It is, without a doubt, my Camino.  Slowly but surely, however, everyone is getting on board.  Everyone, of course, means “the family*.”  It’s easy enough for acquaintances to come up with statements such as: “Yes, you must!”  “Do it!”  “Go for it!”  “Do it while you can.”  “Katy, you gotta do it.”  Easy for them to say.  But for the immediate family?

Not so hard for Maura, really.  She appreciates a good adventure, whether it be her own or someone else’s.  Besides, I’m not doing her laundry or her dishes.  I’m not cleaning her house, making sure her bills are paid, keeping track of her appointments.  I text with her, “like” her Instagram posts, and enjoy a long phone call a couple of times a month.  All of which, with a combination of luck, wifi, and charging cables, I should be able to manage while in Spain.  My trip doesn’t turn her world upside down.

But the fellas?  They have less reason to be behind me.  My absence might mean a dramatic reduction of nagging from me—the good news!—but, as well, a considerable amount of extra work for them.  Oh!

Ken observed the animation with which I spoke of the photos Virginia posted on Facebook during her Camino earlier this spring.  He noticed how my wistful “wish I could do that” slowly but steadily morphed into “I really want to do that.”  So by the time I got around to seriously broaching the subject and, in a sense, “asking permission,” his response was: “You know you’re going to do it.  I can see that.”  His way of getting on board was perhaps more resignation than enthusiasm.  He’s happy for me but wishes that he was still of an age and/or in condition enough to do it as well.  I don’t doubt that he’ll spend time online looking for a more appropriate adventure… and I just might be invited along.  Or not.  Stay tuned in for that one.  We’ve certainly done many daring-for-the-likes-of-us things since our first camping, biking, and whitewater adventures back in the late 70s.  (Now that he’s approaching his late 70s and I’ll be entering mine all too soon, those past adventures seem all the more daring in retrospect.)

So yes, Ken’s on board.  Has been since the beginning, really (though some days more than others…).  Never put up “a fight.”  I know that my going is asking a lot of him.  It’s not just the extra work and responsibility he’ll have while I’m gone, not just the lack of my company or the fact that my spring departure pretty much precludes our usual late-winter get away down south.  For practical purposes, he probably feels like he has “lost me” to the Camino already, given how my focus and energies are pretty tied up in preparations.  During months that might be spent in efforts of downsizing, decluttering, making the house more presentable, etc., I’m organizing hikes, meeting up with folks who have walked the Camino, reading about it, watching films…  “You won’t need to go,” he tells me.  “You’ll already have experienced it.”  Or, he says: “You’re going to be so over-trained and over-prepared,” or “you’re going to get tired of it all before you even leave.”  I hear his words and yet still feel like I have hardly scratched the surface.  Funny how perspectives can vary.

There’s also this: a year ago, long before the Camino occupied my every thought, Ken stated that he wanted to take over the cooking.  He had been a master at it during my working years and, more often than not of late, I appeared to be less than enamored of the job.  The actual transition and handing over of the mixing spoons came in mid-February of this year.  I think the magic has worn off for him and any day now he is likely to declare that the kitchen is once again my domain.  Meanwhile, I’m more than happy to be off cooking duty.  I manage to sometimes put the freed-up time and energy towards other needed home chores, but I know that not being responsible for dinner allows for some late-afternoon hiking.  I’m grateful.  And well fed!

Kevin was the one who assumed, for the longest time, that I was just teasing, just playing with him.  “You’re not going to do that,” he said, totally incredulous.  Without Dad? he was no doubt thinking.  Across the ocean for as long as two months?  You’re a mom!  You can’t do that!  In time, though, he realized that his dad seemed to have come to terms with this preposterous idea and that, indeed, I was serious.  From that point on, there was a total transformation on Kevin’s part.  He became the leader of my team.  My advocate.

“Come look at the things in this box,” he called to me one day.  He had gone through his search-and-rescue and his camping supplies, pulling out things he thought might be useful to me either on the Camino or during my preparation hikes.  The box included: moleskin for blisters, waterproof paper for taking notes in the rain, lightweight whistle and pocket knife, emergency blanket, first-aid kit, stuff bags.  And those are just the things I can easily call to mind.  He has been patient teaching me how to use a trail app on my phone and has been a willing partner in the “lifeline” feature of that app so that when I’m out hiking he gets real-time progress reports on my whereabouts delivered to his cell phone, his computer, or both.  With regard to my phone: Kevin did research and found a refurbished iPhone with a longer-life battery and considerably more storage space than the 5s model it replaces.  Found it and then did all the tech stuff one does to get a new phone up and running with all apps, contacts, and calendars transferred, etc.  He is a total life saver when it comes to technology.  I currently carry in my pack a device he gave me should I find myself in a dire emergency.  (Example: I’ve been lost in the woods for four hours, I’m injured, my cell phone doesn’t work, it’s getting dark AND it’s cold.)  Somehow this gizmo, if I remember how to use it correctly, can get the attention of … is it the Air Force?  Come to think about it, I might need a refresher lesson on that thing…  But then again, I’m not too sure he will claim to know me if I should really put it to the test….

Kevin also likes spending other people’s money (don’t we all?).  In this vein, then, he has helped me look for good products and prices and has steered me in the right direction—we hope!—on any number of online purchases.  My wide-brimmed Camino hat, the silk sleeping bag liner, the backpack are just a few.  “You really should look into some high-quality technical clothing,” he tells me, “but you won’t want to pay the price.”  How well he knows me!  I really appreciate his concern and interest.  And how’s this for concern: thanks to Kevin, in the back of my car I have a bag full of blaze orange hats and vests from Kevin’s collection, enough to keep me and a car full of hiking friends from being mistaken for deer when we hit the trails in the upcoming months.

