July 31st / Tuesday / Paris, France

Hello everyone...I think I may have forgotten how to use a computer it's been so long. I still have not mastered the French keyboard but no matter I will be home, yes...home in a few more days. There's no place like home, I'm clicking the heels of my beautiful sparkling red shoes together...there's no place like home...there's no place like home. Marc has shared with you why I am still in Paris, I'll be well to fly home on Thursday. I now understand why I was so very tired when I shouldn't have been. On this journey I've mastered another level of intuition, for those interested ask when I return. Genevieve & Bernadette went to visit their niece today and wanted me to come along but I declined since I really wanted to rest and take a walk. They needed to travel by Metro (train)for one hour maybe a little longer because the train they normally take had a closed section, they will be back in a couple of hours. Nicole left yesterday (Monday) morning as planned. While waiting for the taxi yesterday morning that Genevieve arranged the prior day nicole and I had some soft & hard chuckles watching my wonderful French Ladies...I'm guessing the French are serious worrier's and I thought it was just my mom. The two of them took turns pursing their lips together then making the sound puh, puh, puh, nodding their heads sideways because the taxi was not there yet...he was to arrive at 9 am, it was 9:03; this continued for another 20 mins. (I should mention that after seeing the Doctor on Sunday at Genevieve's home I was told I absolutely could not fly home, it was the law! To make a long story short-Genevieve had called the Taxi 3 times...1)to pick up 2 people 2)pick up only 1 person)3)pick up 2 people... we decided not to call them back and make matters worse)...now to continue with the story, Nicole & I were silently laughing our hearts out while sharing eye contact. After much puhhing Genevieve had had it and returned to her 6th floor apt to call the company...upon her return she was thoroughly disgusted; the taxi man had been arrested - for speeding! Oh my gosh, I could not contain my laughter any longer! Laughing at this time with bronchitus & asthma was difficult for me but I could not stop! Laughter was pouring out of me. Life Is Good. I see humor around every corner on this journey and I'm loving it. Genevieve had called another Taxi which would arrive in 5-30 mins; again both women are standing at the wrought iron doors to their apt complex with folded arms, anxious, worried faces, knodding from side-side continuously with many more puh's! Nicole & I are busting up, sitting across a full side-side ceiling-floor mirror looking at ourselves and laughing more; couldn't have been a better send off in the continuing saga of Nicole & AriZona fashion. I was trying to document this with a picture but while I was doing so...the taxi was pulling around the corner...hurry! hurry! Nicole, the taxi is here! Hurry; more laughter as we finish taking the picture just as they rush in the two steps to make sure we are coming. I thought there was a disaster somewhere with all the seriousness. Can you hear me laughing through this letter? I am grinning from ear to ear. I don't believe I will get another chance alone as they believe it is too dangerous and would want to be by my side, protecting me & with love. They are wonderful and so very kind to take care of me since I could not leave. They are truly the doting Aunties. I shall be at this computer for a short while and would love to hear from anyon. I Love and Miss You All...slowly walking the streets of Paris, the sun is shining, I just took off my long sleeve light top and now enjoying my sleeveless tank top. LIFE IS GOOD everywhere I look. Lots of Love - AriZona

In Paris a Few More Days

Marc here again-

AriZona has come down with acute asmatic bronchitis. Her Doctor in Paris told her she can't fly until Thursday. After much consternation and hours on the phone with US Airways, she will be arriving at 8:35 PM on Thursday.

There was only one seat available, so Nicole is headed home now and will arrive this evening. It's sad they couldn't finish the final leg of their great adventure together, but both will be home in their own beds soon.

Marc

Paris

Marc Here.

It's a summer Saturday in Paris, so AZ and Nicole are doing it like true Parisians...Going to the Countryside. Some Fountain Hills friends go to to (his) Benoit's family summer home for the summer. The girls are riding the train to Benoit and Patty's, spending the night and then headed back to Paris on Sunday for the finish of the Tour de France.

They will spend Sunday Night with Jenvieve and Bernadette and then catch the plane home on Monday, July 30. AZ doesn't know if she will get another chance to blog for a few days.

They will have been gone for 53 days. Walked over 600 miles. A remarkable accomplishment. Never did I dream at this age, I would be living with a 55 year old hot babe athelete. Neither did I think of living with such a wonderful soul and who continually oozzes happiness. Twenty-five dammed good years we will have been married on August 13. I'm a very lucky man, and I salute you AriZona, the love of my life. Yes, you are right...Life Is Good.

