of attending the Sturgis motorcycle cycle rally which begins today.\u00a0 Attending any event with 700,000 of my \u2018closest\u2019 friends is not really in my character let alone during an ongoing pandemic.\u00a0\u00a0 The rally last year drew an estimated 435,000 participants and subsequently a number of COVID cases across the entire United States were traced back to Sturgis.\u00a0 With the even more contagious Delta variant now ravaging the country, one would expect an even worse outcome from the event this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I saw an interview with a number of rally-goers and one man stated that his wife didn\u2019t make the trip because she was at home sick with COVID.\u00a0 Of course, he was standing in close proximity to others, all of whom were unmasked.\u00a0 \u00a0I guess he believes that walking around spreading COVID among the crowd, given that he was almost certainly exposed, is within his rights.\u00a0 One can only shake one\u2019s head at the selfishness and stupidity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This weekend here in Bozeman is the annual Sweet Pea Festival.\u00a0 It was cancelled last year due to COVID but is on in full force this year.\u00a0\u00a0 In a few hours, hundreds and hundreds of people will be crowded into Lindley Park at the east end of Main Street roaming around looking at the goods being offered for sale and sampling the various goodies being offered to eat.\u00a0\u00a0 I did, in fact, buy a ticket, but I\u2019m sitting here wondering if going is worth the risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There will certainly be no mask mandate in place as the Governor and the Republican-controlled legislature have outlawed any such action.\u00a0 In spite of a dramatic increase in cases here in Gallatin County and across Montana and the entire country it is apparent that most people here seem to believe that we are out of the woods and everything is all rosy.\u00a0 I\u2019m beginning to see a few more masks but they are still few and far between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gallatin County has one of the highest vaccine rates in the state but still stands at only 55% of the total eligible population being fully vaccinated.\u00a0 My guess is, that when you factor in the large number of tourists in town and the large number of people who will attend the Sweet Pea festival from areas outside of Gallatin County, the percentage of people who are fully vaccinated at the Sweet Pea Festival will be 50% or less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The event will be outside.\u00a0 That\u2019s true.\u00a0 However, it will be crowded and there will be a lot of people milling around in a relatively small space.\u00a0 So, I\u2019m wondering whether or not its worth the risk to me.\u00a0 And this is where I really struggle with this whole concept of people claiming that they have a right not to where a mask, get a vaccination or be part of the solution.\u00a0\u00a0 I also have rights.\u00a0 Why should I be put in the position of having to decide whether or not I want to attend something like the Sweet Pea Festival because I know that there will be a large number of people there whose behavior and decisions are simply increasing the risk to me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s true that I could wear a mask and attend the festival.\u00a0 That is certainly the option I have. \u00a0After all, I am vaccinated so some might wonder what\u2019s the big deal? \u00a0\u00a0According to the medical professionals, given that I am fully vaccinated, it is likely that even I contract the virus, I won\u2019t end up with a severe case.\u00a0 However, there are other considerations. \u00a0It goes beyond the immediate risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My daughter is flying out to visit me on Tuesday for a few days before she starts school just before Labor Day.\u00a0 What happens if I get exposed or pick up the virus, in spite of taking precautions and then expose her? \u00a0She is also vaccinated but she doesn\u2019t need any extra pressure just at the beginning of the school year. \u00a0I am planning to leave for Portugal in a few weeks.\u00a0 I will have to produce a negative COVID test before I get on the plane.\u00a0 Do I want to take the risk of getting exposed and failing the COVID test and putting the whole trip in jeopardy?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For me, I\u2019m thinking its perhaps just not worth the risk.\u00a0 I doubt if there is anything at the festival that I can\u2019t live without.\u00a0 I think perhaps I\u2019ll just go for a bicycle ride and then perhaps take the HOG out for a little joy ride this afternoon.\u00a0 \u00a0They always say you should only worry about those things that you can control.\u00a0 Given that, I\u2019m sure the viral load in and around the Sweet Pea festival will be far higher than anywhere else I will go today so I will probably exercise my right not to go.\u00a0\u00a0 The really sad thing is, it didn\u2019t have to be this way.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My Harley sits contentedly in the garage as I have no intention of attending the Sturgis motorcycle cycle rally which begins today.\u00a0 Attending any event with 700,000 of my \u2018closest\u2019 friends is not really in my character let alone during an ongoing pandemic.\u00a0\u00a0 The rally last year drew an estimated 435,000 participants and subsequently a … Continue reading August 7, 2021<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7FBZO-ox","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1521"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1524,"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521\/revisions\/1524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}