Camino de Santiago de Compostela - THE WAY - getting ready

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This is a trial entry to re-learn how this works again. Then I will add the details of weeks of planning for a trip first thought of over 30 years ago.

28 May 2015 continued entry.

So we have been trying to reduce our lifetime accumulation of paper and stuff. One item was a NYTimes travel article from 1987 on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. So we have had this on our list for about 30 years.

As a prelude we have walked the Milford Track in New Zealand; the Great Ocean Walk in Australia; The Coast to Coast (Wainwright Trail)(C2C) in England; The Lycian Way in Turkey; and I have also walked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu as well as hiking with our Sun City Anthem Nevada (SCA) hiking club. After the Coast to Coast our friend Jo wanted more and so in April of 2014 she organized her camino and was joined by many of our friends from SCA for the last 100 or more miles of the walk. Like the C2C she used a service to plan lodging and baggage transfer. While some may regard this as not a true pilgrimage adventure for those of us who are slow, older and still able to walk, it is an option that assures you are not competing for limited quarters at the end of a long days walk. So we are following her lead as she in turn had followed ours of a couple of years prior.

Our contact with Jo and New Experience Holidays resulted in our planned itinerary to complete the almost 500 mile walk in 38 stages with several rest days and a week in Barcelona for the La Merce' Festival. We used google maps, guide books and website information to find accommodations at the end of each stage and make reservations. Then we found High-Tech-Luggage Transfers on "The Way of Saint James" to transport two bags (one each) of less than 15 Kilograms (33 pounds) between the accommodations for each stage. Doing this involved several days and a few hours each day to accomplish but we are now reasonably assured that we have a place reserved for each night of this trip. We plan to depart the USA on 17 August and return on 16 October so it will be almost exactly two months in duration.



24 June 2015

Back to see how the link works to send to family and friends. Have spend several days getting all the paperwork organized for the many individual reservations and details.

But first let us see if we can save and send this link.

25 June 2015

So I have learned that to send the blog I must first have the names of the email recipients in my authorized viewer list and then publish.

June 29, 2015

We have left Nevada and driven part way across the USA. Our car stops were in Prescott Valley, AZ for update with Karen's cousin; then on to Trinidad, CO -- where is that you ask?-- it is very southern part of Colorado 10 miles from New Mexico border on I-25. We had stopped here on our way back to Nevada last March trying to run south to escape a snow storWe spent a great evening at the Tarabino Bed and Breakfast which was a fantastic 1905 home on aristocrat hill in Trinidad. If you ever find yourself in this part of Colorado be sure to try to stay. They have a website and Teresa and Paul are great hosts. Tarabino INN 310 East Second Street, Trinidad, CO 81082, phone:[phone]. www.tarabinoinn.com email: [e-mail]

From Trinidad we took Route 160 straight east to Kim, CO. The purpose was to see the home of a distant cousin of Karen's, Kenneth Dickey who died here in 1998, intestate. Thus a bachelor cousin who had no contact with the family re-acquainted and connected the Dickey, Ellis family through his death. This is Karen's dad's side of the family. We found the post office lady very knowledgeable about Mr. Dickey, his store, home, farms and life in Kim. So we had to visit these all now owned by others following the estate auction of his property.

Then on to Springfield, CO, home of Karens great aunt Nellie, whose grandson, George Sharkey did the lions share of the work to locate all the Kenneth Dickey heirs. We located the car dealership they owned in town as we cruised main street.

From here we high-tailed it across the Kansas plains and the Comanche National Grasslands to Kansas City for an evening with Paul Osgood and Jerry Cundiff, another of Karen's cousins on her mother's side. The rains have made the plains green with the cattle up to their bellys in the tall grass. Think grass fed beef!

On the evening of the 2nd of July we arrived in Chicago. Just over 2100 miles of driving. We arrived at Sara's apartment and had soup while waiting for her to return from dinner with a friend. It was a cool 71 degrees when we arrived. What a contrast from the 111 when we left Nevada.