ILY

Marc

July 23 - Bayonne, France

Hello everyone...we are doing well, having a wonderful visit with Franciosé & Jean-Marc and, all their wonderful friends. they are extremely gracious hosts, picking us up at the train station, creating fabulous french meals; franciosé taking us to lunch with co-workers trying out their English and then spending the afternoon with Jean-Marc on the beaches in Barritz and later more friends and franciosé's sister, Kati- spelling? and eating dinner. this morning nicole and i are in Bayonne exploring this wonderful city which i dearly loved in 2002 while both Franciosé & Jean-Marc are at work; meeting Franciosé at noon with Jean-Marc picking us up at 3pm. we have much to share with all who want to know but it won't be on the french keyboard for my blog, the letters are placed differently and really slows me down. tomorrow, July 26th-Thurs. we will be heading north to Paris via the TGV train. i'm excited to visit our friends in Paris and nearby Paris and...i'm really looking forward to seeing my wonderful marc once again and, our grandson Tyler who is visiting in Arizona from the state of WA...there's no place like home. i haven't counted the days but i think it will be 7 weeks upon returning home. i don't believe i will have an opportunity to be on the computer-only thru tonight...yes, i will check for any news from anyone later tonight. I Love each and everyone one of you, thank you for letting me share this adventure with you, it's been fun. Bonjour - LIFE IS GOOD - AriZona home on July 30th

Santiago - Hendaye, Spain

Sunset in Finisterre: imagine this...we finished eating dinner about 9:30 pm and knew we needed to hurry up to the lighthouse to catch the sunset; it is a 40 min. walk. neither of us wanted to go for a walk but on the other hand we did want to go to the lighthouse, the end of the world. in nicole and arizona fashion we needed to do some fast walking, i mean realllly fast. the sunsets here in spain are around 10 pm. as usual there was an old woman who pointed to her watch probably telling us we needed to hurry. gracias, and start running some more. nicole and i love to challenge each other saying silly things like: i can walk faster than you; i´ll push you over the hill if you don´t move it; both of us can´t walk side by side, move it; i´m younger than you i can walk faster, laughing i of course zoom ahead; then nicole is running her tiny little feet faster and making me laugh even more; cars are passing and we´ll say something like...great can´t you see we´re pilgrims and offer us a ride...haven´t we walked far enough...laughing more, asking what would we do if someone stopped and offered a ride, laugh some more..knowing we would not get in a car when we are so very close to finishing the camino and touching the last milestone marker. well, you get the point; we don´t take things seriously and laugh a lot! when we get to the top it is just about dark and really don´t notice a sunset. we take a couple of pictures of ourselves and someone else then walk further on to the point, more pic´s. it´s at this point nicole wants me to take a picture and i tell her i can´t because i have to go to the bathroom, i really have to go. she tells me there aren´t any people around you can go there, or there. i look at her and say i´m not going to the bathroom in a bush...here, you´ve got to be kidding. it´s getting dark and i can´t tell who is nearby and it isn´t the appropriate place to go as we have done all along the camino...it´s what a pilgrim does. i tell her i have to find a place, i run and notice the lighthouse restaurant and gift shop still has its lights on...i run to the door, it´s locked...i knock and a man opens the door and i plead as best i can in spanish to use the aseo; he lets me in, gracias. outside it´s really getting dark, i softly yell...nicole...again...nicole, no answer. i can´t see and don´t figure she is still out at the point so i head back to the main area where the road starts to go down...nicole...no answer. great, i don´t know where she is and she didn´t know where i ran off to. i see two guys that may have seen the two of us together but they say they didn´t see anyone else down at the point. i´m starting to wonder if she decided to start walking back to the hotel thinking i did the same. problem was, we both had black shirts on, the only thing light was my hair. the two guys ask as best they could in english if they could help...yes, yes please. so we start back down to the point, i´m getting a little anxious not knowing where she might be. while walking i´m saying nicole, nicole...where are you. finally i say nicole and she answered...she had been waiting down at the point where i last saw her. we were both a little anxious not having anything like this happen during our entire trip...very interesting...i decided we need to have a reflector tape of some sort on our clothing so we could see. the two guys gave us a ride down the mountain to our hotel, gracias. we weren´t laughing and hopefully we learned something. a long story i know and i hope you were laughing as you imagined the situation...so it wasn´t the great sunset we imagined but yet we had a great time until it got dark. LIFE IS GOOD.

tomorrow morning on july 22nd we are leaving by train to hendaye, spain not far from france. we´ll spend the night in hendaye and the next morning (july 23rd) go to lourdes, france where we´ll spend the day and then take another train later that afternoon to bayonne to stay with our wonderful friends francoise and jean-marc.

