One Month

In exactly 30 days from today, I was planning on being at the Hilton Hotel at Logan International Airport, eating lobster rolls, drinking Moxie and shuffling the contents of my pack to be sure I had exactly what I would need for a 500 mile walk across Spain.

There is, of course, a fine line with what you really need and what you think you need! There’s also the weight consideration. Everything presently in my pack, with the exception of a full water bottle and my iPad, weighs 18.2 pounds. My goal was to keep it at 20 pounds or less. When I first put it on after filling it with the contents of the tote, which has been the receptacle for every thing Camino over the last year and a half, I was a bit surprised by its heft. For some reason the tote didn’t seem that heavy when I would pick it up and move it from time to time. I will use the analogy of the waterbed and refrigerator. They are both very heavy but the fridge exerts much more force per square inch on the floor than does the waterbed. That’s how my pack became so heavy: it has a much smaller footprint than the tote and I’m sticking to my theory.

The official email came today saying what we have all been dreading: The Camino is cancelled for this year. I am disappointed that it isn’t going to happen but I am especially sad for my sister whose idea and copious amounts hard work will come to naught, at least for the time being.

So, we are taking this opportunity to turn the lemons we have been given into lemonade. We are going to “Camino” our way west. I’m pretty certain there are some hiking trails available in this country that will challenge us. Covid be damned.

Buen Camino

“Holy” Sneakers 500