A few months ago I mentioned that I had signed up for a one-shot WordPress class at the library because I wanted to look into the possibilities of a blog as a way to track and record both my preparation for the Camino and the walk itself.  “Oh, I can help you with that,” he noted.  “You don’t need a class.”  How right he was!  At least I didn’t need the kind of class that was presented.  To tell you that the instructor showed up 25 minutes late, that all the computers and keyboards were unfamiliar-to-me Apple products, that the jargon and tasks we were being taught were beyond geeky is to only scratch the surface of what was wrong with the class.  I was proud that no tears fell during the truncated and frustrating session.  (I guess I figured I had my age as an excuse, so no cause for embarrassment.)

The point I really want to make is that Kevin just guffawed when he heard what the instructor’s approach to the class had been.  “You don’t need any of that stuff.  I can set up a WordPress blog for you in 10 minutes.  All you’ll have to do is type the content.”  A day or two later, the deed was done and I’d practiced with a fake post or two.  If I wanted to write, it was up to me; the structure was in place.  “Written any posts yet?” Kevin questioned me for a couple of weeks until, finally, I was able to announce: “Guess what I did today!”  He knew.

And then…  Maura came in for a fall visit.  She’d been reassuring me all along that I should “go for it” with regard to the Camino.   When I expressed doubts early on about my feet and knees being up to the task, or about finding the time to train sufficiently, or when I lamented the need to give up my beloved biking and reading in order to hit the trails in the woods, she just said: “Oh, momma, with all the walking you already do, you’ll be fine.  And the biking will be good complementary exercise.”  Nothing like having someone believe in you, and when that someone’s profession involves working with human bodies in various states of disrepair and malfunction, you listen and try to believe.

Once home, Maura threw herself into giving me lessons on how to use Instagram.  (Don’t laugh: some of us are just a lot more comfortable being taught such things rather than figuring them out for ourselves.)  We went adventuring almost every day during her 9-day visit, sometimes just the two of us, a couple of times accompanied by Kevin.  State Parks.  City parks.  Nature preserves.  The Deam Wilderness.   All beautiful in their fall glory!  In the evenings, we posted photos.  Practice for Spain.  If I do it often enough, I’ll retain the skill, right?  I told Maura I wanted my Instagram account to kind of match my WordPress site, that both were meant to reflect my months of preparation and, then, the actual walk.  At which point she began inquiring about the WordPress site.

Here’s where I’m not totally sure that I’m reporting things accurately.  Probably the fewer words I use, the better.  Maura started quizzing Kevin about “servers” and “hosts,” getting more excited as their conversation continued.  The long and the short of it?  Kevin was persuaded of the advantages of hosting this blog on his server, and Maura offered to be co-administrator of the site, the artistic, creative force behind it.  So what was initially a very plain, black-and-white, get-‘er-done-and-out-there site, is… or is going to be… well, what you find… if indeed you find it.  More fun!  More colorful!  Extra links, bells, and whistles.  Maybe.  Depends on how well Maura and I manage to communicate about it across more than 2300 miles and several time zones.  “It depends on what you want,” she tells me.  Uh, do I know what I want?  Have I studied many blogs?

“Wait, though,” I ask her, “aren’t you too busy to do this?  Won’t it add unneeded pressure to your life?”  To which she replied: “Actually, I find it a form of relaxation.  A good diversion.  I just need to get back up to speed.  Haven’t played—her favorite word?—with this stuff for a while.”  At various times during her home stay, she and her computer would keep me company in the evenings while I did kitchen clean-up.  I pictured her checking in on the people whose blogs and Instagram posts and what-nots she follows.  Or looking up the latest from her “nutritious movement” friends.  And maybe there was some of that.  She coyly admitted, though, that most of the time she was toying with this site, just checking out options and possibilities.  Then there was the evening when she was tapping away busily on her laptop, asking me the occasional question about my iPhone-use habits.  Turns out she was investigating on settings and ways in which I might conserve battery space while I’m in Spain.  She gave me a tutorial and I took notes.   I can easily lay claim to the daughter who loves the woods, but the one who finds technology “relaxing” and who takes on the tough task of trying to teach an old dog new tricks?  Where did she come from?  Regardless, I’ll take her!

Last but not least: Regina.  Though she doesn’t live in our house, she picks up the pieces when and if things or people around here are falling apart.  She’ll notice my absence because no doubt she’ll feel the need to “come by” with greater frequency to cheer her dad and brother.  She’s already my best Instagram follower.  If anyone reads this blog, it is likely to be her, especially when I learn how to cut out 90% of my verbiage and just get to the point.  If I learn.  Regina is incredibly good about listening well and before you know it she’ll be giving you things you forgot you mentioned needing.  Or sending you info she found online about a topic you’ve had questions about.  Like SIM cards, for one.  (Regina, I did star that email and know I can call it up when I’m ready to deal with that topic.)  She’s steady as a rock.  Since she can’t imagine why someone would willingly walk around the block (yes, I exaggerate), she’s no doubt convinced that I’m crazy for wanting to walk across more than half of Spain.  But she already knew I was pretty loony, so no great learning curve needed here.  I picture her come mid-April, texting Ken and Kevin to let them know there are new pictures to see or a new post to read.  At least I hope there will be some to find.  We’ll see.  If I have any emergencies while in Spain or need someone to get me some information, Regina is my go-to gal.  Counting my blessings!

So there’s my team, assembled and, more often than I deserve, at the ready.  Hoping the family will stick with me through the dreary winter months and will find reasons to anticipate their own spring adventures.

And then there’s my village.  It does take one, you know.  But that’s a story best told on another day because for now…

Snip, snap, snout, this [overlong] tale’s told out.
¡Y colorín colorado, este cuento se ha acabado!