So this update will reach lots of you who have said you wish to be on the list for this blog. It will get more interesting when we leave for the Camino in mid August. In the mean time I will fill in our journey and the plans for the stages of the Camino along with some photos so I get the hang of this blog thing. If you know of friends who might like to be on the list have them email me. And if you want to avoid these in your in box just let me know by email and I can remove you from the list.

Got the photos in and see that the locations are not in data base.

July 3

Greetings from the Windy City

Karen here---we are gradually wending our way east! Here is the Chicago Report.

For all the 'walkers!' We walked the 2.7 mile 606 Trail that just opened this year. It is rather unfair to compare with the Highline of NYC, but comparisons are inevitable. The similarity is that both trails are based on old rail beds. The Highline, for many of you that have experienced that lovely walk is much more aesthetic, in design and ambiance. It has little 'lounge areas' where one can rest amidst plantings that have been judiciously chosen and placed. The 606 is a straight line and, non-gardener that I am, even I know that you don't plant a tree that clearly is going to mature in a space that is way too small for it! Some tree and shrub branches were already brushing up against you as one walked along the edge of the trail. And-apologies to our biker friends--this kind of trail is no place for bikers and in-line skaters. Some bikers were using it as a training trail; but you had bikers at the other end of the spectrum also. I was run into by a young lad learning to ride his two-wheeler! Highline does not allow 'wheels' of any kind. Another difference is that 606 really runs along, mainly, residential neighborhoods so there are no bathroom facilities, cafés or other amenities. The Highline has many, many venues for food, shopping or 'relief' stops along the way. So, in ending, it is easy to determine which 'trail' I prefer but I heartily applaud Chicago for the idea, and-having lived in Chicago two years, eons ago, I wonder who benefited from the graft! 7.5 m

July 4

Today we walked through different neighborhoods to the Logan Square Market. Many unique items for the gourmet minded. To entertain the kids there was also a pot-bellied pig in residence.

The weather, on the way home, was becoming more typical of Chicago summers and I was searching for a temporary respite. I saw the sign for a barbershop and instantly decided Harlan could use some skills of said barber. So we climbed three flights of stairs and emerged into a lovely, , spacious, c-o-o-l, aerie. It was the equivalent to a military haircut as Sara and I were so enjoying the cool and I just kept 'suggesting' a shorter trim in order to enjoy the environment. By the time we left Harlan knew where the barber had come from and his family history.

Hunger begins to call and we stop at the neighborhood grocery. Mariano's is celebrating its fifth anniversary and there is cake. This is a crazy place. We buy our chicken and they grill it while we wait and the piano man entertains us with melodies. There are clean restrooms and plentiful above ground parking. Of course all kinds of ethnic foods are featured. While waiting for the grilling to be done I have three glasses of cucumber water that is just around the corner in the little attached cafe. And yes, there are even comfortable benches for the weary shopper to have a rest and think of more food they must have in the pantry. How I wish we had this upscale version in Von's coffee area!

We return home via the Epoch Spice Market. Our 'foodie' daughter has told us of this little hole in the wall that sells exotic (for me, that means almost all spices other than the seven or eight I grew up with!) and not-so-exotic spices. They say they grind their spices every Monday. When Sara had told me of some of the prices, my suspicious nature instantly thought of money laundering. Regardless, we left with three bottles and three packets of spices. There were a few extras--I mean what Nonna could resist a bottle of Madeleine's Sprinkles for topping goodies. I know, not the same spelling but close enough.

After a short nap it is a rush trip to the corner farm and garden store to 'oh and ahh' over their goods---even the fertilizer bags are stacked in a unique way! And there were raised beds shouting, "You too can do this and have a bountiful harvest!"

To end the day we have a lovely brunch with a group of Sara's friends. Many we have met before. There were representatives from Korea, the Ukraine, Russia. Greece, and Yadkin County of North Carolina. Doesn't that last name just sound straight out of a Tennessee Williams novel? Threw the last locale in to indicate there were national as well as international backgrounds. Thirty and early forty somethings can be very interesting conversationalists. The best part is that they want to know our thoughts on different topics!