on july 25th we´ll take the TGV train to Paris here we will stay with our neighbors mother (genvieve, and aunt bernadette) for one night. on the 27th we will take the metro (train) to friend´s who live in fountain hills and are in france during our stay. they´ve invited us to their family home where they have a large family (i believe) and a planned activity...putting on a new roof on the farm house...i´m really excited, i brought my work gloves and ready to pitch in. we´ll leave patti and benoit´s either the night of the 28th or morning of the 29th to go back to genvieve´s. nicole and i will try to get in a quick trip to paris and spend the night with my wonderful french ladies then leaving the morning of the 30th to catch the plane from paris to philadelphia. we´ll arrive in the evening around 8:30 pm. that is our agenda so i´ll write very soon as i still want to be in touch. Love to Everyone...ILY...LIFE IS GOOD...Have Fun...AriZona

Onward to Finisterre...July 17, 18....arriving July 19th

Here i am in my favorite place...Fisterra as it is known in Spain. why it has two names i don´t know. leaving Santiago on the morning of july 17th took awhile. nicole gifted me with a book i discovered when we were in sarria for finisterre which gave different directions than the old route i took in 2002. it took awhile to figure it out, i´m one for always taking a different route but, the route took us through the university instead of getting us on our way - it was okay, but i preferred starting on the road to finisterre because i just love it! to me, the road to finisterre isn´t the camino, although it is perceived as such. there is more time to reflect. in the book nicole gifted me Ä Pilgrim´s GD to the Camino Fisterra¨ there are many quotes and reflections which add to my own thoughts. Quote: I feel that our progress towards the goal will be in exact proportion to the purity of our means. -Mahatma Gandhi
besides giving practical info what is particulary interesting to me is the daily insights , such as...

Day 1: we are surrounded by trivia. there is much to distract us from the inner path, but what profit is there in the outward journey if it is not accompanied by expanded awareness? a pilgrim must travel on two paths simultaneously. the tourist will look for the stone altar, the pilgrim an altered state. the one seeks sacred sites the other in-sight. will you make time today for contemplation and reflection? will you rebuild the bridge to the source of your own inner knowing? as Ralph Waldo Emerson reminds us in Essays of the Over-Soul, ¨The faith that stands on authority is not faith.¨

Day 2: Quote: as a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death. -Leonardo da Vinci Insight: we generally experience death and dying as unwelcome visitors. yet to be born anew we must first allow our old, outworn perceptions die. over identification with out physical bodies limits our understanding of who we really are and induces fear. we need to let go of many of our old and cherished beliefs in order that we can become part of the New. a strong heart helps us climb the mountains of life and lifts us out of the mundane world. Quote: Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone...Kindness in another´s trouble...Courage in our own -Ye Wearie Wayfarer, -Adam Lindsay Gordon

Day 3: Whither your goal? what higher purpose brought you thus far? without a vision quest we are lost indeed. to walk through this life without a spiritual intention is to travel down a cul-de-sac with only our own mortality waiting at the end. what awaits you at your journey´s end? to walk the inner path with a pure motive and openness of mind is to journey on an endless spiral upwards to the source of owr own immortality. will you take time today to reflect on the purpose of your life and the means of fulfilling it?

i have much to contemplate. on the last day of my walk towards Finesterre my feet hurt very little, not worth thinking about. knowing my feet knew this last day´s journey well as did my heart and soul. it is the end of this journey for me but, a new beginning as well. tonight we will go to the lighthouse (the end of the world) to see the sunset. i will write more but i don´t want to miss a single moment...tomorrow we leave to go back to Santiago. ILY AriZona

Finisterre Finale

Marc Here. Arizona an Nicole finished their 600 mile journey arriving in Finisterre around 7:00 PM on July 19. A wonderful day to end a wonderful walk. What an accomplishment. Great Job to both you and Nicole. AZ will blog tomorrow. I Love You Babe.

Day ? / Santiago - Finisterre

We´re not finished yet...leaving tomorrow morning for Finisterre taking the next three days to get there. It has been raining hard off/on here in Santiago for the past two days and don´t know what the weather will bring us. But we are tried and true Pilgrims´and can deal with what ever is before us. I am sad to say I have no idea what kind of communication there will be for the next three days but soon you will hear from me (us). I need to leave so we can get some sleep for our next journey and more stories. put in the good word to the weather gods for us please. LIFE IS GOOD....AriZona Thank you everyone, for all the wonderful support and messages along the way. Sweet Dreams, or should I say, Have a Fun Day!

