9/19/2014

This blogg will wrap it up......

 I am on the bus with my new friend and she tells me that I need to take the subway to the air port from the Paris bus station and hands me a map.  The map looked like your grandmothers sewing kit with all the threads mixed/mashed......lines went all over and in every direction across the page.  I was getting nervous again.  In studying  the map I would need to change trains three times to get on the B3 to CDG12 air port.  I thought about the cab thing and studied how far the bus station would be from the air port.  I had 70e left in my wallet I am sure it would be enough for a taxi.  As we pulled into the bus station I spotted 8 taxie lined up waiting fairs.  Got off the bus and walked over to the lead taxie and asked how much to CDG.  He wrote on a piece of paper 35/40e.  I was about to become a fish in that I am sure if I ran off the meter the fair would of been around 20 e.  What the hell if I can get to the air port I will be home free.  I just endured a 12 hour bus ride and I am about to do a 12 hour plane ride as well.

Well you all know the rest......home safe and sound and humbled from the last four weeks of the camino and all it brought to my soul.

The camino absolutely strips you of any pretense of who you are or what you might think you are. Then what enters is the true spirit of mankind.  I have memories to last a life time.  Stories for a hundred camp fires.  It's hard to explain but I now know ex actually who I am, what it is I love, what it is that is important to me and what I can actually do with out. 

So this is it this adventure has ended and this blogg is now officially off the air.

The final lesson learned:    But for the grace of God go I.

                             I LOVE YOU ALL EQUALLY................

continued as promised.......

First let me give you a run down.  You talk about the great unwashed well it's me.  No correction, my body's clean.  I am wearing a block U utes shirt that hasent been washed for at least 10 days.  My socks have only been rung out in the sink.  My walking shorts have never been washed......what nickers........I have on brown sandles and a dirty ball cap that stinks of sweat.  I know I tried to put it over my eyes on the bus but couldn't stand the smell.

I have brown stripes on my calves where the sun has been baking me.  I have not shaved for a week and the hair on my head has been allowed to grow since  I have left home. In fact I am trying to remember what side I use to part it on.  The only thing that would top me off is instead of having one of those flight pillows around my neck would be to have a toilet seat.

I think you got the picture.

Ok this is true, true, true......picture the above with the addition of having toilet paper stick to my shoe in the air port.

So ok here we go........so remember I am thinking that I can just get to the bus and no problem.  And you remember that the trains out of here were booked three days forward.   ( some mother just pulled her kid back from starring at me)   So any way I find a hotel that is just two blocks from the big cathedral that I showed you.  I have nothing to do but walk around.......and this place is as big as the Vatican.......and take pictures.  I am over there so much that they want me join up.  There  are people busking on the street.   Singing, Indian dancing, three piece band...stuff like that.  I am watching these people all day every day that I am marooned here.  They are thinking that I am a talent scout...?hell why else would I watch them for three days.

I bought my ticket on Sunday, I can't leave until Tuesday, I have watched on t.v. and in Spanish. "Lady hog catchers, nude survival.......I'm dead serious......locker bidders, car restorers ( my favorite) okey mud cat noodlers, the list goes on.  So finially I can't stand it any longer and I go to the bus station that is just a block away 90 min early just for a change of pace.

I am watching the marquee for my bus and it's not showing up.  What is showing up is three different departures that say France. And I am wondering if any of the three might be my bus.  If I miss my bus now I will cut my wrist.  I am trying to ask the ticket lady why my bus is not on the marquee and a real nice young lady comes to me, who can speak English, French,  Spanish.......as soon as I get home I am taking a corespondent corse..........and she says let me speak for you.  So we find out my bus will either be late by 15 min or 30 min and will be on either 1,2, or 3 platform.  Just watch for me she says I am going to Paris as well, I won't let them leave you.

While we are waiting another victim of the camino comes limping out to where we are she has a scarf wrapped around her knee and can hardly walk.  I took another ace bandage out of my pack and asked my new friend to ask her if she wanted my help.  Tell her not to be afraid I said my wife is a doctor......I couldn't resist......she got on a different bus then us but was very grateful.

I had a 12 hour bus ride to Paris......remember I took the 180 mile an hour bullet train three weeks ago and covered the same distance in about three hours.

To be continued........

