I Left New York for Greener Pastures — and a Puppy

The rolling hills of Appalachia have been my refuge from the coronavirus epidemic

Illustration: Michelle Kondrich

GEN asked two writers to explore what it means to stay in New York, and what it’s like to leave. Glynnis MacNicol stayed in the city. Meghan Daum left New York to quarantine in Virginia’s Appalachian mountains:

Three weeks ago, I fled New York City for the countryside. I know there are arguments against this, some expressed more thoughtfully than others. I ran through them one by one as I was sitting in my Manhattan apartment, wondering whether my limited options were even worth contemplating. The shaming campaigns against defectors hadn’t quite begun yet, but I knew they would soon enough. I also knew that guilt awaited me no matter what I did, and not just because guilt is the organizing principle of my existence. I had a new guilt source in my life: a puppy.

Nearly a year after losing my Saint Bernard, Phoebe, I had, somewhat unexpectedly, acquired a 10-week-old Newfoundland. At first, I thought the timing would be perfect. Due to coronavirus, my upcoming trips and engagements were being canceled one by one. Not yet grasping the seriousness of the situation, I thought, “This is great!” So much uninterrupted time with the puppy and no need to pay dog sitters or lean on neighbors for favors. But then it wasn’t just events being canceled but life itself. The outdoors were being rationed. The air itself was deemed unsafe.

I decided to leave. It didn’t feel great, but it didn’t feel wrong. It was one of those least-worst choice kinds of choices. It helped that I would travel with a close friend, a neighbor with whom I have a strange sort of platonic partnership (maybe more on this another time), but he probably wasn’t going to stay long. This was my gig, my choice. Not to mention my puppy (per our agreement, my friend would do all the cooking but assume no puppy duties other than playing with him; a deal I was happy to make). I chose our destination after an evening of Airbnb research, deciding on a place in Appalachia because it was in the middle of nowhere yet within an hour of a hospital that wasn’t yet pegged to be overrun. I packed up a few changes of clothes, a lot of books, and every medication I had sitting around even if I…