S A N T I A G O !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! July 15, 2007

okay everyone you´d laugh so hard if you watched nicole and i entering Santigo! AMAZING RACE fans are you ready.......we left monte do gozo (a 45 min. walk to the edge of Santiago, and 1 hr. to the church) this morning at 11:15 and needed to be at the church for the Pilgrim´s Mass at Noon...we did it with two minutes to spare and laughing, literally running, grinning from ear to ear because we knew the Amazing Race cameras we covering the pilgrims. letting out a few wooo hooo´s, okay, maybe a little more than that to cars driving by and they returning smiles, some locals pointing to their watches reminding us of the Pilgrim´s Mass which made us dash even more....passing more pilgrim´s´encouraging them to quicken their steps and hopefully forgetting their tired and weary bodies......Wooooo Hoooooo! the mass was just starting, nicole and i had our packs on and trekking poles in hand; nowhere to stash them as we silently tried to squeeze our bulky selves into a place where we could hear the pilgrim´s prayer and possibly see the cystern swing ever so galantly across the church. i missed seeing this in 2002 and did not want to miss it again. the cystern in ancient times was used to help ease the the smell of the pilgrim´s for the locals and priests. i must say i can´t wait to get this pack off my back because even i cannot stand the smell! it´s okay to laugh because i do, every morning and every evening. yes, i say my prayers waiting for this moment. i have no idea what will happen on the plane home, they may have a special section for the pilgrim´s.

i found my old haunt, the cyber cafe that i loved dearly when last in Santiago. thank goodness not too much change here for this old pilgrim. i welcome change, but i have to say i do delight in remembering and going directly to my favorite places....i still have my memory intact! Woooo Hoooo!

the Camino has a special way of taking care of every need, it has never failed me. after hunger pangs struck nicole and i, we started searching for pasta....out of thousands of people the first person i asked was a pilgrim i´ve seen a couple times since arriving this morning (this was after we searched the city for pasta), she pulled out her Santiago map and told us exactly where to go. Nicole and I had the biggest smiles as we dashed off and then turned around to give a thumb´s up and saying thank you as they watched us, also laughing. LIFE IS GOOD! We are now full and happy once again acknowledging how the Camino takes care of us. and now, i´m typing away to all those i love.

Thank you Marc & Cindy for letting everyone know the pilgrim´s were okay and not to worry. we didn´t stop at the normal albergue´s like the majority of pilgrim´s so this threw us off not knowing if there were computers or telephones...i´m hoping i took good notes for next year. next year? did i just say that...i get delirious at times i´ve warned you. okay, i´ll think about it.

we´ve had a wonderful, often tiring journey, but an unforgetable one so far; either tomorrow or Tuesday we will start on our last leg of this pilgrimage...another three day´s walk to Finisterre, Spain....aka: the end of world as known to Christopher Columbus. this is my favorite indiana jone´s part of the camino...so, i´m hoping there won´t be any changes in that part of the world...if there is, i´ll deal with it and hopefully see it with new eyes.

i had another treat today. i haven´t reread my blogs so i don´t know if i´ve already mentioned this. when nicole and i were in molineseca turning a corner there was a young woman who turned the same corner at the same moment as we did. without hesitation i walked up to her and touched her arm and said....i know you...you were in finisterre in 2002...we met and walked together from the lighthouse. of this i was positive, but how could that be...here, now...five years later. she is here in spain at the same moment in time as i am. incredible! she just looked at me and said, no. yes, i say in 2002...you were. she looks again, starts to say no then realizes yes she was there. she looks at me and i know the moment she recognized me. what are the chances of that occuring? we decided to meet today at the church for the pilgrim´s mass, she would be with her father. we came in a different door of the church and did not see her. as i said the Camino takes care of me...later, in another part of town while nicole was on the phone with her mom, i was sitting on a stone ledge of a fountain listening to the water, admiring the people and my surroundings...when i hear, AriZona! yes, it was Vanessa...destiny. i wonder what is in store for the two of us, this was not just a chance meeting...this is destiny, she agrees. she has a radiant energy that i still love and can´t wait getting to know her for longer than a day. i love life! i´ll end this blog and work my way backwards for a day or two, i don´t have my journal with me. it is very difficult to remember what happened when and where. after doing this kind of journey it´s difficult for everyone we encounter including ourselves to carry on a detailed conversation that is even within a couple of day´s walk. it´s difficult to imagine but it is true. you have one goal... have food, water, sleep, a way to hand wash your clothes and, get to your day´s destination. simple, but at times challenging. ILY (in case you´ve forgotten: I Love You) LIFE IS GOOD....AriZona