*Cheat sheet for the uninitiated:

• Ken: husband extraordinaire of 38 years, chief cook (but not bottle washer), fan, rider, and promoter of recumbent trikes, etc., etc.
• Kevin: son, geek and computer guru, mid-30s
• Maura: daughter, exercise physiologist and tree-lover/-climber/-hugger, incredibly patient teacher of a variety of skills, early 30s
• Regina (not pictured: (step-daughter, cat-rescuer and all ’round come-to-the-aid-of-anyone-who-needs-help type, of an age that she probably prefers to keep to herself

Yes!  Quite literally!  You see, I’ve been walking with a pack since late August.  Two months now.  I began with a pack I borrowed from Eleanor, kind of testing it out.  Finding the brand and the model to my satisfaction, I placed my biggest Camino-related order to date on Amazon and then, upon the pack’s arrival, I eagerly began filling it, building up from 7 lbs to 17.5.  (My hope will be not to exceed that weight on the Camino; that’s already well over the ridiculously-impossible-for-a-rather-small-woman recommendation of “10% of your body weight.”)

I’ve not been concerned about the “essentials” at this point, so the weight has come mainly from water, a bag of uncooked kamut, another of wild rice, and two full plastic bottles of barbeque sauce.  No way to cook the grains nor any weapons with which to kill the game on which to put the sauce.  I’ve been interested in the heft, not the practicality of the chosen items.  Okay, so maybe a sandwich and fruit in the pack some days.  And always: a whistle, first aid kit, pocket knife, and something to serve as a sit-upon.  Haphazard at best, but, I figure, good practice for hips, knees, feet, legs, back, and shoulders (perhaps, but not necessarily, in that order.  I’m far from an expert in this process…)  The body has been cooperating for the most part, though happier with 13 lbs. than with 17, it must be said.

And happiest at all on a day like today when I threw thoughts of training out the window—and left the backpack in the car—so that I could thoroughly enjoy a “play date” with my daughter.  Maura is nothing if not an advocate for Play and Playful Movement.  She lives for it and delights in it.  While she gets weekly indoor practice with her swings, jumps, vaults, etc., in a Parkour gym in Salem (Oregon, that is), she lives for finding nature’s play spots.  Where others see–and perhaps curse–roots and rocks, she sees possibilities.

Wow, right? Maura picked the peak of the season for her home visit! Actually, she may be more “at home” in the trees than anywhere else….

As luck—and some planning—would have it, we headed for two such natural areas on this crisp fall day.  Though the names won’t conjure up “memories” for most folks who read this, they are, nonetheless, telling: Cedar Bluff Nature Preserve and Dilcher-Turner Canyon Forest .  Neither site is particularly expansive, but they are certainly well-suited for the playful at heart.  What the Cedar Bluff name doesn’t tell you is that the preserve lies along Clear Creek (or a tributary of same) and that to access the tall limestone bluffs one must first follow along the edge of the creek bed, negotiating rocks aplenty.  “Negotiating”!  I’m giving my age away.  Seniors “negotiate” rocks; children and the young-at-heart “play” on rocks and find multiple ways of challenging themselves as they hop, skip, or jump from one to the other.  I was the observer and the videographer as Maura practiced—oops, another word she would definitely not use; I’ll retract it—as she played.  I couldn’t have found a better playground for her had I set out with that intention.  (My goal had been to “find fall beauty”; Maura found play in the beauty.  Two for the price of one!)  We both enjoyed the experience so much that after the creek play and the hike along the cedar-lined trail on the 75-foot limestone bluff overlooking the water, we returned to our car… only to decide to hit the creek a second time.  More play.

But it was at the Dilcher-Turner Canyon Forest—thank you Dilchers and Turners and all the many folks who have so generously donated their “wild” properties to the Sycamore Land Trust for all to enjoy—that I let out my inner child.  Pretty early on the path was wide enough and obstruction-free enough that it called out to me to skip along it.  And I do mean that.  Skip.  Like we used to do when we were 6 or 7 or 8 years old, innocent and without a care to weigh us down.  So there I went, skipping along.  I’m not talking 5 or 10 skips, but minutes of cavorting like the kid I once was.  Eventually, the trail got a bit more technical, and prudence—and lungs!—dictated that I abandon the skipping.  As we advanced, we were awed by some vines (which yours truly did not hang from or swing on, though her progeny did) and we were fascinated by one tree in particular whose roots mostly seemed to sit on top of the sandstone bluffs rather than in the earth.  How did it manage that?  It was fun watching Maura play around on the roots and to acknowledge, while watching her, that her roots ran deep even as those “wings” she sprouted at a very early age continue to get stronger.  I’m tickled that she derives such pleasure from being outdoors and I hope that I’m at least in part “to blame” for that.

October 30th. A later than usual fall.  Crisp air, but sunny.  We were hitting the sought-after peak of the color and definitely mindful of how privileged we were to be together in the midst of such beauty.  Not a care.  No worries about “training” or “building strength and endurance.”  Just playing.  We weren’t allowing any monkeys on our backs.  Nor any weighty packs on our shoulders.  Not today.

It was sometime in June (2018) when I began saying, with conviction, “I’m going to walk the Camino next spring,” but the idea had taken hold of me a good month before that.  The notion was nowhere in my thinking in the early months of the year, but for some reason I did considerably more hiking during January through April than I typically do.  I guess I was “in training” before even I realized it.

It was only in July, though, that I created a spreadsheet to keep track of my training hikes.  We’re not talking here of “any old walk,” because walking is really a mainstay of my life.  The log was to keep track of “intentional hikes,” ones I went on specifically as a “preparation for the Camino.”  Each entry includes: date; distance; location; hiking pals, if any; weight of pack; footwear worn (since I’ve been testing out different shoes or boots).  I managed to remember enough from the class I took at Ivy Tech to have the file update the cumulative mileage as I entered each new hike.  In time, I revised the file to give me monthly totals as well.  (I know what you are thinking, because I think the same thing: if I were to limit myself to essential tasks, my to-do list would not be so outrageously long and cumbersome.  But anyway, I am who I am….)

