The Call to the Camino

Sometime in 2002 I read a book about the Camino de Santiago. It was fascinating, but seemed a little manic. What I mean is that the person walking the Camino, Shirley MacLaine, did it in thirty days. For the next six years I made a point of walking just for the health of it, (and for our dogs). In July, 2008, I saw a small footnote in a popular free monthly magazine about a couple in their early sixties who had just finished the Camino in 59 days. That was it....a message...I can do that.
So my Camino began...I was so excited at the prospect of walking the entire width of northern Spain that I told my friend, Kathy, who I was meeting that day when I arrived in Santa Rosa. We didn't know much about it so we went to a book store and a library in Sonoma County. When we asked the reference librarian to point us in the direction of any books on the Camino de Santiago she immediately lit up and said, "I have walked the Camino and want to do it again". Another message. We left there with enough information to go online and get the books that we needed. In the meantime I checked with a travel agent to see how feasible it was going to be to actually afford the round trip fare. What I concluded was that I couldn't afford not to go.
My favorite mantra is...I still have my mind and body, why not do it?
*map and more at: http://www.santiago-compostela.net/frances/index_cf_en.html