morning of the 30th Day - Sarria to Portomarin for the moment

we left Sarria at 8:30 this morning. already extremely tired from a few days of hard walking not wanting to lift one foot and then then the other; the fog only adds to the confusion we are feeling. nicole has this little laugh when she´s tired which makes me laugh each time i hear it...heh, heh or mmm then a little laugh. when we are this tired it doesn´t take much to set us off laughing because we are slowly moving, but still moving. a cow just mooed and nicole said, ¨did you hear that?¨ Hear what? the cow mooed she said. I told her then moo if it makes you feel better...then she did her little laugh and again we laughed. a little further on walking around a corner we see a blue triangle (as a child we used to draw houses with triangle tops, just like this) topped telephone booth in a field next to a single house so we decided to make a couple of quick phone calls since it was going to be another big day for us. while nicole is making her phone call i´m standing around when also in a field not far from the telephone a coke machine surrounded by weeds clicks on...i start laughing...really, it´s in the middle of nowhere. after nicole got off the phone she shared with me a comment her mom made to her...are you carrying food? OUR RULES now: NO MORE CARRYING FOOD! we don´t use it often times and it just adds too much weight. one thing we both decided since leaving o´cebriero...it was NOT the last big climb! i´m thinking nicole will forever more need therapy if she ever hears the words Ït´s close¨again! I´m not kidding. well, this is it, we need to head out it is now 6:10 pm and the days are coming to a close for santiago but then another three long days to finisterre. i will let marc know when we can be in front of a cam in santiago waiving a sign or something in front of nicole and i so you can tell it is us saying ¨Hello¨ to all of you. Lots and Lots of Love...AriZona
p.s. if anyone would like to view nicole´s blog site it is....www.whereintheworldisnicolez.blogspot.com there you can see a picture of what nicole looks like and view her comments of our journey.

28th Day - 7-11-07 / Triacastela - Sarria

We had a good day of walking. the morning was cloudy, cool and the birds were chirping somewher in the thick bushes and trees which lined our road; several brooks were babbling over rocks and underneath grasses, we could hear it - just not see it. the dew was still sitting on the plant leaves. there were two groups of four people - one group in front and one behind us. we all started climbing with lots of heavy breathing. we were in god´s country (heaven), trees covered with vines curling up into their tree tops, grass , more trees; there were many hues of green. as our daughter chanda wonce said (in third grade) heading back home to boise, id from seattle, we asked her what she thought about us moving to seattle and living there: she rested her head on her hands that laid on the long front seat of our ´85 chevy suburban, Ï´m in Heaven! she sang. marc and i looked at each other and burst out laughing. it was a fun trip for us even after we had vehicle problems shortly after leaving boise headed to seattle.

back to my story...still climbing, i feel as wet as the plants appear to be. the mountains are testing our climbing abilities once again as are the cow pies. everywhere i look there are windows of opportunity; i often see a window looking through plants, trees, doorways it doesn´t matter...i also call these portals. while walking i just envisioned groups of people, family and friends gathered in many different places, cheering nicole and i on as we reach our goal...cameras on as we reach the steps of santiago...justas in the Amazing Race comes close to finishing. all you Amazing Race fanatics know the exhileration of this feet (wink, wink). later in the day i run as best i could with back pack, trekking poles on angled jutting rocks, sometimes slippery with mud, down a darkened path with rock wall sides covered with plants. i was happy as a 5 year old child once again only in a _ _ year old body. i played well today in areas that would slow others down, wow it was fun! on to the next story...our time again is short...it is 5:50 pm and we still need to walk another 5 or 6 kms. we´ve had another hard day of walking. AriZona

27th Day of Walking - 7/10/07 / O´ Cebriero - Triacastela

hello everyone, i´m baaack for now anyway. we arrived in tracastela about 5pm. the walk into triacastela was one of beauty: walking through a tunnel of trees lined on both sides and curving inward at their tops creating their ¨tunnel¨. walking on a dampened dirt path winding down and down into the village. from above in the mountains the village looks large but when walking through it and following our yellow arrows not much is seen. found a new albergue which was very nice. we had a dinner of meat, fries, salad and one egg...the spanish have a thing about eggs and what they go with (very strange to me). I had a nice comfortable bed (not a bunk) about 2 feet underneath a window; nicole had a bottom bunk. another woman was also in our room, from sweden; she must be 6 ft. tall in her late sixties (?), very nice and beautiful with beautiful grey hair. we won´t be seeing her again as she is taking another route and is going slower; she did this walk with her daughter 2 yrs. ago.

leaving Wednesday morning 7-11-07... sitting in a bar waiting for ¨Running of the Bulls¨to be televised @ 8 am in Pamplona. had toast and coal cao (2-for mikayla) for breakfast. i just finished telling nicole if i were here by myself i´d wait until 8 am to watch the Bulls run; that was okay with her...we were ready to leave about 7:30. When in spain do as the spainards do. we now have seven minutes....police are in front of a crowd of men singing a song with arms and fists swaying to the words of the song. fireworks, cameras...bulls let loose 10 or 12. bulls are oblivious, people get trampled by the people; three people knocked down by horns, one man trapped under the bulls´legs when the bull turned and purposely trapping him with all four legs - the man is probably hurt - the bull looked like he might´ve been stepping on him (purposely) as he turned. other people who were running with the bulls turned back to distract the bull so the man could free himself. this worked as the bull started running forward again while the man crawled off to the side. later that day we heard he might´ve been hurt seriously, don´t really know for sure. what crazy people. going on to the next day...stay tuned AZ

I Don´t Know What Day We Are On!