So, in almost four months of “intentional” hiking, I’m pleased to say that I’ve avoided many potential or real hazards.  No snakes, poisonous or otherwise, have crossed my path.  I’m not aware of any hunters having caught me in their sights, no bows with arrows pointing in my direction.  I’ve not been alarmed by any “suspicious” walkers coming towards me or sneaking up behind.  No threatening dogs.  No rabid anything.  (Actually, there is much more wildlife in our backyard than in any Indiana forests I’ve traipsed through.)  I’ve negociated creek crossings without slipping off slimy or potentially unsteady rocks or logs.  To the best of my knowledge, I’ve removed the few ticks who contemplated gorging on my blood.  So far, no blisters.  (I’ve become a believer in coating my feet with Vaseline and will continue to do so until reality proves such treatment to be useless.)

By far the most “real” hazards I’ve encountered have been the stones or rocks partially submerged in the dirt and, even more, the plethora of tree roots crisscrossing the trails.  They are the foot’s stealth enemies, half visible but yet so very numerous that it’s easy to get used to them and forget their potential for tripping one up.  Tripping one down, actually.  I’m a bit of a klutz and so I won’t say that I haven’t tangled with a few of those roots.  A stubbed toe here, a last-minute-save-myself-from-going-down there.  I’ve somehow managed to come out the winner.

Until yesterday.  Precisely—according to my spreadsheet—while walking my 201^st training mile.  It was, to my chagrin, a rock, and one, I might add, that was fairly visible.  Or so it seemed after the fact.  But who knows where my mind was wandering, or my eyes—for it was a lovely day, bright autumn sun filtering through the trees and calling out for attention.  But all of a sudden I was falling and there was no righting myself.  Once I started down, the 17.5 lbs. on my back knew only the laws of gravity, and neither my poles nor the exclamations of my hiking buddies nor my own will to stay erect could counter the weight in my pack.  Boom!

Still, I’m counting my blessings.  Nothing broken.  Not even any blood.  A bit of swelling in my left hand, a bit of tightness in my right knee.  On the day after, much less.  By tomorrow I expect all signs of my spill will be gone.  So, the way I figure it, I’ve had my Camino-related fall and… I’m good to go.

Or maybe I should be exceedingly careful in another 201 miles.  Or on mile 201 (kilometer 323) on the actual Camino.  Or best yet, this: keep my eyes open and my mind attentive at all times.

PS. I find myself wondering why it is when you ask people to relate “something funny that happened to you,” very often the story that comes out involves a fall of some sort. I heard this response often when teaching Spanish at IU.  Is this because the verb for “to fall” was one they could recall and it was just easier to talk about falls than about doing something stupid when roaring drunk?  (But then, come to think of it, maybe the falls they were describing were the stupid thing they did when inebriated…)   A fall may strike a 20-something as funny because it is likely to be of little consequence beyond a bit of embarrassment.   But as for me: it’s been almost half a century since I’ve been a 20-something and a fall could pose some definite and undesirable consequences.  That’s why I’m counting my blessings that soon there will be nothing left of my spill but the memory of it as recorded in this post.

The question

The question was bound to come sooner or later.  I’ll certainly hear it often as I make my way along the Camino, I thought.  I’ll be asked over and over again, if for no other reason than as a conversation starter: “Why are you doing the Camino?”  The inquisitor will ask this as a way of comparing the rationale behind his or her journey with the motivation behind mine.  As if to say “I get it that you want to do the Camino–doesn’t everyone?–but I’m interested in knowing more about just what has moved you.”

I’d already been telling people of my plans for several months, however, and the reaction I got was never “why?” but rather: “Cool!”  “Wow!”  “Oh, my husband and I really want to do that.”  “The whole thing?”  “Do it, Katy!  Do it while you can!”  “Wish I thought I could do that!”  and the occasional “What’s the Camino?”  A few weeks ago, however, when I completed reading one of my blog posts to fellow participants at a monthly meeting of our Life Writing Workshop, Victoria finally posed the anticipated question, but with a slightly unexpected tone: “Why are you going to do this if it’s going to be so hard?”   The post I had read, among other things,, had cataloged a list of challenges and fears and potential obstacles ready to get in the way of my successful completion of the journey. I suppose that led Victoria to think that such a pilgrimage would be the last thing in the world she would want to undertake and left her wondering why on earth I would do so.

Her question, in turn, led me to realize that I’d better be prepared not just for the question, but for the answer I’ll give to the curious.  I stumbled. hemming and hawing a bit, returning her question with my own:  “Do you want the two-minute version or the two-hour one?”  Meanwhile, the group’s facilitator helped me out with a quick “Because it’s there!”  (Actually, there’s a lot of truth to that statement, but more on that later.)

Thankfully, it was time to move on and give someone else a chance to present a reading, but I promised myself that I would give serious thought to how I might reply to both the curious or the incredulous, and that I would find a happy medium somewhere between the two-minute and the two-hour explanation.  For me, it is not really one question, but a series of them.  I share with you the results of my thoughts.  If “because it’s there!” satisfies you, consider skipping the rest of this post.  Otherwise, read on.

Why walk?

If you are a walker yourself, you know why: you walk because

• you have two feet!
• you know how to do it, walking being something you’ve been practicing and perfecting possibly since before your first birthday!
• it is the best way to get in touch with your thoughts and feelings, the best way to clear your mind or, conversely, to fill it as your ideas come into focus
• there’s no better way to take in your surroundings and listen to what they have to tell you
• walking is cheaper than seeing a psychiatrist
• some of the greatest thinkers of all time recommended it: Hippocrates, Thomas Jefferson, Thoreau, Lincoln, Nietzsche….
• some of your heroes did it; to the above-mentioned names add: Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jesus Christ (and just about everyone else who lived before modern modes of transportation came along)
• it’s good for your heart
• it’s an inexpensive pastime
• duh!  Isn’t it obvious?

