Imagine you're soaking up the sun in beautiful Arizona, away from the fridged Saskatchewan winter.

Now imagine you're in that same Arizona, and a virus sweeps across the world, forcing you to quickly pack all of your belongings and make the 2630 kilometre drive back home.

That's exactly what happened to Linda Ochitwa and her husband earlier this month.

The couple's initial plan was to stay in Arizona until around April 9, but that all changed once Covid-19 started spreading like wildfire across the United States.

"We began packing personal items, toilet paper, paper towel, disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizer, Lysol spray, all dry goods, and non-perishable items that we had in the cupboards. On March 18, we closed up our home in Arizona, filled our cooler and began our over 2600 kilometre drive home."

Before even hitting the road, the two agreed on self-isolation upon their return to Canada, which was even before it was government-mandated.

"We thought, 'nope we're just going to stay put'(in Arizona) but with the rapid spread of it and the news that they were going to close the border, although we were confident that as Canadians we were still going to be able to cross, we just knew that we had that three day drive through areas that we could already see were starting to increase in numbers."

They took precautions each time they stopped for gas and washroom breaks, using disinfecting wipes on the gas pumps, keypads, and doors, and then applying hand sanitizer once they got back into the vehicle.

Restaurants remained open but they chose to eat the food they had brought or drive-through services. 

"We knew there was no way possible that we could do it in one stretch, we also knew that we had to stop, and that was the big thing, wanting to be really careful when you stopped."

On March 20, Linda and her husband crossed the border which coincided with the provincial government announcing mandatory quarantine.

Ochitwa said her greatest learning experience from all of this is that things can change on a dime and that you always have to be prepared for instances like to occur.

Their days of isolation thus far have consisted of emails to their kids, spring cleaning, cooking, baking, playing cards and staying informed.