STOP me....

Okay, SERIOUSLY, someone needs to stop me. I need to NOT keep going back to REI. They got another 250 beans out of me today, but the upside of that is that I heart boy pants again. I took back the ones from Kohl’s that wound up being too big. Got some awesome shorts and some zip-off cargoes that I wish were just ONE INCH longer, but I’ll live. BOTH from the MEN’S department. Can someone please explain to me how MEN’S pants fit a girl with a butt like mine, and yet women’s pants seem to be made for people who never outgrew the shape they had in 7th grade??? Sigh. Who cares...my pants rocks.

I did 7.2 miles today. Walked to my folks’ shop, and most of the way back. Today was the first test drive with the boots AND the pack...about half-loaded, with the Camelback in too. That Camelback is a 3L...and that thing is HEAVY when it’s full...no joke! Can’t seem to get the load distribution right yet...not getting much weight onto the lumbar strap, so it’s still mainly on my shoulders and my sternum strap. It wasn’t exactly a problem today, but most of the weight is supposed to be on my hips, and I gotta monkey with the pack a little more.

So, I was right...when my dad and I found average highs in the 70s throughout the Camino route for July and August, the person who made those almanac tables was on crack. Some guy today told me he’d seen highs of 47C in August in Pamplona...which translates to 113F!!!! Some chick from Australia also told me Spain is the hottest place she’s ever been. MOST people say AUSTRALIA is the hottest place they’ve ever been. Not cool with hearing an Aussie say that. But she also said it was a dry heat, so that’ll be a welcome change from ol’ VA.

Can’t decide whether to take the iPod or not. I’ve been sort of adopted by this Liverpoolian expat in NZ on Facebook, and the latest topic of conversation has been music. I was thinking NO on the iPod because a) I don’t want it stolen, or to have to sweat it being stolen, and b) as my mom put it today, if this is really is going to be a pilgrimage-type thing, music can get in the way of what I’m really after on this trip. Part of what I hear time and again about the Camino is that the rhythm of your own footsteps and the sounds of the world around you (or, more to the point, the lack thereof) is what can really drop you into another dimension. And though my NZ buddy said that the basic rule of thumb is that one generally removes the earphones in company (or impending company), I don’t want to be (or appear to be) cut off from the human contact that is also a huge part of the magic of the Camino. Then AGAIN, I’m sure there will be times when I WANT to appear unapproachable, and earphones are a great way to preclude unwanted contact...just ask any teenager.

I did kinda dig the prospect of putting together some bomb playlists, though. Dude at work just turned me on to this guy Mike Doughty, and he ROCKS. Good mix of him, Carbon Leaf, Pat McGee, Rusted Root, and Train...whoa, nelly. And I know I’m gonna need some inspiration to keep my feet moving on Day 2 over the Pyrenees, or on Day 3 when people say you’re going to seriously consider saying SCREW THIS WALK and hop a train to Prague or Amsterdam or Venice instead.

Speaking of trains...how stupid is this...I’m almost as excited about the 5 hour train trip between Paris and Bayonne on the day I arrive as I am about the Camino. Trains just seem cool to me. When I was a kid and we’d visit my aunt in Truckee, her house faced a mountainside with a train track, and the trains would snake out of one tunnel, cross the mountain face, and disappear into another, and my brother and I would watch for it all the time. I’ve never really been on trains much. Didn’t even cross the Chunnel, even though it opened while I was studying in London. I wish America was more of a train place, like Europe. People would travel more, and more easily.

Anyway...I booked the train trip the other day. Should’ve done a week and a half ago, when Paris all the way to St. Jean Pied-de-Port was 55 instead of 133. I don’t even know if it was talking about dollars or Euro, but DOES IT MATTER?? It more than DOUBLED in a WEEK! And the 133 doesn’t even get to SJPP...just to Bayonne!! Grrrr...but I did some poking around and found a website put together by some Brit trying to help Americans and Aussies avoid getting gouged by Rail Europe. It's an AWESOME site, and wound up helping me dodge the $(?)133 fare and wind up with one that was ∈60...still works out to about $95, but I saved anyway. Unfortunately, I have to get to Gare Montparnasse on a commuter bus, and the rail route only gets me to Bayonne...not a huge problem, as apparently there are quick, cheap, and frequent commuter trains to SJPP that take under an hour.

If my flight from Frankfurt would have made it in an hour and a half earlier, that rail pass would’ve been under ∈35. Dammiiiit. I’ll get to SJPP by about 7pm, and hope that the Powers That Be will have a place for me to stay, and compassionate French people willing to help a non-French-speaking American (their favorite kind of person) figure out what the hell I’m doing.

Today’s mystery: compression sacks. And the belt fastener on one of the pairs of shorts I tried on. Damn near had to go out and ask for help in getting it undone. I like to think I could’ve carried that off as cute and not laughably pathetic...or at least some mix of both....

Sigh....