Yogi Berra said it, and Stoker and I are living it.
Back in mid March 2020, many of the world’s nations went into a Covid lockdown. I distinctly recall our Governor imposing some of the strictest mandatory guidance in our 50 states, assuring us that such measures were necessary for ‘a few weeks’ to ‘flatten the curve’ and were ‘science driven’. It has been a very long ‘few weeks’.
This put a nearly complete halt to travel of almost any kind. We weren’t supposed to leave our county, even on a bike ride from home. And international travel became almost impossible to most destinations.
Stoker and I had a lot of travel plans for 2020, starting with 6 weeks of cycling in Southern France in May. Since ‘a few weeks to flatten the curve’ didn’t seem especially worrisome, I still had hopes we would be able to travel. But on April 7, 2020 Air France cancelled our scheduled May flight, and shortly afterwards my favorite touring company 44|5 did the same for the Cevennes tour planned for June 5.
Ever since then I’ve been playing the same game: I make tentative plans far enough out that the panicdemic should be over. Then I watch those plans be cancelled yet again. First we were going to try to do a custom itinerary in Belgium and southern France in July. Then we moved it into August to include a Pyrenees tour. But France was still closed to non-essential travel from abroad. Climbing the Tourmelet certainly is non-essential.
May 4 departure not happening… 
Cevennes Tour cancelled, so off to Idaho
Going into the winter of 2020-2021, we were almost certain that by May of 2021 we would finally be able to do our planned trips from 2020. But France went into another lock down in mid-April, for at least a month. And there is no sign of when the EU will welcome travelers from the US. So our May/June trip is not happening.
We are kind of hoping to do some cycling related travel in France sometime this year, but I’ve given up on advance planning. The next time I put dates on a calendar I don’t want to have to cross them out. 2022 maybe?
Rich Freggiaro Cycling Blog 
“Panicdemic”, ouch. In most cases, there are good reasons for such shut downs, and exercising an abundance of caution. We have decided to do our hiking, cycling and traveling with tiny trailer in California and adjacent states – not violating any rules, maintaining high precautions and social distancing. No problem.
>> Tim Viall; writer, photographer >> Ph: 209.969.3875; Email: tviall@msn.com; Work: J. T. “Tim” Viall; writer, photographer, graphics/marketing; home address: 11135 Moose River Ct., Rancho Cordova, CA 95670; Record newspaper blog: http://blogs.esanjoaquin.com/valleytravel; Sent from my iPad. >> “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”. – Albert Einstein (a regular bicyclist) CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This communication may contain confidential and/or legally privileged information. It is solely for the use of the intended recipient(s). Unauthorized interception, review, forwarding, use or disclosure is prohibited and may violate applicable laws, including but not limited to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and destroy all copies of the communication. Thank you!
>
LikeLike
Well, EU is dangling a June re-opening for the fully vaccinated….but I can understand your reluctance to keep the calendar blank for now.
LikeLike