When the Travelers Stop Traveling

So, obviously I haven’t updated in a while. I think mostly it’s been because we haven’t been traveling and, as a travel blog, what was I supposed to write about? I had no travel tips, no advice for your next beach trip or hiking packing lists. To be honest, it has been pretty difficult to not travel. We’ve been hopping on a plane every other month for the past like, seven or so years so it’s been a huge change. We had huge plans for this summer. We’re actually meant to be in Wales right now to take part in the Hay Festival and then we were heading to the Isle of Man to go see the TT. We were then getting on a ferry to pop over to Ireland to go on some kayaking tours and, of course, a pub crawl. In July we were meant to go to the CrossFit Games. It’s all been canceled. One thing after another, after another. At first I was supremely bummed out but we’ve figured out other things to do that still make us happy here at home. We’ve been doing a fair amount of house projects and we work out a lot these days. I participated in a burpee challenge with my CrossFit gym and managed to complete about 2,000 burpess in 6 weeks. Yes, it was as horrible as you’re thinking but it kept me busy and connected with my CrossFit family.

I know that obviously the world as a whole is going through financial, emotional, mental and physical turmoil and my being bummed about travel plans being canceled is so not important at all. I’m just giving you my perspective from my personal quarantine experience. That’s all I can really speak to so just know that I know that this is not really that important in the grand scheme of things but it’s what I have going on personally at the moment. Speaking of things that’re going on in my life personally, I’ve spent a lot of time learning how to cook different things, brew kombucha, lots and lots and lots of house projects. I’ve basically been doing all the things I’ve been wanting to do for a while but I’ve been too busy with work, gym or socializing. I figure we might as well use this quarantine time for good rather than bemoaning our “old life”. Things have changed and I don’t think it’s ever going to go back to “normal”. We’ll always exist with this experience in the backs of our minds. It’s going to change everything. I think it’s going to change how we handle panic, how we take care of each other and ourselves. It’s going to change the fabric of our government and our preparedness for any future outbreak. That’s not necessarily a bad thing either. Maybe we don’t want to go back to how things were. Maybe things needed to change.

When, as we have been saying in the south, “everything that’s been going on” started I felt pretty overwhelmed with fear. It didn’t seem quite real. Our school closed and went virtual. Our gym closed and started doing zoom workouts. It felt like everything was frozen. I was sure we would have a run on the grocery store (which there was) and tanks rolling down the streets (which there was not). I did eventually find solace in the slowness of quarantine. Now that things, at least in our state, have started to open back up, it’s been kind of jarring. It’s like some kind of episode of Black Mirror. Everything is trying to be normal but it just isn’t. There is a tinge of weirdness to everything. Want to go to the store? Alright, but wear a mask and wait in line. Want to go out to eat? Order it and wait out in your car for a masked employee to come bring it to you. Need to run an errand? Only one person per car allowed in the building. Back to normal but definitely not normal at all.

Up until recently everything felt like a movie. “Stay Safe” on every marquee in town. Car horns blowing to thank the medical workers as their shift changed over at the hospital. We even had airplanes draw a heart in the sky. Burger King has signs outside their restaurant that simply states, “Everything Will Be Okay”. How surreal. How weird.

I don’t even really have any advice or anything of real importance to say that hasn’t already been said. I suppose this is mostly for documentation that this happened and I felt like it needed to be marked in this blog somehow. We will travel again. Things will eventually be okay again. We’ll be able to dance at music festivals again.

It’ll happen one day.

-Tiffany

Photo by Gabriela Palai from Pexels