I don’t recall a time in my life when I didn’t enjoy walking.  My first solo walk, or so I’ve been told, was in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  I was three-years old and, apparently, I strutted off dressed in my Easter Sunday finery, determined to have my own private parade.  I know this much: it was not the last time I got lost while out on a hike….

I cannot lie: it was not uphill both ways in two feet of snow, but I did walk daily to and from kindergarten (one mile total), grade school (home for lunch, so four miles total), and high school (about 3 miles round trip).  Getting from dorm to classroom in college was just a matter of walking some long corridors and climbing several flights of stairs, but once again in grad school I was hotfooting it from my living quarters to and around the Indiana University campus.  Only in Madrid did I deign to use public transportation–metro or bus–though I suspect I may have actually walked more during the two academic years I spent there than at any other time in my life.  I suppose this is the place to mention that during my teaching career, I also walked to and from campus on a daily basis; in all my years at IU, I never had a parking pass or a bus pass.

And summertime!  I smile picturing walking down the two-track sandy road leading to our cottage in Newaygo, Michigan.  How we managed to scare each other witless when we attempted that walk on pitch-black evenings!  How we loved walking to the candy store further down the lake from our cottage!  How lost we got one day when the eldest ones in our straggly group should have known better than to lead us on a super-long hike; in those by-gone days, long before cell phones or even private lines, it was a bit tricky to get in touch with our parents so they could come rescue us….   Up in Minnesota, I was the one who talked my Daly cousins into walking from their farm miles south of town to their Pfeffer cousins’ house on the north side of Mapleton.  Though these cousins had lived those 6 or so miles from one another all their lives, it had never occurred to them to walk to one another’s houses.  I was the instigator.

Still am.  I like to set up “walk ‘n talks” with friends; lunch dates are fun, but the walks can be exhilarating.  I belong to several walking groups, including WW (Walking Women) and WOW (Women of the Woods).  Never stayed in a campground I didn’t want to check out by foot; rarely have been in a town I didn’t want to explore a pie.  This is absolutely true: my favorite exercise might be biking, but walking is a close second and a type of exercise which, regardless of the time of year, can be done every single day… with the right clothing.

If you have received emails from me during the last five years or so, you will have noticed that my “sign-off” includes this quote from Ram Dass:

“We are all just walking each other home.”

So true!  Side by side.  In good times and in the not-so-good ones.  Why walk?  Why on earth not?  If you possibly can.  When you can.  While you can.  Where you can.  Ah, where?  Where indeed?

Why Spain?

June 1967: ready to fly the friendly skies to Europe for the first time

I was 17 years old the first time I traveled to Spain.  I had just finished my freshman year at Clarke College and was lucky enough to join two BVM sisters, a bunch of college coeds, and one congenial male student whose name I want to say was Ed, for a month-long program of culture and language at an institute in Santander (northern Spain) followed by a three-week tour of the rest of the country by coach.  An amazing trip that pretty much set the course for my future studies.  Eye and mind-opening on every level.  I know I felt mature at the time, but now I smile to think back on some of the experiences of the young girl I really was.  I remember:

• drinking several glasses of sangria on a hot summer afternoon at an open-air restaurant and coming out with what I believe is the only “drunken slur” of my entire life (if you must know, I was speaking in Spanish and referred to our country as the “esclavos unidos” [United Slaves] instead of “Estados Unidos”
• taking up residence in dorms that had once served as horse stables of the royalty during their summer residency in the north
• sitting on the patio of said residence with a bunch of Irish seminarians–students like ourselves–who entertained us with laughter, guitars and their splendid voices
• eating a farewell meal on the top floor of the Hotel Plaza where flaming Baked Alaska was served to us by the ever-attentive waiters
• yes, we were in Pamplona FOR the actual running of the bulls!  yes to the Prado!  yes to aqueducts and royal palaces and flamenco and cathedrals!
• tours in Toledo, Cordoba, Seville, Granada, Segovia, Salamanca, Avila!  Culture, history, language: I absorbed it like a parched land when rain finally falls.  I was hooked!

A bit more than a year later, I returned to Spain for a “Junior Year Abroad” experience.  I had turned 19.  I was on my own.  Marquette University opened up its overseas programs to students from other institutions.  Put yourself for a minute back in the “old days,” a good thirty years before most folks began using the Internet to figure out anything and everything.  I don’t remember now how the details of my itinerary all came  together, but neither do I recall feeling any stress about the travel arrangements.  No doubt I’d be shaking in my boots if I were to attempt something similar now, some fifty years later; it would be hard enough with Google or a similar search engine, impossible without!  Think about it: I took the train to New York, found my way to the harbor and boarded a ship filled entirely with European-bound students, three of whom became my bunkmates for the 7-day journey.

August 1968: on the top bunk of steamer that will bring me to Europe

Once in the port of Le Havre in northern France, I made my way by train to the Spanish border, transferred to a train heading to Madrid, and eventually found my way to O’Donnell Street where I knocked on the door of the “boarding house” headed by Encarna Bujalance, or la señora as we called her.  That was to be my home for the next 9 months.  How vividly I recall being introduced that evening to all the rules of the house–most of which I didn’t totally follow– and then settling in with my roommate from Venezuela who spoke a Spanish I could barely understand and who proceeded to tell me all the details of her life.  Rosalba’s monologue was broken only occasionally by questions for me.  I smiled–or I hope I did!–nodded, and prayed that those questions were all rhetorical because I barely had a clue as to what she was talking about.  All the above without shedding a tear….  Or have I just conveniently forgotten that detail?