Wow, i think it´s been about five days since i´ve been able to write and very hard to remember each day where we´ve been or what happened but i´ll give it a try. i don´t have time to reread what i wrote last because pilgrims are waiting to use the one available computer at the albergue. when leaving rabanal del comaino we headed to moleneseca (July 8th); soon on the road as we were climbing up to a road a photographer was waiting for us (Beatrice-photographer for olympus) and wanted to take our pictures. they gave her a new camera to try out on the camino; pictures might be available sometime on olympus photographers diary. when coming to into a villiage that was at the end of a very difficult day of descending rocks jutting up from every angle. at the very last step (of course) i told nicole to watch where she was going because she just mentioned her knees were aching when....i stepped down and my foot took off from underneath me, hitting my face into a rock and then the funny part...my pack rolled me over and i couldn´t get up. nicole reached out her hand to me and i said just a sec...okay...i got up and couldn´t stop laughing; in fact we both laughed very hard all the way into town. sometimes you just have to be there. we arrived in ponferrada also on the 8th and discovered a festival which we stayed for but nothing ever really happened while we were there; we did manage to spot a tex-mex restaurant where i had a margarita...LIFE IS GOOD. i don´t have much time, i´ll share some moments inside an albergue as evening approaches:a young guy just put on some sort of menthal creme which really smells and then he starts coughing. an older couple below his bunk and next to him offier him a throat losenge. plastic bags rustling, zippers opening and closing on packs, whispering, sleeping bags rustling, a dorr to the room opens and closes often, things going in and out of a pack, cell phone lights come on, 26 beds squeezed into a tiny second floor room. the old man yells something at everyone and gets up and slams the door shut. i get down from my upper bunk to give the old couple ear pugs-he must not want to use them because they are still talking loud and trying to control the group with the sounds that are going on in the room. two high windows are open one at each end of the room letting in a nice breeze and maybe taking some pilgrim smells along with the breeze. someone is already snoring. the old man is very agitated when someone opens the door even if quietly because it isn´t closed all the way. the woman next to me was with us in our albergue last night (she and her friend were quite noisy leaving this morning) , she is texting a message, tap..tap...tap. the trees (poplar?) are blowing in the wind, it might be chilly in the morning. nicole was already in bed when a young guy came in and said her bed was his-she had to move-luckily someone had just vacated another bed. more people coming into the room, same noises, the old man upset. it is 10:32 pm....GOOD NIGHT ahhhh, the night life of a pilgrim. yesterday we had a very difficult climb into o´cebreiro, very difficult and were exhausted when we got there, but the view breathtaking almost a 360 degree view. there is a cross that stands alone on a hill above o´cebriebo where pilgrims pound coins into crevices of the wood. i put a coin in and said a prayer for many people in my life. need to get going so i´ll be quick. it´s difficult to type when everyone wants to use the computer. maybe i better quit. i´ll write more soon, only 5 more days until Santiago! then another 3 days walk to Finisterre. to be continued...i read so many e-mails today and cried, thank you for sharing your lives with me, you have no idea what it means. SWEET DREAMS....Know that we are okay, aches and pains are gone. speaking of which, awhile ago i mentioned many aches and pains in a blog...this was only to let everyone know what goes on with us...the good and the not so good, they were just a couple of days...don´t think this is what we feel on a daily basis, right now we are just dog dead tired...we´ve been walking a very long time. LIFE IS GOOD. Love to all, AriZona

Our Pilgrims are Fine

AZ and Nicole are doing fine. Computers have not been plentiful over the last several days. I got a message from AZ last night. They were leaving O' Cebero, about 95 miles from Santiago and it's down hill the rest of the way. Then they head another 60 miles to Fisterra, the edge of the world when Columbus was a kid. I'll let her tell the stories (and she has more wonderful stories), just keeping you informed. God! I Love that Woman!

