Buen Camino

We've heard from Kary!

"Well no duh, you all live like five minutes away from each other, right?"

Yes, we do, but for those who don't know, my brother, who has never even flown before, is currently in Spain on the Camino de Santiago, (The Way of Saint James), with himself, a journal and whomever he meets along the way. I know a lot of people do this pilgrimage alone, but I can't imagine tramping around Europe on my own, let alone 40 days and 40 nights of it. (No, he did not do that on purpose.)

My hat is off to him. And, before you ask, yes, I'm jealous but he already knows that. So far his adventure has been, how shall I say this, memorable.

His flights were supposed to go from Fresno, to Denver, to Chicago, to Paris; unfortunately Chicago was shut down that day and he ended up having to spend the night in Colorado. Thankfully a college buddy of his lives in Denver and was able to put him up for the night, so it wasn't a totally loss.

Because Kary was willing to wait, he got bumped up to first class on his flight from Colorado to New York. From there he caught a plane to Spain. Not even out of the country and he's already had a less than desired travel experience. But the tale doesn't end there, oh no.

Once in Spain he had to travel north to the start of the Camino, (remember he was originally landing in Paris). He solved this problem through a series of buses, which was great, until he got off the bus without his backpack. Unfortunately before he could reboard, the bus has took off, he chased it for 25 minutes before finally giving up.

He's somewhere in Spain, still not on the Camino, and his backpack with all his stuff in it is gone. I cannot speak for my brother, personally I would have been panicking like crazy. Eventually Kary decided the only thing he could do was continue to make his way up north, and caught a bus for his next stop. There, waiting for him at the next bus station on a bench was his backpack with everything in it.For those of you who haven't heard it before, this is what I call a 10 Cent Miracle. The Camino has lots of them, heck, getting stranded in the one city that had a college friend available to put him up for the night falls into this category too. 

Now he is actually on the Camino, and has been packing in the miles to try to make up for the delays. I don't know what else the next month holds but so far it's been one heck of an adventure. And I for one can't wait to hear the next chapter of this story.

Buen Camino my brother.

vaya con Dios