I grew up that year, no doubt about it.  Though I hail from Chicago, I had never really spent time negotiating a big city.  I had never had such independence.  My Spanish improved by leaps and bounds.  As did my ability to use the metro, to secure theater tickets, to ignore piropos–remarks made by men, mostly unwelcome, but frequently poetic and charming in their own way–, to deal with the “come back tomorrow” red tape so typical of doing any kind of official “business” in Spain.  I learned to drink espresso and the occasional chato  o caña (small glasses of wine or beer), to call for the portero to let me into the apartment building late at night.  I learned that men can dress as women, that I could cause a sweet boy from Connecticut to write poetry to and about me, that if you eat pastries every day you gain considerable weight, and that you had better beware what kind of diet pills are sold in Spanish farmacias because the ones I got–the ones that had me sometimes energetically walking from one end of the large metropolis to the other–contained amphetamines.  I learaned that reading contemporary plays was a really super way of learning colloquial language, and that “constipado/a” did not mean “constipated” and when you told someone you were really “embarazada” you were not telling them you were very embarrassed but rather that you were quite pregnant. I discovered that as a single female I could hacer autostop [hitchhike] more easily than when I attempted it with two other women, and that trying it with a male companion was an exercise in frustration.  I learned that life under a dictatorship–Franco was still in power–meant safer streets and

THE ID that gained me entrance into the Facultad de Filosofia y Letras but not into any other School/Facultad at the university. Big Brother Franco was watching….

less crime, but one of the prices we paid was the need to pull out our student ID cards which identified us as members of a particular school (or facultad) before the armed guards would allow us access to the classroom building, a building in whose student union groups of more than three or four were considered suspect. In the end, perhaps the most important lesson I learned just might have been that I didn’t hate vegetables after all!  Hunger broadened my horizons and my palate has been grateful ever since.

Fast forward four years.  It’s my third year as a graduate student.  I’m back in Spain.  I remember this about the night before I left home for the academic year:  It was about 10:00 pm when I finished typing a very long and slightly overdue paper on some aspect of the greatest piece of literature of all time–pardon my prejudice, but I’m talking about Cervantes’ Don Quijote de la Mancha–. Only then, as the midnight hour approached, did I begin to pack for the 9-month trip!  Was there a train involved this time or did I make my way exclusively by air?  I don’t recall.  Definitely no ship.  Once again an address, a door on which to knock, the anxious wait for that door to reveal my new living situation. This time, I found myself in the midst of a sweet family: Trini, her husband Cresencio, their 16-year-old son Nacho and Alberto, a Mexican teen and, like myself, a boarder.  Though the room and board I paid  was essential for the family’s livelihood, they came to love me as if I were one of their own, and the feeling was mutual.

This was, in many ways, a quieter year.  During my previous stay I had traveled the country: I hit the famed sanfermines in Valencia and spent Holy Week in Seville, awed by the many processions and religious reenactments; I saw the windmills of La Mancha and 17th-century open-air theaters where rowdy audiences of long-gone days had enjoyed the plays of Tirso de Molina and Lope de Vega and Calderón de la Barca; I marveled at the so-called “hanging houses” of Cuenca and, throughout the country, never tired of seeing walled cities, Moorish temples, and ancient Roman bridges.  This time I was much more sedentary, finding my seat in lecture halls, theaters, libraries, and cafes.  One day, my knees knocking, I found myself seated in front of Antonio Buero Vallejo, a renowned playwright and member of the Royal Spanish Academy.  We had coffee together in his piso [apartment] and I handed him a copy of my MA-thesis-turned-book which dealt with four of his plays.  (No doubt he rolled his eyes when I left, timid thing that I was; no doubt however much deodorant I used that day, it wasn’t enough!)

During my first year of graduate school, I began taking classes in Catalan language.  While in Spain, I delved into medieval Catalan literature and did my best to record my reactions to it in the language itself, sending long reports back to my Catalan professor at IU.  In those days–we’re talking 1972-73–with Francisco Franco still at the helm of Spanish government, the Catalan language was banned from being taught in schools.  Interestingly enough, I got wind of a free extra-curricular class offered by Catalans for Catalans to teach them how to spell and write in a language which they already spoke quite well.  The teacher was delighted that I wanted to participate.  Those classes led to invitations to parties in the homes of some of the students, many several decades older than myself.  Spaniards spend most of their socializing time “out and about,” so any invitation to a home was special.  Of course, I was already “at home” with my Spanish family and was invited sometimes to the homes of their relatives.  Those were memorable times.

Then, from one day to the next, it was over.  It was early May, three weeks or less before the end of the semester.  I got the call I had feared on a daily basis, the dreaded but expected call that had kept me near the phone rather than cavorting around the country.  My father had had a stroke in February.  I returned home in March for a week, but when the doctor said that my dad might linger for months in the same near-comatose state, it was decided that I should return to Spain to continue with my courses.  Now word came that Dad had died.  The following day I was Chicago-bound.

Why Spain?  Isn’t it obvious?  Spain was my first love.  My initiation into the world of romance.  The flame of that passion, I’ll grant you, has flickered and diminished in the interim, has been replaced by a husband, by children, but… doesn’t Spain deserve a bit more from me after that abrupt departure forty-five years ago?  A more proper, gentle, and loving leave-taking?  A more fitting bookend to that first trip?  The stunning beginning of this relationship formed when I was 17 needs a meaningful closing as I approach 70.

My husband tells me that once upon a time I told him we would go to Spain together, that I would show him my favorite haunts.  I can’t say that I remember telling him that, but no doubt I did.  I do remember thinking that, having spent such long periods in Spain and having known the country so intimately, I would be very disappointed with the typical 10-day tour.  I also remember thinking that Ken might feel very out of place having to depend on and be lead around by his wife the Spanish-speaker.  Besides, we were raising kids, then participating in fabulous bike tours all around the US and also in Canada.  For those and, I suppose, other reasons, Spain never happened for us.

