Friday, August 31, 2007

Houston We Have A Teri

And she has a boarding pass, but no seat assignment. And she has faith and access to the Presidents Club. The faith is bolstered by wine.
:) Flight to Hoston seemed longer than any ever. Guess I'm more excited than I feel. It's going to be a long way to the big 'A' at this rate. I'm ready to seek out the Nyquil.
I'm utterly facinated by the reality of this.
... And I'm feeling the LOVE! Thank you!

(From my Treo)

Airport, Coffee and Happiness

I'm 'in' and therefore officially on my way!

I've had my last Starbucks for awhile and will soon be sipping Euro coffees. A favorite of mine.

A grand send off i've had. I'm so contented. Everything is just so very right.

(From my Treo)

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Melting Pot

Dinner at the Melting Pot in SLC tonight. It was so good!
I fly in the morning! I'm not going to make it with the stay up thing this time!

And She's Off!

I leave in just a few minutes to head to up SLC for the night. I'll be off on my adventure tomorrow morning.

Friends and Family: Take care of each other for me while I'm gone. I will miss you dearly.

For the iron cross I have: The music Dwight sent me with and his prayer request, a teeeeeeny little cross from Randi, a tatted cross made by Louise's aunt, wedding rocks from Blaine and Diana's wedding and also from Mike and Moira's wedding, a few little rocks from the magic egg, a picture of my brother who is ill and a tiny scallop shell for me.

And my little faith helpers: a teeeeeny angel from Randi, tatted crosses for Randi, Diana and me to take and bring back from Louse, the rosary Julie gave me; patches, music, footprints and the St. James medal from Dwight, my scallop shell and a rock that Father Dennis gave me very long time ago.

Bye everyone - wish me luck!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The Weatherman

Dwight sent me the weather report for St. Jean Pied de Port, France. I will stay here the first night, cross the bridge and head for Spain. Ahh a day in the Pyrenees how utterly exotic that sounds!

High Today: 72F
Overnight low: 53F
A few showers with decreasing cloudiness.

I like the decreasing cloudiness - that would be when I get there.

Lets see - I will be there Saturday afternoon (Sat. AM around these parts)!

Monday, August 27, 2007

Devotional

I love to walk and that was the first motivator for me to take this on. The second and most important is that it is a pilgrimage. History created it to be a religious experience.

Many take this journey as a spiritual undertaking. Spirituality is defined in many different ways by everyone and if you know me at all, you know I respect and support each person's spirit and their own personal calling.

That said, defined, and disclaimer-ed.....I found, on the web ring a devotional. It was designed to be started a week before (I have) and throughout the journey (printed and packed). For me - I need it to ground me into the spirituality I want to experience on this trip.

http://gryjhnsn.tripod.com/santiago/id14.html

And a note from the sponsor - me: I have had some very profound experiences with my faith. Visiting Fatima (D and I were discussing this over the weekend), my celestial encounter while toting St. Philomena around (yes, the relic), and many more.

I'm open to whatever tales this ancient path of the saints has to share (and two of them are my relatives) with me.

Now where's that sign "St. Francis of Assisi was here"????

One more little thing....someone posted that earlier this week or month one town's worth of alberques were full....no room at the inn. So they didn't have to sleep in full open fields, they were led to a shepherd's cave to sleep in for the night. HOW COOL IS THAT??? Now if that happens to me....upon my return I'm petitioning to change my name to Mary.

I'm Official!

This blog was accepted into the Way of St. James Web Ring!! I'm at the top position of the hub (today anyway) with a little yellow NEW beside it.

If you want to cruise around the web ring, drop to the bottom of the page and hop on!

August 27, 1997

Ten years ago today Dwight asked me if I had a passport.
I did not.
"Get one, don't ask questions."
See what you started?
And down the rabbit hole, I'm about to go!

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Say Hello

If you recognize any of these on the Camino in the next few weeks, please say "Hello, Bon Jour, Guten Tag, Hola, Ola, Buon Giorno, etc. Teri". I look forward to meeting you!







Buen Camino all!

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Packed and Ready To Go

My pack is packed, the weight is right. My guidebook is notated and my maps are marked for points of interest.

Midweek I will unpack and repack my rucksack to double check my contents and know where everything is.

Thursday I will print out all my intineraries and then be on my way.

Friday, August 24, 2007

A Week From Now

I'll be landing at my flight destination in France. A bus and a train later and I'll be hunkering down for my first night. The next morning I begin the best little walk of my life! Squeak!!!