Day 19

Trying to exit the camino was proving to be more difficult then doing the camino.  As I told youbefore I had a young man helping me on the Alberque computer which by the way cost 1e for 20 minutes to operate.  The trains to Paris were prebooked full for three days and at the time we could not figure out why.  What Sandy and I found out later was Air France was just hours away from a strike, so not wanting to be left high and dry folks were booking the train.  I thought that I would have a better chance with a bus but I neede to get back to Burgos.  My ipad has a Spanish/English translated app that proved its weight in gold.  I printed out the fact that I wanted a taxi ordered for the following day to take me to Burgos and then handed the pad to the Alberque help.  She was most impressed with the tech knowledge.  She got right on the phone and ordered a taxie.  10:00 a.m. Be ready to go.  The taxie was right on time.  When it picked me up it also had two young ladies in the back from Sweden.  One could speak English very well and said they were going to get a train to Madrid.  I asked them if they already had their tickets.  They never and I didn't have the heart to tell them what I knew..  

When we got to the the bus terminal I got out to get my bag out of the trunk and asked the driver how much I owed him.  He wrote 40e in the dust on the cab.  I thought he had made a 2 instead of a 4 he was good natured about it but thought I was trying to stiff him for 20e.  I knew about what it would cost in that the fairs were posted in the lobby of the Alberque.  I gave him another 20e and he was happy.  You need to remember that gas here is about $8.00  gal. American.  In the bus terminal I found out that a bus would not be leaving for three days.  Same as the train.  And I found out the bus ride is about 14 hrs long.  In the mean time Sandy is on the phone with Delta trying to get me back home and actually had my ticket changed three different times. She was on her phone and our iPads were on face time and I could hear her tell delta that I had contacted the hi- bolical-flip ups and was feebly trying to get home to modern medicine. I purchased the bus ticket for 89e and then found a hotel to kill time in.  While on the computer at the Alberque we checked into the air port at Burgos and found the only air line that I could get on was aTurkish air line for just over 500e I gave it a miss and went for the bus.    

I actually lost my pen bag several days ago and now was in the habit of pining my wet laundry on my pack to let the Spanish sun finish drying them.  When I went into the hotel lobby with my pack, unshaven for several days and my nickers and socks swinging back and forth it was me that looked the part of joe shit the rag man. But even so a credit card that works makes the lowest of man look like a king.  My check out time is 12 noon which means I have 9 hours on the street to kill time waiting for the bus.  Like it or not I will need to go for one more day on the room and then leave about 8:30.  I figured that on the street all I would do is spend money, so even if I don't sleep the last day I pay for it will be better then being on the street. 

This one will be continued.......

Day 18 pic

Old men playing stuff in the bar

Day 18

Well dear readers I am afraid I have reached the end of the trail.....well for me any way.  All hiking boots and running shoes as you know have a hard rubber cap on the sole.  Underneath this cap is a soft spongy material that is put there for your heal strike.  Once you wear the hard cap thru then obviously it's time for new boots/shoes.  I bought these boots some two years ago and broke them in softly by taking walks and such.  In all honesty they were in very good shap when I came on this trip, but I can not even begin to explain the terrain I have been across.  And to be honest I do have a tendency to skuff a bit when I walk and I do have a pronation.  So adding all these things up took its due.

I gave serious thought as to taking a taxi back to Burgos, buying a new pair of boots then switch back and forth.  It would put me back a day but the rest would probably do me good.  I wasn't keen on packing the extra weight of an extra pair of boots, so I had to give that some extra thought.

So in emailing Sandy back and forth all decided that it was time to come home.

As I sit here writing pilgrims are heading out of town on to what ever today brings them.  My ego is going mad.  I have to keep going inside myself and remember what the camino for me was all about.  Not a foot race.  No prize at the end.  No balloon arch way that been erected for the finishers.  None of that.  The camino just is. Every one is here for a personal reason of their own.  And I have heard some great reasons.  Cancer survivor, loved ones lost, relationships ended, the list goes on and on. For me, I always said, I don't know why, I hope to find out on the trail.  I think I did find out, in fact I found out several reasons......all personal.

I have walked about seven feet less then 250 miles, just about half way.  In doing the math I think I would need an additional 10 days  more than the five weeks that I had originally planed on.  There is no doubt in my mine that if I would of asked for it Sandy would of went along.....no questions asked.  But a funny thing was starting to happen to my mind, I started to think more about home then I did the camino.  My friends I was getting home sick.....I want my kids, my g- kids, my home, and most of all my wife.  As I walked I thought more of sitting in the back yard at even- tide then I did of all the history I was passing thru and I will tell you it was volumes.