Forty-five years.  It’s time to return.

Why 2019?

This is an easy one.  A no-brainer.  2019 because:

• good ideas should be seized and acted upon
• neither my body nor my mind nor I are getting any younger.  I’d better strike while the iron is at least lukewarm
• the husband who will be caring for hearth and home and yard and vehicles and every other eventuality isn’t getting any younger either; if I postpone the trip he might just decide he’s not willing to give me up for a couple of months
• the Camino prep has taken over most of my waking hours; the only way to get out from under is to JUST DO IT ALREADY and put it behind me
• my daughter wants to know when we’re going to go hiking together in Ireland.  Let’s get the Camino checked off the list so I can focus on something else

Why spring?

I know, I know.  Fall sounds better, doesn’t it?  Drier.  Warmer.  More colorful: fields still green, golden wheat blowing in the breeze, grapes lush and ready to harvest….  The in-earnest training could be done during summer months when daylight lasts forever and there’s no need to worry about staying warm enough.  All so true.  All pointing to a trip in autumn.  Yes, but:

• Ken and I enjoy biking and camping together during the summer and fall; neither of us would want to forego those pleasures so that I could train for and then walk the Camino during the best months of the year
• Winter is such a “blah” time; betcha anything my training and planning will make January, February, and March just fly by.  Cabin fever doesn’t stand a chance!
• I have a colorful water-repellent hat, a bright rain jacket, and a cover for my backpack.  Let it rain!  Who cares!  I’ll witness the miracles of spring growth up close and personal.  The mud might just bring out the kid in me.
• Maybe the Camino won’t be so crowded early in the season.  One can hope.
• Virginia started her trek in April, and so did Antigone; they survived the occasional 32-degree mornings.  So will I!
• I talked about “romancing” Spain, wooing her, trying to win her hand again. Everyone knows those are springtime activities.

Agreed?

But WHY WHY WHY do this 500-mile pilgrimage at all?

That is, really, the crux of the matter, isn’t it?  I’ve been stalling, frankly, because it is easier to negate possible reasons for my Camino than it is to rationally explain or even be absolutely sure of the actual ones.  I am not going as a penitent, though surely there are aspects of my life for which I might ask forgiveness.  I am not going to beg for a resolution for any specific situations, no trade-off or bargaining with the Almighty.  It’s not that I’m a glutton for punishment or that I want to shirk my usual responsibilities so I can have “a fling” or “relive my youth.”  It can hardly be said that I feel any particular devotion to St. James (“Santiago” in Spanish) whose bones, legend has it, are buried in the cathedral in Santiago.  And I’m very definitely not setting out to break any speed records!  What, then?

Maybe John Woodcock, facilitator of the Life Writing workshop, said it all when he responded, for me, “because it’s there.”  Yes, because it’s there, and also because

• I love challenges and am happiest when I set goals and take the steps necessary to work towards meeting those goals.  Yet I’m realistic and practical.  I love the idea of doing a “through hike” on, say, the Appalachian Trail.  Wow!  Wouldn’t that be something?  In theory, yes.  But in practice?  No, that’s not something for me.  I need goals that are within my reach.  When I heard that Virginia–a local Bloomington woman–was, just before her 76th birthday, heading to Spain to do the Camino, a light went on in my head: maybe, just maybe, I could do that….
• I love the idea of having time to think, to reflect on where I’ve been and where I’m going.  Not geographically, you understand.  A kind of pause, away from the demanding to-do lists and the obligations that come from having a variety of roles.  A chance to step out of those roles for a bit and look at them from the outside, consider how they might be polished up, redefined, some perhaps set aside, others taken on.
• Time is my biggest enemy; it’s a great gift, but yet one that disappears before my eyes.  I love the thought of having, on the Camino, hour after hour after hour with nothing more to do than to put one foot in front of the other along a path or road while the mind travels immense distances in both time and space.  My intention is to fill a good many of those hours, on a daily basis, with conjuring up the people I love, along with their hopes and aspirations, their frustrations and fears and insecurities, their longings, even their short-comings, and holding all of that close to my heart.  Call it “prayer” or “healing thoughts” or “best wishes” or “lifting up”….  Call it what you like, but I really look forward to that.  One by one, as if fingering a rosary, I’ll call forth families and friends, straining to think of classmates from the 50s and 60s and 70s, colleagues from the 80s, 90s, and beyond, bringing to mind friends from book group, writing group, drama club, biking and hiking buddies, friends from church, neighbors new and old, and, certainly, the many loved ones who have passed on.  I’ll be in such good company!
• Then there’s the opportunity the Camino provides to meet folks along the way, pilgrims and those who serve and come to the aid of the pilgrims.  I’ve been told that for most people, meeting fellow peregrinos ends up being the most memorable part of the trip.  I’ve experienced something similar to this on bike tours. When we are free of our usual preoccupations, we have the time and energy to listen to others and share with others in ways that surprise us.  I’m not setting out on the Camino for that reason, but I expect it will be a significant, extremely important aspect of the journey.
• I am a huge believer in the power of and the grace afforded by the habit of gratitude.  I expect my Camino will give me lots of time–and ample reasons– to hone my skills as a practitioner of thankfulness.
• I give all too little mind time to the problems of the world.  “You’ll sleep all the better for it,” you might say.  I suppose that is true, but it is my intention to dedicate a portion of my walking time to considering those problems.  Not with the purpose of solving them–as if I could!…–so much as to acknowledge them and, in some fashion, join in solidarity with the many, many whose lives are so very less privileged than my own.  To do so, for me, will be a kind of prayer.
• I am thoroughly enchanted by the idea that pilgrims have been walking to Santiago, from many different points of Europe, since at least the 10th century!  That’s over a thousand years and many, many thousands of seekers–each with his or her own personal reasons–intent on reaching the goal: Santiago.  Prior to the Christians, it is thought that the route was walked by those following the Milky Way to Finisterre, the supposed “end of the earth.”  How not to be inspired at the idea of stepping where so many others have trod, each bearing hopes and dreams and sorrows?
• I am far from a minimalist and, I’m afraid, I mostly pay mere lip service to “simplicity” and “letting go.”  This trip will offer a forced opportunity to put some muscle into the notion of paring down and “having more with less.”  I don’t expect miracles in that regard, but progress at least. Surely more mindfulness about possessions.  Awareness, certainly.  (And, say, don’t get me wrong: I’m open to miracles!  The everyday kind and the major ones, too!  Bring ’em on!)
• I’ve heard over and over again that the Camino is “safe.”  I couldn’t conceive of a similar adventure, and one with such a strong infrastructure as this one, in many other countries.  The learning curve for carrying out this plan is minimal; there are guides and websites and how-to books a’ plenty.  Compared to some of the extreme sports or pursuits we have seen on YouTube videos or in the clips shown at the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, the Camino is tame.  With proper preparation and a bit of luck, it is doable.  Even by seniors.
• Bottom line: I feel called to do this.  The Camino feels like something I am supposed to do, and to do well.  It is hard to explain, but the call is very real and begs not to be ignored.

