It's a done deal....

Well, there’s no going back now, no matter what my $38 travel insurance details state. I bought my tickets today. I’m flying out of Dulles on July 8, heading to Paris. I come home from Madrid on August 14. The total cost for the tickets, with the trip insurance, was nearly $1200. I went to www.1800flyeurope.com, which was a pretty decent site. Done deal.

Now that I’ve actually set the wheels in motion, I’m nervous as hell. Excited, I guess, but nervous, too. It bums me out that I’m getting a lot of friction from my mom about the trip. Despite all I’ve told her, I think she still assumes I’m going to be traipsing across the hinterlands of the Iberian Peninsula miles and miles away from any human contact, seconds away from falling off a mountain or into a canyon or being eaten alive by a pack of wild hyenas.

Suddenly, that’s how scary it feels to me, too.

Once I really started thinking about making this trek, I knew that if I backed down from it, I’d be terribly disappointed in myself for wimping out. Though I’m a little shy on training and conditioning (I’m still only walking about twice a week), I’m sure I should be able to do it. I mean, there are plenty of women who do this and are ten or twenty years older than I am. I may not be in the best shape of anyone I know, but I’m far from being in really BAD shape.

Cost is daunting. Though many of the blogs I’ve read claim that this is really inexpensive travel, I have to remember that a 10 Euro night in a pilgrim’s refugio will compute to about $16 or $17 at least…and that’s going to add up quick, even if it includes some meals.

Also, it’s going to require some pre-trip shopping. Thoreau once said, “Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.” As much as I revere H.D.T. and his revelations at Walden Pond, I don’t find that to be true in many areas of life, so perhaps not this one, either. I’m gonna have to drop some COIN on some boots. The sites I’ve used for research say that’s where you should make sure you don’t scrimp…buy the best boots you can find. My brother (the most authoritarian source in my world, ha ha) seconds that idea.

I welcome recommendations, by the way – not only on boots, but on gear as well. Lightweight outerwear, walking shorts (the kind that zip on long pants), the best brand of clothes for multi-weather exposure. It’ll be the north of Spain, from mid-July to mid-August. Best brand of hiking backpack, since I’ll be living out of it for a month (with like TWO sets of clothes…). I have a backpack, but I bought it in 1997 for 60 pounds on a street corner in London, and last summer, the night before I left for California, I found the outer pockets coming off of it and spent half the night stitching them back on. I’m GONNA need a new pack.

Better get serious about the walking…it’s gonna be a long summer.

Training Day 3

Tuesday, third day of training for this thing...left my place and headed up 234 about two miles to Warm Springs Road, turned around and came back. Lumbar pack, about 6 or 7 pounds. 4 miles, 1:20 even. Hoping for less leg strain this time.

Oh, and airline ticket prices to Europe in the summer?

They SUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.

Training Day 2

Okay, so it's been six days, but I finally got out there again. Walked the length of Montclair today, from my house to my brother's. Got there in 59 minutes...about three and a half miles. Hung out for a while, then got my sister-in-law to drop me at the top of the road at Waterway, near Station 17, and walked the three miles home. 38 minutes home...total of about 6.5 miles. Not bad. Feel pretty good, though my calves are tight and my feet are sore. It hurts my hip joints...not a good thing. I had my lumbar pack, and I estimate I had about 7 or 8 pounds on me.

Hopefully will walk again on Monday after work....

Training Day 1

So of course, I decided I'd better start training. Walking six to eight hours a day is going to be no joke, especially across the Spanish plains in July. Today I had my first day off in what seems like MONTHS, and thought I'd see how far I could get.

I left my house and headed up Rt. 234. Two hours later, I stopped in at the Subway where 234 meets Hoadly, to get a sandwich and write for a bit. I was knackered. It really surprised me how tired I was. I've always been a walker...it was the only way to get around to see friends and go places in high school in Okinawa, and I remember days I'd set off and just walk forEVER, it seemed. How easy it is to forget that that was 13 years ago. So the walking was easy, but I was exhausted when I stopped. In two hours, I'd covered about 7 or 8 miles (I'll drive it later to see for sure).

I need to remember that this was Day One. Otherwise I'll be very disappointed that, a mile or two into the way back, I decided my legs hurt too bad and my bourgeoning blisters were too threatening to continue, and called my sister-in-law to come get me. Amazing how in five minutes, we covered what would have taken me another hour and a half.

One thing that concerns me was that today was drizzly, overcast, and about 60 degrees. The Camino will probably be hot, sunny, and average about 90. The books I'm reading on it talk about walking into towns in the midafternoon to find nothing open due to siesta time. They also talk about long stretches of 30 km or more, with no shade, no civilization, and maps indicating lone water pumps that cannot be trusted to produce water of any quality in the high summer.

This is going to be no easy task.

Another thing that worries me is the training I'm going to have to do between now and then. I feel fine about the prospect of spending a month walking towards a definite destination. But the fact that preparing for it will require I spend hours and HOURS every week just WALKING through my own town...when there are always a million other things I'd like to be doing...is daunting. Walking here, and walking back. Walking there, and walking back. Walking and walking and walking...and then bumming a ride back. It's going to feel kind of pointless, I think. I hope not.

On the other hand, it is kind of interesting to think of how long it would take to walk the ten-minute drive to my mom's shop, or to my Starbucks, or even across town to my hangout. We don't think about distances in our automotive society. If we do, we think in terms of gas mileage. I'm going to be thinking about it in terms of shoe leather, I guess. Planning to meet someone at Starbucks can happen at the drop of a hat...well, now I could set out for such a meeting two hours prior and just get there in time.

I'm sure people around me think I have a new harebrained plan every week, and they never happen. If I were smarter, I'd play my cards a little closer to my vest and keep my plans to myself in order to avoid getting a reputation for being flighty. But I can't help it. I get too excited, caught up in the plan, and want to tell everyone. Plus, saying it out loud makes it more real...makes it seem more likely that I'll actually do it.

So stay tuned. Hopefully there'll be more of this to come.

Training Day One Total: 9.3 miles

Camino de Santiago

So I've recently decided to undertake the Camino de Santiago de Compostale this summer. It's a pilgrimage route from various points within Europe across the Pyrenees and the north of Spain, terminating at the Shrine of St. James the Apostle in the northwest corner of Spain. I plan to start at St. Jean Pied-de-Port in France and take about a month to complete the trek. It's about 500 miles. Check it out at http://www.caminodesantiago.me.uk/.