Marc

21st Day / Leon - Mazarife

ONLY 10 more days of walking and we will be in Santiago! Wooooo Hooooo! when leaving leon early this morning approx. 8 am a man in his 40´s on a bike was followed by his son. i have not seen a child do the camino this young. later, the boy and his father stopped so the boy could take a rest from climbing the hills. the father told me they had started 8 days ago in Dux (sp?), France - traveling to santiago and then back! this boy is 10 years old! i can not imagine this kind of journey for someone so young. the father spoke good english, his son did not. next year in school he will take one hour a day to study english. Buen Camino.
heather and david from reno, nevada suggested we come to villar de mazarife, good choice, great walk felt like we could be in africa. the landscape gave us this impression. large trees surrounded by wheat colored weeds, leaves were a rich dark green with dark brown bark. i´ve never seen this kind of tree. far, far into the horizon i could faintly see a mountain range. the sky was a vivid blue, a blue so rich it seemed to hold one down, an occassional chestnut brown plowed field, today´s walk was enjoyable. a very long stretch, it felt different like walking on a plateau, higher than surrounding lands although i could not see that far to know for sure. the dirt road was easy to walk on, very few rocks, easier on the feet. i am laying int the top bunk above nicole and am very tired. i have ear plugs in so i can hear and feel the places in my body pulsing. i feel pressure in temples, my toes are pulsing in the areas that are very tender, at times a slight burn in my hips as i sleep on my side. i chose not to get a new pair of orthodics, my arch in my left foot burns with pain as i walk and rest, my heels ache from worn padding in my boots. my neck aches from pillows too high, my neck and shoulders ache from an ill fitted pack. i´m only adding these last comments regarding body so you can actually understand what it´s like. i am weary but happy. soon we will have vegetable paella with peppe at the albergue.
we just finished dinner that peppe and his family made for us and it was ohhhh sooo fine! we had paella, crusted bread, ensalada mixta with oil and vinegar, and fruit-sliced apples, oranges and honeydew melon and wine or water. thank you heather and david for suggesting this intimate and most delightful albergue. we are now going to bed, good night or as in your case good morning! tomorrow we will walk to astorga. LIFE IS GOOD...AriZona

4th of July

We had WATERMELON!!!!!! Woooooo Hoooooo! HAPPY 4TH EVERYONE, WE´RE THINKING OF EVERYONE! We are leaving early in the morning before the town wakes up. we just went shopping for our journey tomorrow as there will be a stretch where there won´t be anything available for food. we are going a different way a tip from heather and dave from reno, nevada....we will be walking to mazarife and see Pepe at the albergue. LIFE IS GOOD....LIFE IS GOOD! AriZona

Still in Leon

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY everyone! this morning nicole and i walked across town and had a hamburger, fries and coke in honor of all the good food everyone will be having today at home. nicole and i bought some t-shirts, hers is red & mine light blue and darker blue striped. our stars and fireworks we are wearing in the form of much needed lotion which which sparkles, we didn´t notice this until we were in the sun, of course we laughed and thought it appropriate. didn´t find any watermelon, but we are in the spirit! Be Safe and again HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! We will resume walking tomorrow morning when all of you are sound asleep. I Love You All....LIFE IS GOOD....AriZona

p.s. thank you heather and dave, we decided to stay one more day in leon and are leaving tomorrow (july 5th) morning and will take the way you suggested to mazarife. i´m sure we´ll see you soon. if you want to post another blog just click on comment & annonymous. LIFE IS GOOD, AriZona

21st Day / Leon - Still in Leon

i can´t believe or remember from 2002 what having a day off from walking can do for the body and spirit. i feel great today and ready to start on the Camino de Santiago tomorrow, bright and early. i´m getting excited as i always do as a new adventure unfolds. today as i was showing leon to nicole everything came back to me; i remembered my favorite places, it´s just so thrilling for me to take a few steps and remember where my feet want to take me (new & old places)....it´s the adventure! i don´t feel i´m in a foreign country; no matter where i´ve been it all feels so familiar and i´ve been to many places here in spain that i haven´t been to before...next stage...learn the language, it´s more important to me than ever. i owe it to all the wonderful guys who we are fortunate enough to have work for us (marc & I refer to them as our amigos)and love them. in the cyber cafe we are at they are playing the greatet music from my life (since i was a little girl and, my mom would play the stereo so loud the next block could rock with her- thank you mom, ILY) i´m sitting here just dying to dance, smiling and rocking to the music! oh yeah, my heart is full. i´m talking really old songs, like-sweet talkin´guy; leader of the pack: under the boardwalk; i found my thrill on blueberry hill; hey venus; in the still of the night; and many many more, i am wanting to dance!!!!!!! no celebrations at this time in leon, although i think we may have missed one; as nicole and i entered leon yesterday morning we saw remnants of confetti strewn in many places; i think spain knows how to celebrate. oh, yesterday morning while eating breakfast nicole spotted a poster that told us there was a bull fight that very night. so we asked where the bull fight was and the two spanish men told us many km´s away, too far. they knew we were pilgrim´s and i didn´t think about it until we were well on our way but we could´ve taken a bus to where we came from to see the bull fight and then take the bus back to start walking again where we stopped. that was a great idea and if the situation arises again we´ll be on a bus to see the bull fight. it´s our journey and we can make it whatever we want, and we are loving it; pain, joy everything. LIFE IS GOOD. tomorrow morning we will be on our way once again. tomorrow will take us to Villadangos Del Paramo, 21.8 km. we now have a map of the elevations; tomorrow we will be " 800 meters. Stay tuned for the next days´adventure of nicole and arizona. Hola from Spain - AriZona

Great Story

Greetings from Marc.

