Boots 'n' Sox

Found myself with some extra time to kill on Saturday and headed up to REI in Fair Oaks.

I knew I was gonna be spending a lot of money on boots, so I was too nervous to head straight to footwear. I mulled around for a while in the Camelbaks, the pet accessories, and the hiking gear and tried some things on. I do NOT have the body for hiking shorts. Period. Seemed like every pair of shorts I tried on had some hidden mechanism that caused them to inflate around the hip and buttock areas with these big unsightly bulges that my own clothes don't seem to possess. Can't figure that out. I know it can't be me.... Still, I wonder if I'll be able to fit into them when I get BACK.... And it does have me a bit concerned...what you wear when you hike is important, I'm guessing. What the heck am I gonna wear for shorts, to make sure they don't chafe or make me uncomfortable day in and day out? I'm gonna have like TWO PAIRS of shorts / pants for WEEKS! They better be good.

Found some high-end performance shirts, too...about $40-$50 a pop. Is that worth the wicking mechanism? They say cotton is no bueno...a liability when it's wet and takes forever to dry. But the costs are mounting and I can't seem to decide if these fancy clothes they want you to wear are a gimmick or a worthwhile investment. And don't even get me STARTED on sports bras.

So, having failed in like SIX different pairs of shorts and cargo pants (with the cool zip-off lower legs, dammit), I meandered into socks.

Wool socks. SEVENTEEN DOLLARS A PAIR. Max padding? Medium padding? Wool? Synthetic? Polypro? Do I need padding? Will my feet get hot? Again, how important is WICKING? Am I hiking or trekking? There were like three aisles' worth of socks. I kept casting mournful glances at the teenage kids running the footwear department till one of them caught my eye and came over to help. He was great. He even let me try different socks on in the shoe department without making me buy them.

I found the shoes I wanted right away. Then felt guilty because I felt like I was seizing on the first pair of boots I found, and I needed to be more discriminating. But they were Vasques, the brand I'd seen mentioned several times in blogs, and I gotta admit, I liked them partially because they LOOKED COOL!! But they also had a lot of breathing panels that the leather ones didn't have. The kid who helped me couldn't have been more than 17, but he seemed to know what he was doing and was very helpful, as was the kid he passed me off to when he got off work five minutes after I tried on the first pair.

So I spent about an hour trying on three different pairs, with two different sock weights, with three different insoles, five different upper-lacing patterns, and about a JILLION questions for this kid. Finally made up my mind. $150 for the boots, another $50 for two pairs of medium-weight wool hiking socks and three pairs of polypro liner socks (to reduce blisters and allow you to lengthen the life of your socks between washings).

Also went to the folks' house last night to get my passport photos taken. I'm actually kinda pleased with the way they turned out. I've been sitting on this passport application for a month now, and I leave in 35 days. Tomorrow after school, I'll go to the post office and get it taken care of. There's a 2-week option that I hope will work. If not, I'm not sure what I'll do!!!

DEVELOPMENT: My dad has a friend who has a 26-year-old daughter. She and her NZ husband are moving to the area this summer. My dad and this guy are talking about the couple staying in my house while I'm gone AND PAYING MY BILLS WHILE THEY'RE HERE. HOW BOMB IS THAT???? That could potentially free up somewhere around $1000 for me in the middle of the summer!! If you're the prayin' kind...start prayin'. I need that to go through.


So it's Tuesday now, and I finally decided I better take the new boots and socks for a test drive. I decided I'd walk from my house to my parents', about 3.5 miles away. Got about 1/3 of a mile and the sky opened up. Stood for about 5 minutes under a tree, literally paralyzed with indecision about whether to press on (so I get wet, so what? It'll rain in Spain...on the plain...) or turn back. I turned back. It stopped raining. I got home, called my dad, decided to drive over. Needed to pick up those photos anyway. Right around the time I would've reached their development, with about half a mile to go, it started to BUCKET. Like, I think I saw animals two by two. That would've SUUUUUUCKED. So it's a good thing I turned back after all, but I still wish I could've done that walk today. I am NOT doing well with consistency. Did I mention it's 35 days away???

Sigh. Oh well. Found a Facebook group that has GORGEOUS pictures from the Camino. I found a picture of the Cathedral of St. James (the destination) and the harbor at Finisterre (the after-destination). BREATHTAKING. This is gonna be AWESOME.