Sitting it out in Southern Spain

I’m writing this from a relaxing porch of a traditional Spanish home located near Cartagena. The temperature is a comfortable 21C (70F) and the skies are cloudy but not enough to block out the occasional rays of warm sunshine that sweep across my face. All around me are the comforting sounds of birds chirping from the nearby orchard where fresh sweet oranges and tart lemons grow from branches that sway in the calm breeze.

Springtime in southern Spain is about as good as I could imagine. If I didn’t have access to news, I would be perfectly content. Unfortunately, this calming feeling is only short lived. In my head, I often worry about our future and what the next weeks or months will bring. J.K. Rowling, in her book, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, writes about a character named Newt Scamander whose “philosophy is that worrying means you suffer twice.” He has a point.

What have I decided to do about it? I’ve decided to take each day as it comes and not worry about the future. Admittedly this is easier for Chantil and I because of our finances. I’ve been blessed with a successful career over the past 29 years and during the last decade we were able to build enough travel funds to support ourselves for some time. We don’t have a mortgage; our home is wherever we end up parking the motorcycles for the night. We don’t have any monthly bills except for insurances (life, healthcare, motorcycle), investments, and a cell phone. Our daily expenses are simply lodging, gas, food, and entertainment. Living simply helps us worry less.

In addition, I feel the need to slow down a little bit. Before the coronavirus pandemic, we planned to ride Europe in 10 months. It seems reasonable in planning but the first two weeks of our travels from Germany to Southern Spain was stressful for me because I felt I didn’t have the time to properly document our travels. On average, we were riding 237 km/day (147 miles/day) and although that doesn’t seem like a lot of distance, it is if you’re trying to document it for a YouTube motorcycle travel channel. Once we travel again, we will make the effort to slow down; even if it means we return to Europe for another round of travel.

I imagine that travel and tourism are low on the priority list for countries dealing with the current pandemic. Many European countries haven’t determined when they plan on ending quarantine until the number of infected is well under control. Spain is currently on a nation-wide quarantine until April 26th. The Prime Minister has hinted that this could be extended until well into May. When Spain does lift its travel ban, we will have about 70 days remaining before our travel visa expires. Our current plan it to enjoy those 70 days in Spain, Portugal, France, and possible Morocco.

Anyhow, this week I finished another episode of our viajarMOTO travel channel! Episode 5 is some of my most creative work yet and highlighted one of the most beautiful cities we’ve traveled in Europe. Expect it to release to the public on the 18th of April!

What else? We are still playing the Nintendo Switch. It seems that the Coronavirus has created quite a market for these video game systems! I contemplated leaving it at home since we have a limited storage on the motorcycles – I’m glad that we made the room. It has been especially nice playing some new games like: Animal Crossing, Good Work!, The Stretchers, Overcooked 2, and Bubble Bobble. Thank you Nintendo and all the developers who are keeping people sane during the quarantine!

Thank you to each of you for reading these updates. Until next week…

🗓 : 16 Apr 2020 | ✏️: Travis Gill