The Spanish State of Alarm is Taking its Toll

This week was a bit tougher emotionally for me…

I think one of the main reasons for this was that the mandatory quarantine of Spain has gone on longer than I initially imagined. When it started, I felt like it would last a month before the COVID-19 virus would subside, go dormant, and we could continue on our merry way. Day 43 and this is still not the case; although the number of new cases and deaths has continued to decrease over the past two weeks.

I feel another reason for the emotional dip, is that I no longer have any new material for our travel related YouTube channel. Just yesterday, I finished Episode 6.

This episode ends with us arriving to the end of our travels; just two shorts weeks after we officially began. I didn’t intend for it to end so sadly but the music and mood just felt right.

Fear not, I’ve been working on other ideas during the quarantine but they won’t be travel related. They will be about:

• Things we are doing to keep busy during the lock-down
• How we stay fit while traveling (and the lock-down)
• Motorcycle maintenance to include how we do an oil change on the road
• Various reviews to include our tent, camping gear, and riding gear

We’ve now been at the AirBnB for 6 weeks. Although the AirBnB is a nice place in the countryside, offering a wonderful courtyard to enjoy the warm Spanish sunshine, it is not where our heart is. Our heart is on travel. Wonderlust is a powerful feeling that is hard to shake. Speaking of travel, I am starting to resign to the fact that tourism in Spain will not be available in time for the summer. I cannot imagine that countries will be willing to support tourism so quickly after these previous challenging months. Spain, especially, was hit hard by the pandemic and will not put itself in a position for a second wave.

So what now? The current nationwide lockdown is still in effect until May 8th. We will just have to wait and see – taking each day as it comes. We will continue to maintain our health and spirituality. It’s been a blessing to have a courtyard to do our exercise routing three times a week. We are also grateful for the organized and well-written church lesson manuals that we can use to study and maintain our spirituality. I am especially appreciative of the Priesthood, that I call upon, to administer the Sacrament within our home. It truly has been a blessing and something I look forward to each week.

Some of the other things we did this week:

• We built a LEGO kit called “Central Perk” from the TV series Friends. We got the idea because our hostess, Maria and her children, have been inviting us over to watch Friends, so we though it would be fun to build and give them this kit.
• Chantil found some modeling clay, during her weekly run to the grocery store. She worked with the neighbor boys to create a small diorama of a Nintendo Animal Crossing world.
• We shot the video for a future YouTube video highlighting all of the items that we added to our adventure motorcycles in order to ready them for full-time travel.
• We played a lot of the Nintendo Switch. We both especially enjoyed a game called ABZU that really provided an immersive escape from the reminder of Coronavirus quarantine. I just wished it lasted longer.
• As previously mentioned, I finished episode 6 of our travel series. It was released yesterday for “early tier” Perteonsupporters and will be released at the end of the week for others.
• We enjoyed a relaxing walk around the countryside with our hostess, and friend, Maria.

Enjoy the pictures we took of the quiet countryside. I hope they capture the feeling of warm Spanish hospitality and the Mediterranean sun.

🗓: 25 Apr 2020 | ✏️: Travis Gill