CINCINNATI, Ohio — My sister’s flight landed in Fort Myers at noon, and by 12:30 p.m., she was behind the wheel of my mom’s car, headed back to Ohio.

This was the not the trip to Florida she had planned. Then again, what about the past few weeks was anything like what any of us had planned?

Indeed, this wasn’t the travel story I had planned to write in early April. But it’s a tale of the times, of travel and trying to stay safe, of stress and family and making the best decisions that we can with the information we have.

Like many retired Ohioans, my mom, 79, splits her time between Ohio and Florida. She usually returns to her Lakeside, Ohio, home in mid-May. This year, she’ll arrive a little earlier than usual.

My brother sounded the alarm a few weeks ago. Florida, with the highest percentage of senior citizens in the U.S., is not the place you want to be during a global pandemic that targets older citizens. “I think we should consider getting mom home soon,” he wrote in an email to me and my sister.

He argued that our mom, who has some underlying health issues, would be better off in Ohio if she got sick. The health care system here appears to be better equipped to handle the growing crisis, plus she’d be closer to family. He even put together a spreadsheet of available alternatives (did I mention he’s an engineer?)

Among the options:

Keep her in Florida, in her senior living community in Fort Myers. The community basically shut down all services in recent weeks -- my mom was without her book club, her bridge games and dinners out. She was essentially stuck in her condo and was starting to feel isolated and lonely.

Fly her home to Ohio, where she could stay with me or my sister, or driven directly to Lakeside.

One of us could go down to Florida and get her, either flying or driving.

At the time, I wasn’t convinced that bringing her back to Ohio was necessary or wise -- it’s not like Ohio has been spared the effects of the pandemic. But in recent weeks, Florida’s COVID-19 cases have increased much faster than Ohio’s -- at last check (early Thursday), Florida had more than 7,700 positive cases, while Ohio had fewer than 2,600.

Just last week, after resisting for weeks, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finally relented and issued a statewide stay-at-home order, which went into effect Thursday. Numerous counties in the state had already issued their own stay-at-home orders, although the county where my mom lives, Lee County, had not.

Before making a final decision, I reached out to her doctor at the Cleveland Clinic, who agreed that bringing her back to Ohio made sense. But he conceded: “These are tough times with decisions being made with little information. And we don’t know that we made a ‘wrong’ decision unless there is an adverse outcome (and then we feel really guilty!)”

Finally, we came to a decision — my sister and sister-in-law would fly to Florida and drive mom back to Ohio.

The logistics weren’t easy: My sister’s first flight, on Frontier Airlines, was canceled a day before her March 27 departure. Her second flight, on Delta, took off as scheduled, with approximately a dozen passengers on board.

A day before my sister arrived, my mom’s retirement community completely closed to visitors — so my sister and sister-in-law couldn’t stop by to help her pack the car, or take a quick rest before the long drive north.

Mom packed up her own car, picked up her escorts at the airport, and they all hopped on I-75.

I was tasked with finding them a place to stay in Georgia that was near the highway, but far from Atlanta, where the virus has been spreading fast. I suggested a Fairfield Inn and Suites in Cordele, where they enjoyed takeout pizza and beer and 8 hours of sleep. They were sent on their way in the morning with a bagged breakfast of banana, muffin and granola bar.

Twelve hours later, they pulled into my sister’s driveway in Cincinnati. My sister and mom were pushing for a quick detour to Cumberland Falls State Park in Kentucky, where my family spent many summers camping, but my sister-in-law vetoed that idea.

In recent days, the Ohio Department of Health has asked that all returning snowbirds self-quarantine for 14 days, upon arrival back in Ohio.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week issued a travel advisory for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, urging residents to refrain from non-essential domestic travel for the next two weeks.

Every day, it seems, there are new and unprecedented travel restrictions in place governing who can go where and when, which made me grateful mom got out of Florida when she did.

Eventually, my sister will help our mom relocate to Lakeside, where I’ll meet up with her. Until then, I’m relieved that she’s safe and healthy and hanging out in Cincinnati.

It’s not the travel adventure anyone wanted. But it’s the one we got — for now, but not forever.

Read more travel coverage:

Canceling a trip in the era of coronavirus: Susan Glaser

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Tourism to Cleveland, region, likely to drop due to coronavirus concerns