I guess we could put all those reasons in a big pot and stir them.  A Katy’s Camino soup.  A hodge-podge of physical, mental, spiritual reasons which, hopefully, ends up to be a tasty dish indeed.

My friend Mary Beth and her husband walked ten days on the Camino a few years ago.  She advised that I not put too many expectations on my walk.  “Let the walk itself show you what you need to be shown.  Go into it with an open mind and see what happens.”

Why walk?  You’re right, John, “because it’s there.”  Or “just because.”  Or, as Mary Beth would have me believe: I’ll find out why.  Ask me when it’s all over.

And why write about it?

I’ll again return a question with a question:  why not write about it?  Writing helps me to focus, to remember, to get in touch with my thoughts and feelings, to capture moments that might otherwise be lost.  It’s what writers do.  Or at least what they want to do.  The proof will be in the pudding.  Will I have the time and the wifi and the phone juice to mix up the pudding?  And how will it “set” with my readers?  (“‘Readers,’ you say?  Do you really think anyone is going to read this?”  Oh!  Well….  That’s the least of my worries.)

I’ve referred to this trip to Spain as a kind of bookend, “propping” me up from one side as I round the corner of my 70th birthday, whereas my initial trip to Spain gave me the support I needed to move into my young adult life and my career.  Bookends.  Ah, do you remember the Simon and Garfunkel song of that title and the oh-so-true words with which it concludes?

Preserve your memories

They’re all that’s left you.

And so, I will write; I will preserve those memories as best I can.

A wonderful sleep last night. Couldn’t ask for better. If I had dreams, they were kind enough not to require my active participation. I have every reason to feel well rested. And, in truth, I do. I’m eager to engage with and in this sun-filled day.

But ready to put the pack on again and head out on a hike similar to yesterday’s 10-miler? I think not. It should be no surprise, then, that I find myself wondering how it will be along the Camino when I will be rising and heading out for similar or longer distances not for two or three days in a row, but for as many as 45 or more? Oh…!

I’m recalling many week-long bike tours on which I completed between 45 to 65 or more miles per day. “Eat, sleep & repeat,” as the motto goes. I fairly bounded out of my sleeping bag when awakened by the 5:00 am alarm–or by the sounds of zippers and clanging tent poles that often served as my morning wake-up call. Eager to hit the road. Ah, you remind me, I was younger then. How true! (Besides, Mother Nature was making urgent requests that got me up and moving towards an availablel Port-a-Potty.)

I will say this, however: almost the first thing I did upon rising this morning was look at Things–my cell phone’s “to do” app–which told me I had 27 new to-dos for today. In addition to the many that were new yesterday and which, due to the five hours of hiking, weren’t completed. In addition to…. Well, you get the idea. My “today” folder alone tells me I have 73 tasks awaiting my attention (the oldest of which, it also tells me, is 210 days overdue… but whose counting? Surely not I!).*

I think back to my bike touring days and come to a few conclusions. 1) Until I did the first one, I had no idea what it would be like. I had talked with experienced tour-takers and I had put in many hours in the saddle, but I had my share of doubts about how I would handle the challenges. Fortunately, those doubts were gradually erased by both my attitude and by just the actual doing what needed to be done to get from Point A to Point B. And so many rewards and such fun along the way. 2) My task, while on tour, was “to ride.” Away from home, all sense of other responsibilities pretty much faded as I got caught up in the moment.

My hope is that when I rise on day 2 of my Camino, I will be so well trained that my body doesn’t know a minute’s hesitation, and that I will be eager to begin what should be the only task on my to-do list: Ultreia! Onward! Step by step. Or as they say in Spanish: “poco a poco se va haciendo.”

*A comment and an evening update. First, the comment: no, I am not busier than you. Probably not by a long shot. (Not that we were having a “who’s the busiest contest.) But I’m probably a good bit more forgetful than you, so while you are busy getting things done, I am busy jotting down the things I must do. Besides that, I’m obsessed with lists. So much so that I actually have four reminder apps on my phone in addition to the one it came with fresh from the box. When the multiple lists on one app get too overwhelming, I just throw up my hands in defeat and start fresh with a new app. So much for the “comment.” As for the update: my log shows that I completed 28 things on my list for today, but I’m heading for bed with 57 tasks which will compete for my attention when they show up, many for the umpteenth time, when “tomorrow” becomes “today.” I can’t wait (hear me groan…)!