(no subject)

One industry that seems to be particularly irresponsible these days is the vacation travel business. From NBC news: Parents, students shocked at company's response to ill-fated spring break trip during pandemic. Basically the tour company assured young people that it was safe to go on their spring break trip to Mexico. A good number of people decided against going, and asked for their money back. Of the 70 who went 44 came back with Coronavirus. Now the company is refusing to refund the money of those who didn't go.

The Grand Canyon National Park here in Arizona stayed open for awhile after most of the state closed down. It didn't sound so terrible having big open spaces to hike in at a place that is far from any population center. (Saguaro National Park here on two edges of Tucson closed fairly quickly, I suspect because locals were flocking there to hike in too high numbers. There is a lot of space, but always crowds at the limited restroom facilities.) But tour buses continued to dump dozens of tourists at once each into the most popular areas of the Grand Canyon rim drive, as if nothing were wrong, and the park was forced to close once a park employee came down with the virus. I don't understand the tourists or the tour companies. Now there is talk of closing the entire National Park system.