Day 3: Madrid to Barcelona
/This post won't have any pics tonight. I'll load them tomorrow. It's too much work for tonight. I will be completely honest and say that my patience is being tested in so many areas right now, but God is still good. All.the.time.
The morning started delightfully. We'd been up late with Luke, who was totally adorable running around all sweaty in his diaper.
We got him showered off and put back to bed and he was up at 4:30 island time this morning. 6:30 Madrid time. Josh laid down with him for a bit in the bedroom he was in and then decided it was time to wake us all up and get the morning started. It took some doing, as our bodies are still very much on island time. Two hours difference in the morning is a LOT, especially for travel weary bodies. Today is Joel's birthday, and it took some serious convincing for him to come around and be excited about his birthday instead of just wanting to go back to bed.
He eventually got excited and we celebrated with a yummy breakfast at a bakery, where he picked out a heavily frosted pig shaped cookie. Josh stuck a fork in it and we sang happy birthday. He was giddy and it was adorable. We then walked to a nearby park and were able to see the "Temple of Debod". An Egyptian temple that was deconstructed and then reconstructed in Madrid. It.was.very.cool! We witnessed and awkward swim suit modeling session on the walkway by the water at the temple. Awkward really doesn't begin to describe it. It was just plain weird. HA! We got a kick out of it, for sure! We walked back to the apartment and hastily loaded the van to get back on the road. There are a lot more pictures to come for this post, but they are taking FOREVER to upload.
The drive to Barcelona was....loooong. Longer that it should have been, just like the drive to Madrid. Why?
We got ANOTHER flat tire. We pulled over at a gas station to get out and stretch and make lunch and could only find shade to part in back behind the building. It was still paved, but something dove into our back tire and hastily drained the air from it. Josh noticed it as I was loading boys in the van to get going. I unloaded boys and we piddled around for another hour while Josh changed the tire to the spare, more use than it's seen EVER, and went into the gas station to see if some "fix a flat" would work. It didn't, as he could never get it to go IN to the tire. Most of it ended up on the ground and some ended up on his face. Maybe a nozzle size difference?
The first half of the drive was just absolutely bleak. I mean, for you Wyoming knowing people picture Rock Springs, a teeny it of Gillette, Evanston......oh bother. I'm not going to name all of them. Just picture all the armpit towns of Wyoming combined and then add in a little more dry, and a little more desolate and you have the middle of Spain. Seriously, SO dry. And.......
I'm just glad we drove out of it!
The second half of the drive, while WAY slower due to our max 80km/h donut tire, was WAY more beautiful. It actually looked a lot like the Grand Junction, CO area where Josh's parents live. TONS of orchards and vineyards, surrounded by evergreen covered mountains and beautiful flowy disiduous trees. I didn't spell that right, but I don't care.
That being said, we drove like a snail for the rest of the 2 1/2 hours to Madrid and arrived around 7:20. We were scheduled to meet our host for the place we are staying at 7:15, but she ended up being an hour late. I will say, while it is very enlightening and quite humbling to see the kinds of apartments local folks live in, this whole Air B&B thing has been frustrating to boot. None of the places have been a smooth in so far. But it's ok. God is good. We are less melty in this place here in Barcelona than we were in Madrid, but still quite melty. This place has two fans, which helps. I was walking around our place tonight trying to gather my head after a long day in the car, and these are the challenges that we have faced: The heat, for sure. The size, as we are used to large - again, it's enlightening and humbling. The electrical situation - there are just very few outlets (thankfully we remembered to bring a transformer and a couple adapters!) Having to stay much quieter than we are used to because of being in apartment buildings. For me, the heights has been a huge issue - the windows have no screens and no bars and have all been low enough for curious little boys to climb up to - I tend to keep them shut and deal with the sweltering, unmoving air inside the apartment. The kitchen in our current place is.......really teeny. And really not clean. Really the only clean thing was the towels on the beds and the sheets. The floor has left our feet black and stuck with particles. There's a lot more, but I'm way tired and my eyes sting and I have sweat running down my belly. ha!
Please remember that I am mentioning challenges, not complaining. I honest to goodness consider this a privilege to travel this way and am learning so much from it - though I will say I nearly had a breakdown moment earlier when I looked at the bottom of my feet - I don't like dirty and cramped and hot, but ALL of those and really everything else we are experiencing is just the run of the mill every day life for SO many people. It's been an uncomfortable reminder of how spoiled we've been all our lives, and especially recently with our incredible house on the ocean.
There are so many more things, but a cold shower is in order again and then off to bed to get enough sleep before the boys wake up. My brain will be fresh tomorrow, hopefully. Pray that not bats fly in our room, because it's simply too stanking hot to shut the window.
Blessings to you all. Thank you for following along with us and please if you would, pray that we can find a shop tomorrow to repair our tire and that NO more tires would pop. Goodness. The odds!