The Spanish love their kids. their old, their dogs and bread.  I have left my wallet on the bed while I showered.....no problem.  I have left my passport on the desk, to have it returned several times.  Just last night my walking poles were brought to me from a block away.  I wanted to know how I was tracked down but their was this language thing that keeps getting in the way of explanations.

So my dear friends and family that is it.  I will be shutting down this blog in a few days.  I hope you have enjoyed my travels and the pictures.  And what ever road YOU choose to travel, let just two words that cover it all......Buen Camino.

Day 17 pic.

Day 17. 9/13/14

.Once again I was up and out before sun up.  I ate a power bar for breakfast and started on the trail.  The Spanish do not get up early......not for nothing.  I could hear a dog bark some place and a rooster crow but that was all.  I knew I had a long Mesa to travel and it would be an all day treck.  I was right.  But dear readers we have a problem.....my boots have lost the hill. I knew I had a pronation and between that and the road I am traveling I am now getting concern as to the equipment.  Going up the first Mesa was not a problem.  I do better going up then coming down.  I got up and walked across and then it was stright down.  I did my usuall baby steps being very careful of foot placement and finially got to the flat. Walking into the next village I had the grocer make me a ham and cheese sand which and washed it down with my usual three cokes.....?Love that stuff.    Walked through that village and then headed towards the next Mesa.  I was just starting up when I heard my name called.  In turning around it was Joy and Ed on bikes. We had been leap forging from day one.  Hey you two what's with the bikes.  They had planed on riding the 100  miles that the Mesa called for in that it was too  shit to walk it.  I told them right off I wasn't pleased with the bikes in that they were far from mountain bikes.  As we spoke several other pilgrims came past and in several foreign languages told them the same thing as to the tires being all wrong and made their point by tapping the tires. In answering their question as to how I was holding up, I told Ed that I was worried about my boots and then sat on a rock with my feet in the air.  Hummm was his answere.  Their not going to last you Richard.  What you can do is take a bus and hop ahead 100 miles and then you will be back in some decent country that looks like Ireland and much more enjoyable to walk in.  That's why we rented the bikes, to get across this next 100 miles as quick as possible.  Well how did you get behind me I asked.  We got a hotel and slept for 16 hours, that's how.  We got kind of a camino bug that kept us in one place with a bathroom of our own.  Humm that sounded too familiar and I had been wondering if I was starting to stress.  Walking for seven and eight hours stright will fatigue you.  I started to do a body read out and was wondering if I was putting too much stress on my self by not taking rest days.  Before they left Joy looked at me and said, Richard how are you really feeling.  You are a lot thinner now then when we started in St Jean.  As we spoke she gave me a run down on who else had gone home from the day one group.  She also told me of all who was still behind me.

I had to do some thinking.  I decided that I would get a hotel room for at least one day and rest.  The problem is when I got into......where the hell I'm at....every thing was full.  Pilgrims with cell phones will call a head and book rooms, leaving the rest of the great unwashed to fend for their selves.   I settled for a municipal Alberque which turned out to be really all right.  It filled up in a hurry and are putting people on the floor on mattresses.  Some where I lost my soap and went across the street to the ......get this.......supermarket.  No bigger then my kitchen....but they had a bar of soap. 

Went out to get some dinner.....you guessed it not until seven.  Ye gods how do these people survive.

I can only get wifi in the lobby.  As I sit here writing they are putting people on the floor in the kitchen.  This whole town is full.  Tomorrow is about 13 miles to the next Alberque all across the Mesa.  As I sit here every one is trying to call ahead.  There is a German that speaks Spanish and English he is a pilgrim that is working his ass off for the company.  They have a list of Alberque in the next village and he is telling them what is already full.  I am still thinking on some personal issues.  I made some promises to Sandy before I left that at any sign of something wrong I would call it.  Maybe that's what I neede to hear, after 13 miles no bed.......hummmm m.  Let me check with the boss and I will get back to you. Still sitting in the lobby it is 6:40 and a lady came in from the trail looking for a room.  Nothing.  An old man is helping her with translation....every where is full and it will be a foot race for tomorrow.  Finially they said they would put her on the floor.....she started to cry, the help started to cry, hugs all around.....and I will be a son of a bitch if I didn't get something in my eye.   

Lesson learned: when there is room in the heart, there is room in the home.