Pandemic teaching during COVID-19 has further magnified the unsustainable and fraught nature of teaching across schools and universities worldwide (Singer 2020). The remote turn to emergency remote teaching (ERT)--so-called "Zoom University" (Martin et al. 2020)--brings with it immense challenges of access, equity, outreach, and mental health that are impossible to understand and quantify (Heim 2020; Hodges et al. 2020). This article reflects on the authors' ERT experiences specific to teaching Introduction to GIS during an ongoing pandemic. The courses, facing a constant need to adapt, adjust, flex, and flow, were under significant pressure to support students in extraordinary circumstances while maintaining the necessary content and organization for student success beyond the GIS classrooms. The authors employ an autoethnographic approach, particularly the Butz and Besio (2009) typological category "Personal Experience Narrative" to reflect and develop insights into their thinking and reactions throughout the challenges of a full ERT semester of COVID-19--impacted GIS instruction, as well as those of their teaching assistants (TAs) and students, during the Fall 2020 semester. With another semester of COVID-19 affecting higher education ahead, the goal is to share their experiences, successes, failures, and practices to inform others of lessons learned in these times.