And so our time in the Windy City closes. It is not until the next day that we hear of the carnage in the city. Sara does not listen to her tv and we had no idea what was happening around us. On the way to the market we had walked the extensive grassy divide of Humboldt St, in the Humboldt Park area where the little seven year old boy was shot.

July 6

We drop our daughter off at her work in Greektown and head toward Indiana. Drop off for a visit with an elderly couple in the south part of Indianapolis. They whole-heartedly embraced us forty one years ago as we entered 'Indianoplace' with a fussy baby and a shy toddler. They had four little stair-step boys and it was a crazy household. They are dear, dear people and it was great to catch up in person rather than the annual Christmas card! Then to Louisville and NORMA. She is waiting for us, having just returned from tennis. As we all know, life can change on a dime, and she needs transportation to the airport at 5:00 am the next morning. I think we have stayed more times in Norma's lovely home without her presence, than with her being here. So, after a steamy walk in the park, we turn in.

July 7

Norma delivered to airport, we take another walk around park, have breakfast and then take long naps. We have decided to stick around Louisville this rainy Tuesday, catch up on mail, and rest. Tomorrow we face the 'Sager Girls' and it will be non-stop for a month. See you down the road, have a happy and healthy summer. Karen

20150709 to sort and July 9, 2015 for most folks in USA.

Our drive from Louisville to Cary, NC, on the 8th was uneventful. The rains and green fields continued with us across the four States of Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and into North Carolina. Some of the horse farms for retired racing horse are inviting so must plan a trip and stop to see these. We arrived about 6:30 PM and the "girls" we up having just finished their showers. We had chili dinner with the family and a great deal of hugging from Madeline. Emily was a bit more questioning about who we were. Sort of looked familiar from the facetime sessions but not sure about in person persona.

I will post the photos of the 606 trail in Chicago (3) and publish to catch some of you up on this blog. I am going back to add some details on the B&B in Trinidad, CO. Such as email and address.

19 July 2015; 20150719



We have spent a week here in North Carolina, since the last update. Getting in 5 or 6 miles of walking most days with one day of over 9 so we are trying to stay up for the long one. Had a great visit with two friends from our Hawaii and Navy days. They came to visit in Cary so we spent a morning at the Sarah Duke Gardens in Durham. The gardens are next to the Duke Medical center and many patients and/or their families come to the gardens. We had a tour with Andy, an excellent knowledgeable guide and docent. The gardens are really flourishing with the rain and warm weather here.



We are reviewing the itinerary and Karen is reading the three books we have deciding what to condense on the Ipad so we only bring one with us. This results in questioning and rethinking the days we are where and the location of the rest days. I have used the google maps (www.maps.google.com) on my chromebook to get exact distances and directions from hostel to hostel at each stop. The walking feature shows the distance turns and times but alas I cannot verify that it is the actual camino routing. So if the book says 5 hours and google maps says 4 hours and 8 minutes, we have to resolve this (and usually do not) The dilemma is whether one studies all the possible variations and things to do in detail before planning and bookng the trip, thus leaving no time to actually do the booking; (Remember we are arranging all of this on our own) or does the booking and then from the detailed studying determines that some alternative would have been better but it requires so many changes to the itinerary it is out of the question to change it now.



Some more of the details of our planning may now be in order. We are using frequent flyer miles to fly from Raleigh/Durham (RDU) to Heathrow in London (LHR) we have four hours to transfer to the London Stansted Airport to catch our Ryan Air flight to Biarritz France. This is a separate booking so we have to clear customs in London, find the bus reserved for the transfer and check in for our flight on Ryan Air. If all this goes well we arrive in Biarritz about 5:30 pm and have a private transfer arranged to take us to St Jean Pied du Pont where we will spend two nights before beginning the Camino (walk) on the 20th of August. The Central Hotel in St Jean is also where Jo stayed before beginning her trip in April of 2014. She had arrived in St Jean earlier in the day having spent the night before in London. The difference in the arrival times for the flight from Las Vegas (LAS) direct to LHR and from RDU on the east coast. The fees for the two of us using Frequent Flyer miles on American were still $690. But we are in business class for the night flight over the Atlantic Ocean. A note about booking on Ryan Air that I discovered after making the first reservation. If you look at flights and prices, then go back at a later date and look again, the fares go up. If you clear your cookies on the browser and then get the fare quote again it will return to the original lower price if it is still many days away before your actually flights.