Ningunos gatos en el mochila

No Cats in the BackPack!


My two little ones (OK one is 20+ lbs) don't want me to leave. They have done everything in their power to climb in, obsure, and otherwise impede my packing efforts. I will miss my babies. They'll be in good hands with the critter sitter and my friends.

Testing One Two Three

This is a test of the portable blogging system. Yet another feature of my fabulous job I have!

(From my Treo)

Uniform


In just a few days this will be my uniform for a few weeks!

Mi Amigos Es Fantistico!

My buds threw a going away party for me last night! We started with homemade chocolate chip cookies and Spanish wine. We ended with lemon muffins, mango sorbet, blackberries and Spanish wine. In the middle was a yummy paella.

Because this will be a pilgrimage for me, they included an appropriate gift.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Angel Writings

This was in the middle of an email my daughter sent to me today. It is so appropriate for all of you well-wishers and special people in my life (even if I haven't met you yet)!

An Angel wrote:

Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.

And I would add...And on your pack, with special peregrinos and in surprise places.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Today's First Walk

I was thinking this morning while I was out walking of how much "training" I've done for this trip.

Two years ago I tracked my mileage with my pedometer. Over 1100 miles. That is the same distance as walking from my house to Minneapolis. Walked there....

Last year I HIKED every weekend. Biggies, all season long. I'd say I probably did about the same. I did not track mileage. Walked back.......

It is 2040 miles from Provo to Key West....2130 to Cuba.

As Dwight said earlier this week WALK Teri WALK!

This year I've done 5-10 miles every weekend - more or less. No real hiking as my hiking buds have been scattered. Only a couple hikes up Timp trail and the slot canyons trip. (Bears and fires oh my). But I'll have 500 behind me in a few weeks.

I can remember when walking around the golf course in Port Orchard was a chore and that was two miles. And then I started doing it twice a day and then Jazzercise once or twice a day, and then walking to work from the ferry in Seattle, and on my trips and up to the mountains in Payson and up the mountains here.

Yes, it has been a journey getting to now. One step at a time. I feel a Dr. Seuss-type book coming on.

Getting There

Thanks to Team Teri - those helping me pull it all together - I'm sending shoes and other stuff ahead to the Correos (post office) in Fromista...about my half way point.

Weather reports are starting to come to my phone now. I'll know what to "put on top" of the pack each day.

I wish it was time to pack it up one last time and head out the door for real. On the bright side - in a couple of hours it will be less than a million seconds until I go. :)

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Duh

My shoes / trail runners never fall apart, the insoles go flat. I broke in three pairs of shoes for this trip. I decided to not take one pair because of weight and space. I was thinking about dumping the (2nd) spare pair because of my weight issue tonight. Duh - duh - duh. I took the insoles out of both of the spare pairs. I will take the insoles with me and not the shoes.

Now the dilemma is which "outer" pair gets to take the trip. Green, Yellow or Yellow X???? Sounds like a photo op to me!

Friday, August 17, 2007

Dress Rehearsal

Grade - F

I packed the pack, including water with the intent to do Timp Cave Trail tomorrow with pack in tow. Result 27.5 lbs. That is 12.5 more lbs than it is supposed to be. And there is still a couple of things I need to add. So.....I might walk tomorrow, but I won't be hauling the pack. I have some work to do - like nearly 50%.

Sigh.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Where Does the Camino Start?

I posted the following to the boards yesterday:

Mike wrote: "The camino starts, as some wise person said, when you leave home."

Mine started July 4, 2004 when I picked up the book "Singular Pilgrim" in a bookstore in Seattle while waiting to meet up with friends. I leave home in 14 days to complete the last 800 km.

For those who think you only can dream about it - keep dreaming - it will come to you as it did to me.

And the following responses have been posted - I LOVE IT:!

Robert wrote:
Now there's an interesting thread. "Where did the Camino start for you?" As with Teri's, mine started with picking up a book by chance off a remainder table in a bookstore. "Nice cover. What's the title? The Pilgrim Route to Compostela. The what Route to where?....."
A couple weeks back, I talked to a guy who said he walked into his living room, saw the botafumeiro on his tv (his wife was watching an education channel), and said, "I don't know what that is or where it is, but before I die I'm going to go there." He's been three times now.
So where did it start for you?

yxxyyy wrote:
My Camino, like many started with a very "random" occurrence. In my case a picture taken of the Somport pass area, that mentioned the Camino. Now after walking the Camino, I am much less willing to believe that things are always "random". Sometimes in life we are given chances, opportunities, windows, that allow us to expand on a personal level. Sometimes we miss these window, I will be ever grateful that I was given the chance to open the Camino window.

