Travelling south again

Port de Grave couple is looking forward to seeing their winter family in Florida this year

Wayne and Charlotte Morgan got some good news earlier this week.

That’s when the Port de Grave couple found out their wishes had been granted and the United States would soon be opening its borders for non-essential travellers from Canada by land or by sea.

“We were thrilled,” Charlotte said.

The Morgans are among those Canadians, including Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, who are affectionately known as snowbirds.

For the last 15 years, they’ve spent their winters at Robert’s Mobile Home and RV Park in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Each winter, they get in their vehicle and head towards what they call their second family.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they were unable to spend last winter as the border was closed to nonessential travel.

The Morgans could have flown down last year, but a medical condition limits Wayne from doing so.

They always have to drive and thus they were unable to visit.

That will change this year as they hope to get down in a couple of weeks or just after Christmas.

“We’re going to go as soon as it opens, say. We’re planning on driving down,” said Wayne.

Their highly anticipated reunion with Florida and their friends at the park comes after the United States federal government announced earlier this week the full opening of the border the country shares with Canada for fully vaccinated travellers.

Early November is the time when it will open and those restrictions will apply to people travelling by air, land or by sea.

When it opens, those who are fully vaccinated and travelling for a non-essential purpose will be required to show proof of their vaccination status when requested by a border patrol agent.

However, travellers by land or sea ferry will not have to show a negative COVID-19 test unlike those travelling by air.

While plenty of people who head south for the winter do so to beat the snow and ice, the Morgans love going down there to spend time with the friends they’ve made in the park.

“The park we are in, there are around 1,500 people there winter months and we know a lot of the people there,” said Wayne. “There is a lot of activity, and we just miss our routine.”

Since the announcement, they’ve been getting messages from people wondering when they’re coming down and how they’re feeling about things.

Both Wayne and Charlotte play music and often host an open mic night at the park’s clubhouse.

Their first return open mic night is already being advertised on the local bulletin board.

“We’re so close to the people in the park that I’ve often said we leave one family to go home to another,” said Charlotte.