All for this night. More later.



5 August 2015

Our daily walks were interrupted by the Osgood family reunion. Up to the 31st we had walked for 9 consecutive mornings for distances of 5 to 9 miles depending on the events schedule for each day. On 31 July we drove for about 9 hours to The Montgomery Bell State Park in Tennessee. This park is about 45 minutes west of Nashville. It has 15 miles of trails, three lakes, and many acres of woods. The reunion was held in the Inn which has over 200 rooms and full conference facilities. The hosts for this reunion (number 10 we think since 1995, of the Clark and Florence Osgood family) were Rick and Penny Osgood, Karen's first cousin and wife. For those interested in the players roster, Karen's mother was on of the eleven children of Clark and Florence Osgood, whose home was Florence, Kansas. We had about 50 cousins of various levels in attendance.

So as I was saying our training walks were interrupted to attend the reunion. But after the All American Barbeque on Friday night we had an open day on Saturday so explored much of the park trails for about 4 hours. We had purchased a map for $2 of the park and trails so set out after breakfast buffet by looking for a path across the golf course for the trail that circumnavigated the park. At the club house we were informed that we could not walk across the golf course, but the two Marshalls could give us a ride of about a mile in their golf carts. (so much for walking for longer distances!) So we graciously accepted and began or walk on the M. Bell trail. After two miles or so we were back to the location of the BBQ the night before. A pause for water, as snack and on we went along the trails to the ore pits. Seems the park was an iron ore mine in the 1830's. The trees cut down for charcoal to run the smelter, have since recovered and the park is heavily forested. We met a few other of our reunion relatives on the walk. It is warm (spelled HOT) and humid in Tennessee and after 4 hours we were ready for a shower. At 4 PM on the 1st of August the customary auction of donated items from family members is used to raise funds for the next reunion. (It is planned to be held in Kansas near Florence in 2017.) This lively event with auctioneer Thad Osgood, master auctioneer and model of many of the finer items for sale lasted until dinner at 6:30 then resumed after dinner on until about 10 PM. I am told about $2600 was raised. The prize article was the actual windmill blade from the farm with two beautiful painted pictures of the family barn and farm house. Congratulations to Dennis Osgood who bought it and Sandi Osgood who painted it.

So we got in about 8 miles of walking in the heat and then on Sunday drove the 9 hours back to Cary. But not without a detour to Maggie Valley, NC. This is a bikers paradise, so we learned about it from our biker cousins as well as from travel industry friends of our daughter. Our stop was for lunch at the Cataloochee Ranch. It was a cool 73 degrees on the mountain between the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Smokey Mountains National Park. Lunch was outdoors overlooking the mountains and valleys with green grass, horse barns and lots of majestic trees. Karen and I found this as a potentially good spot for a relaxing family outing in 2016.

Back in Cary, NC, we have resumed our daily morning walks and are finding new nuances of discomfort in shoes, pads and socks; better here than on the Camino. The final verification of lodging for each night, getting banks notified of our travel out of the US and deciding on how we will use phones should we need them in Spain. Our friends, Ines and Inigo have suggested we buy a SIM card from MOVISTAR MOVIL and put in our phone or borrow one of theirs. This might be the best answer. The phone I usually carry I left in Nevada since I did not want to have the extra charger stuff with me - probably not a good decision. Will see about new super phones for photography and longer battery life next.

16 August 2015

The eve of our departure and the trauma of packing and determining how to get to less than 33 pounds in our bag. We will have carry on backpacks and two checked bags for the trip. Elimination is the name of the game to decide what is less essential. Oh, Marty Bouchard where are you now when we need you. We have detailed list of what is in the bag and have decided to eliminate instant ice packs. The concern that ice will NOT be available in Spain to nurture our aching feet is why they are there in the first place.