Lynne wrote:
In the late 1990’s I read an article in the Travel section of the New York Times about a man who walked the Camino in memory of his recently deceased brother. The minute I saw that article, I was compelled to do it. I finally got there in 2002. Then I went back and walked LePuy in 2006 and again in 2007.
The people I met the earliest in the experience have remained in my life the longest.

Deana wrote:
I saw a TV program about the Camino. I asked my best buddy, sitting beside me, if he wanted to do this. He said "no". I knew in my heart when I saw that program that I would walk the Camino. I was so sure of this that it surprised me that my friend did not want to do it too.

Mike wrote:
It started for me on Christmas Day 2000.
I was visiting my brother and I was looking at his photographs of his tourist
trip to Spain. He had a photograph of half a dozen "backpackers" standing outside an old doorway. They were holding some sort of certificate in their hands. They were travel-stained, weary, dusty and worn-looking. But they all had grins from ear-to-ear. The intensity of their smiles was arresting. I asked him what was the photograph about....... and he uttered the maguc words, "They're pilgrims and they've just walked seven hundred and fifty kilometres across Spain to Santiago de Compostela."
At that moment I knew, with absolute certainty, that I would one day stand there and have my photograph taken with that same look and that same certificate in my hand. Been there twice so far and twice to Nidaros.

Bill wrote: (He'll be on the Camino at the same time I will be.)
It is nice to think now where the Camino started for me since I will be leaving in just 20 days for Camino Francis. Mine started a week after I began a 1000 mile trek up the Appalachian Trail in April 2003. I met and traveled with a couple from Holland who told me about a pilgrimage walk they completed the year before in Spain. I grew up in a spanish speaking area of Calif and over the next months on the AT the thought of going to Spain on an ancient spiritual pilgrimage stayed with me.
When I returned to the "real world" I was caught up in stuff again.....until now. If I walk my walk and it is meant to be, I will turn 60 the day I reach Santiago. That seems to me like a good way to start a new stage in life journey.
I hope to see some of you on the Camino beginning 07 Sept.

He added later, in response to Siliva's post: It is hard to imagine walking the Appalachian Trail more than once. To survive once is enough for most. I see people walking the Camino many times. There is obviously something very special. I hope I will understand it when I travel the St James Way next week. I am looking forward to the forests of Roncesvalles

Silvia wrote: (She'll be on the Camino at the same time I will be.)
I think my camino will only start next week when I take the first few
steps into the forest from Roncesvalles. Even though I have walked it
before (2002, 2004) I have learned so much more about Spain and about
the history, folklore, architecture etc of the camino that I want it to
be like walking it for the first time. This is also a new season for me
so I am looking forward to new landscapes, harvests and experiences.
(And, the backpack is 3kg lighter!) Only four more sleeps!

Teddy wrote:
I am an avid reader of the type who will read the phone book when nothingelse is available.I came upon the books of Coelho and McClain about the Camino.I didn't get the message from either of these strange books, but figuredthat there must be something extremely attractive about this pilgrimage andthe more I searched, the more I was interested and needed more answers. Iwent last summer, alone, and completed the French route at the end of August2006. I got more answers than I needed. I will walk it again as soon as Ican make enough time. There is a lot of magic about the Camino. I walkedit all in one month without being afraid...without getting a single blistereven with my new shoes....with an energy that out-of-shape me never hadbefore, without a backache, although carrying 8 kilos every day (I have abackache now, and I'm not carrying anything). I am now yearning to leavefrom my front door here in Switzerland....The Camino is drawing me like apowerful magnet.

Kay wrote:
My camino started in August of 2000, when I turned on the TV to get the last few seconds of a travel program about the camino.. really only the presenter standing at Finisterre as the credits rolled. It was just enough for me to google it and find a diary of a cyclist. I was very quickly absolutely besotted with the idea of walking the camino.. a very bizzare idea as I had never travelled alone, never really walked far, never in 25 years of marriage been away from my husband for more than a few nights and was very unfit. My family and friends all thought that I was completely mad and even I wondered occasionally about my mental health but there were so many strange camino related coincidences in that year that I felt that I had no choice but to follow my heart.

