Early arrival for quarantine?

arishipshape

25er (NEVER QUIT NEVER SETTLE)
Joined
Nov 10, 2020
Messages
24
Greetings! Is it possible that we might have to arrive to USAFA earlier than the 23rd of June to quarantine in advance? Has anything been said on this subject?
 
Greetings! Is it possible that we might have to arrive to USAFA earlier than the 23rd of June to quarantine in advance? Has anything been said on this subject?
Well, I-day is actually the 24th, the latest I have heard.
 
Me and my family are considering that as well. Looking forward to getting yelled at with y’all! We should all get coffee or something a few days before, if that would be logistically feasible.
Yeah, that would be neat! I bet my parents would like to meet others that are in their shoes too.
 
I can’t say this enough. Drink plenty of water BEFORE you arrive in Colorado. Start more than usual at least a week out to be extremely hydrated. It will help you immensely coming from lower sea levels. It will help you to not have any nose bleeds or major headaches.
 
I can’t say this enough. Drink plenty of water BEFORE you arrive in Colorado. Start more than usual at least a week out to be extremely hydrated. It will help you immensely coming from lower sea levels. It will help you to not have any nose bleeds or major headaches.
It's less than 500 feet in where I live! 😬😂
 
I highly doubt that you will have to report early for I-day. The c/o 24 arrived during the height of covid, and they worked the quarantine into the start of BCT through something they called ROM (restriction of movement).
 
Short answer: NO, the arrival date is the arrival date, wait for instructions for details of in-processing.

What works for your family, only works for your family. There is no right/wrong how you get yourself up to COS.

If finances and schedule allow, it is wonderful to arrive around 3 days early to acclimate and spend final family time. I highly suggest making reservations, yesterday would be even better. We chose the AirBnB route so we had a living room, DD had her own bedroom, laundry, and home cooking. For our family dynamics, it worked best to only take DD, and the next day our older DD flew in and we vacationed in Denver/COS 4 more days.

Pay close attention to instructions from USAFA - Class of 2025. I advise having a C2024 mindset and then being very grateful for anything better than what we got - carpool line and a hastily put together option to stop at Doolittle Hall and the football stadium - which I thought was awesome, and I am very appreciative that they did anything extra.

Regarding getting together/meet ups, again, each family has to decide what is best given USAFA's posture. Remember, your #1 goal, waaaayyyyy above anything else, is to successfully in-process. In C2024, contact tracing was the wildcard- you had no idea if you'd test positive, your roommate would test positive, or if you'd be contact traced. For 2025, wait for and understand the rules, and between now and then plan accordingly, balancing living your life vs cautious and deliberate choices. In particular, go on your fact finding mission and know What Happens If I Get Covid? from here to I-day......

I think it's wonderful to see friendships and comraderie develop. Don't forget to make friends and alliances with older Cadets in your area, maybe through parents group. They are the ones that will be giving you a ride home/to airport, lending moral support as someone from the same/sister school or local area. It's really nice to have those allies, even if you do not develop a close friendship.
 
Also, if your family does intend to come a few days early, I would look into making reservations for the Cog Railway to go to the Pikes Peak summit. It has been closed for a couple of years for refurbishment and opens again finally next month. Advanced reservations have always been required on this, so if it's something you're interested in, you should book now. https://www.cograilway.com
 
What @HCopter said. I will add:

We too made a roadtrip of it. (Joe's BBQ in Kansas City is worth the time if you are heading through KC). We spent a couple days in C Springs before I-day. (Garden of the Gods & Pike's Peak). Stayed at the Holiday Inn Express -along with a ton of other from '24 - there are a couple hotels back there and they will be full with '25s this year. My son did not do any work outs in C Springs and adjusted fine to the altitude at Basic - they had a couple days locked in their rooms which you may have as well until tests come back, but everyone is different.

I don't know how it normally is, but we were not allowed through the gates until our appointed time which was like 1pm. We had breakfast, drove around town a little to kill time - he was nervous and not in the mood for anything really - I think he was trying to get prepared mentally. There is a parking lot off to the side of the gate where we and many other parents were staging for a bit. We wanted to be on time, but not sure of when we should actually drive through, so we just parked in the lot near the gate. Took some pics and gave our final hugs. Then we drove through. Get in the vehicle line and wait your turn. Your cadet will exit, everyone else stays in the car and drive on. Not the best of goodbyes, but it is what it is.

Parents then drove over to Doolittle Hall and we had to stand in line FOREVER since they were limiting the # of people in the store due to COVID. By time we got to the stadium, the parent event was over. I imagine it will be similar this year. I kinda wish we would have gone to the stadium first, and then Doolittle Hall. Later in the day, the line at Doolittle was much shorter and we would have been able to socialize at the stadium, plus I think everything at Doolittle can be found online anyway.
 
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