Next is the healthy supplements we are suppose to take to stay healthy. Have put as much as possible in ziplocks and eliminated bottles.

Also have made some last minute changes in accommodations for a couple of nights which means the itinerary, calendar, luggage transfer documents all have to be revised and reprinted. Now it is Sunday night and the european website is down! will try again in a few hours.

Karen said, "did you get this 'time to check in' email from Ryan Air?"

"No," I reply so I better look at it. Oh yes, must check in a print your boarding pass between 7 days and 2 hours before departure or have an extra charge or chance missing the flight. So glad I looked at it and printed the boarding passes. Several things I learned from this: I had set up reservation using Karen's not my email; I do not know what I did for the next Ryan Air leg from Santiago to Stansted but do now that I will need to print those boarding passes in Santiago or before; Good thing we went to church today to have this extra help in getting this right!

I was able to check in and get my boarding pass 7 days early on British Air. But, Karen's reservation number is different so she cannot use my American Gold Status since she is not on the same reservation. So I have my seats and she will not have her's until after 10 PM tonight as that is time of flight departure on BA from Philadelphia to London. We did this of course because we are using frequent flyer miles and I did not have enough miles for both of us in my account. Another lesson learned is to try and book under same reservation code to get the maximum benefits.

James and the girls will drop us off at the Raleigh airport after Madeline gets out of school at noon. We will have about 3 hours before our flight to Philadelphia. We confirmed these details while eating my birthday cake picked out by Madeline. It was delicious and a wonderful birthday with greetings from friends and relatives far and wide.

I believe we have covered all the Getting Ready stuff. So next blogs should be of the Actual Camino Trip. Had photos but no success in upload just now. May add later.

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Photos

Tarabino B&B, Trinidad, CO
The front of the house built in 1905. A two family home now the B&B.

Our Bed Room - Tarabino Inn - Trinidad, CO
One of two rooms on second floor. There are two more dormer rooms on third floor. A pet friendly suite on the first floor.

Old Kenneth Dickey Store
A view through the Glass of the old Ken Dickey store - Kim, CO

Collectors yard new store
Karen next to one of several old vehicles in lot adjacent to the old Kenneth Dickey store in Kim, CO

Kim Cemetery
Resting place of many of the Dickey ancestors

Organic Grass Fed Beef
The scene across south west Kansas and South east Colorado. They have had lots of rain in June. Near the Comanche National Grasslands.

Sara followed by Karen on the 606 trail
The 606 trail along an abandoned rail bed. 2.7 miles of linear congestion of any moving conveyance but the automobile.

Map of the 606
This shows the on and off and points of interest as well as the major cross street that the trail goes over in this area of Chicago.

Karen and Sara reading the map
Many of these along the way. Streets all have a sign as your cross over so you can determine where you are. Also every tenth of a mile is marked in both directions as well as the 1.35 midpoint of the trail.

Rosemarie and Betty at Sutton's Drug Store in Chapel Hill, NC
Where we had lunch after our tour of the Sarah P. Duke Gardens in Durham.

Comments

[Jo]

Camino de Santiago de Composteal - The Way
Can't wait to for you to begin the El Camino and to read your posts. Hope you enjoy the trail as much as did! It is truly an amazing experience.

[Toni Epler]

Safe travels
So glad you are on your way. Sounds like fun already. Be safe and have fun!!

[Mike and Marta Hurwitz]

Bon Voyage and Happy Trails
We wish you two a wonderful experience. Sorry we won't be traveling with you this time BUT we will be with you in spirit! And will be eagerly awaiting your updates. We can identify with the 'oops' of those unexpected last minute "Decisions and Revisions" and we trust things will settle down once you are on your way. Happy Birthday, Harlan, I'll bet you never imagined a walk of this magnitude would be the birthday present you'd be giving yourself in this decade of your life. May the good karma of your SCA friends go with you both.