My camino was even more wonderful than I had imagined it to be and since then I have walked again with my husband (2003), my parents who are in their seventies walked in 2002, my daughter in 2005 and in a few weeks time my son Tom hopes to walk (watch out for a tall, slim, red headed, 24 yr old New Zealander!). I am so thankful for the advice from this group and that I took the chance to do something that seemed so bizarre at the time!

KJ wrote:
I live in Silverdale, WA and will be flying out of Seattle on Aug.31, joining up with four other "wild wimmin" in Leon to walk theCamino. Keep an eye open for us....we'll be wearing red t-shirts. I've met "Seattelites" all over the world....we' re a traveling bunch!Good luck, happy travels!


Isn't it amazing how it has all come together for all of us? One fleeting moment in time set it all in motion. Beautiful!

Monday, August 13, 2007

Nearly Time

I'm just over two weeks from leaving. I'm anxious to be on my way. This is the most interesting thing that I've ever done, and perhaps ever will. My faith is strong and my desire to retreat into myself is growin. Thank you Lord for making this happen.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Play Money

Utah Valley doesn't offer currency exchange. If you want to exchagne money you have to "order" it from the bank. My girlfriend said just to change it in Atlanta when I left for my trip. But I won't be flying through Atlanta then.

But today I did.....Perfect scenario: I flew in on A, money on E, connection on B. I got my "play money" and a good hike in a full flying day.

I met man on the plane who knew of the Camino and a few people who had done it (as recretion). He was a German and guess what? Surprise! SAP.

I'm dreaming about walking on the camino now. Just a few more days.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Rosemary Mahoney

You meet the nicest people on the Road to Santiago

Dear Teri-

Thank you for writing. I'm delighted to hear you're going to do the Camino. You won't regret it. And September is a great time to go. I hope it all goes well. I highly recommend you start walking in a lot in the same shoes you plan to wear on the trail, otherwise you'll get awful blisters. Well, you'll probably get them anyway. Also, carry about a third of what you think you need . . . I'm glad you got some inspiration out of my book. That's gratifying for me.

all the best,

Rosemary Mahoney

Monday, August 06, 2007

Iron Cross - My Intentions

I have found the item I will be taking for me. It is a very small scallop shell. I have written: Teri, USA. In the dip of the shell will be placed all my sorrows. Past sadness, current hurts and those that may challenge me in the future.

I'm a happy person. But life has happened to me here and there. I'm taking them all (fortunately my sadness is small, as is the shell) and leaving them behind me.

I'm taking wedding rocks for Blaine & Diana and Mike & Moira. Randi and Louise still need to weigh in. D has submited his request to which I have promised to double. A couple more still futzing around. Then we're good to go.

And that, will be that.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Ye Olde Camino Map - 1648

Over on the right is all the accomodations - just like I'll be using (some the same) starting 680 hours! This map can be purchased at: http://www.pilgerandenken.de/produkt_carte_des_chemins_de_s.jacques_de_compostelle_1648_karten_6.html

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Saint James


From wikipedia:

Saint James, son of Zebedee (d. AD 44) was one of the disciples of Jesus. He was the son of Zebedee and Salome and brother of John the Evangelist. He is called Saint James the Greater to distinguish him from the other apostle named James (James, son of Alphaeus). James is described as one of the first disciples to join Jesus. The Synoptic Gospels state that James and John were with their father by the seashore when Jesus called them to begin traveling.[1][2] According to Mark, James and John were called Boanerges, or the "Sons of Thunder." [3] The Acts of the Apostles 12:1-2 records that King Herod had James executed by sword.[4]
His remains are said to be buried in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia (Spain). Saint James is the patron saint of Spain and is related to the reconquista in the role of moor-slayer. His burial town, Santiago de Compostela, is considered the third most holy town of Catholicism (after Jerusalem and Rome). The pilgrimage to the grave of the Saint has become the most popular pilgrimage for Western European Catholics from the early middle ages onwards; making him one of the patron saints of pilgrimage.

The Gift of Feet

I received my camino gift today. I received lots of feet! My long time dearest sent me feet/footstep pins to give to people I meet along the camino - what a fabulous idea! I put my email on the back of the packet so I can stay in touch with those I offer the pin to.

Oh the meaning - All the steps of the camino, I dearly love the poem about footprints in the sand (I'm going to need some carrying, Lord), and of course, this way, he'll be walking every step of the way with me.

On the way too is a St. James Medal. I don't have one and I wanted one. Of course, he knew that. My home is graced with Saints thanks to him: St. Terese, St. Francis of Assisi and now St. James.
How fitting - so very very fitting!