The journey has its own rewards

Seventy-three days until Lori and I leave for our Camino.  Nathan, our friend and my colleague, is going as well.  We are all leaving on Thursday June 16th, after work.  Nathan will fly that day to Europe, Lori and I to Seattle.  We will fly to Europe on Friday and meet Nathan in Biarritz, France on Saturday.  We will then all make our way to Saint Jean Pied de Port where will will start walking on Sunday. 

We have flight reservations to Biarritz and from Santiago de Compestella.  Today we made reservations for a guest house in St. Jean, Gite Izaxulo, for the first night.  Earlier we made reservations to stay in a refuge in the Pyrenees, the refuge Orrison, which is about 8km or so from St. Jean.  We hear that is is a good place for duffers like us who want an easier first day on the Camino. Reservations are needed as it fills up fast.

This is starting to get pretty real at this point.  We have a lot of our preparations in place but there is still much to do.  For one, I need to complete and defend my dissertation.  With any luck that will be done soon.  We continue to exercise and walk, although not enough.  As the weather gets warmer and it's light later we do more.  We joined the YMCA, to add resistance training, and that removes some of our excuses about it being too wet or dark to walk.  The Y is dry and pretty well lit!  Actually, Lori and I both enjoy going there.

As we get closer to our journey there may be more posts to this blog.  My plan, however, is to post nearly daily once we set out.  I'm sure Lori will have much to say on Facebook as well.  As I said in an earlier post, this blog is mostly for me, to journal the experience, but I am happy to share it with anyone interested.  Feel free to comment if the mood strikes you.

Buen Camino.