I am loving having Arizona paint pictures of Spain in my mind. Thank-you Sweetheart.
Here is a journal entry AZ sent to me. Enjoyable to the last word. ILY

nicole has been typing for about an hour and i´m so physically tired i was starting to get impatient. luckily a man came in earlier and asked how long she would be on then told him i would be using it next and be on for an hour. i was laying on some chairs with a blanket to make it comfortable while waiting but i realized i wanted to sleep.

i have 7 toes covered with moleskin, bought some here in spain but it is worthless and seems cheap. i got lucky when a young guy and gal from reno, nevada came and got beds next to us. we got to visiting and then talked about the things we use for our injuries; i told them about my moleskin and about spain´s moleskin and they told me they had tons. at first i declined and they insisted, so i said i´d buy some from them. oh no, we have a gallon size of moleskin, we´ll just give you some; okay we´ll talk later.

i´m so tired i´m not even washing my clothes tonight, just a shower and that´s it. let me tell you about last night´s stay at the albergue: since we were abviously the only pilgrim´s that stayed in this albergue for a very long time as all the people in this village seemed to come out of places just to check us out. when we arrived there was a note on the door to go to the XANADO bar to pick up the key: that should´ve been our first clue.

we went to the bar which was very dirty with a little language difficulty we got a key and two cokes. when leaving the bar there were several young men sitting outside in a patio area of the bar, as we walked away someone clapped (second clue) and we went away raising our eyebrows with wide eyes.

the albergue was across the street at a very nice local park, we felt we were on display. when we opened the metal door, again we raised our eyebrows with wide eyes and laughed. it looked as though no one had slept there in a hundred years. as i said we felt we were on display, we didn´t know what to do. i told nicole i´m glad she was along i think it would´ve been too spokey for me to stay alone, we laughed and agreed for both of us.

if we left it would be another 6 km´s and didn´t know it was too late. we decided to stay. honey, it was weird. no place to eat, luckily we had a food, olives, chips and a coke...we were good to go. we ate in the park while the local high school boys´`played racquet ball with their coach. soon, the local teenage girls´ came and sat behind us, no one talking to us, just looking, old people, young people, the guys over at the bar. it was very weird!

we had windows that were open and envisioned the entire villiage peeking in all the windows watching us during the night...like in a stephen king novel. we left a light on, it was just too, too weird. i´m not washing my clothes tonight, but we do have to eat.

tomorrow we will be in leon, meeting andrea at 7 pm. i hope we get there really early, it seems our time is so precious. we have´t seen him in 5-6 days and may not much more so we set a time and place (at the cathedral).

my heels, ache, not enough padding, and my neck is killing me along with my shoulder muscles. i have someone waiting in line for the computer and need to go. i love you and miss you so much. RILYA - i´ll call - AriZona

comments

just click on annoymous and publish a post, see if that works for those of you who are having difficulties. AriZona in Leon, Spain

20th Day / Reliegos - Leon / 25 km

hello everyone - i want to take a moment to tell everyone thank you for writing and letting me know what is going on in your lives, it is very important to me and i thank you and love each of you very much. oh what a day we had, thinking it would be an easy day turned out to be a little too slow for us as we limped into leon with blisters, black toe nails, aching knees, neck and shoulder pain from my pack (i don´t like it at all and i put a lot of effort into my gear) but, we made it about 2ish this afternoon. we are in better spirits now that we have a wonderful hostel room which we will stay in for 2 nights and possibly a third. we can get up when we want to, go to the bathroom without waking anyone up or not going because i´d wake someone from their precious moments of sleep; not have to use a sleeping bag, not have to be in at 10 pm so the door to the albergue can be locked...it´s just so wonderful to think...we just don´t have to anything; not for another two days! seven of my toes ache and throb, it´ll be good not to have to put on my boots and let my feet air out and not have to put that pack on for two days!!!!!!! wooooooo hoooooo!!!!! i´ll deal with it when we hit the road again. i know me and i probably won´t be staying a third night because i will want to walk. nicole and i stopped in at an internet cafe while we were walking with hundreds of locals out shopping, eating or just visiting. i love spain because of all the festivities and interactions with people; they are so happy and love to people watch themselves. don´t we all. it seems one of the hot colors here across spain is my special orange and i´m bound and determined to find some cool tops. we see pilgrims all over and many are staying for a couple of days. it´s time to rest, it´s been a long walk and our bodies are starting to react. today, i told nicole, ¨why did i tell you i wanted to walk the camino?¨ of, course just kidding but that´s how i felt today. we´re going to get something to eat soon and then go back to our room for some good ole rest. it´s been two tough days of walking and nicole and i hardly laughed but we did some good laughing at ourselves today and got very silly. sometimes you just need to do that. upon entering leon, we saw a couple of friends (Walter & Stephan) whom we haven´t seen since hontanas. stephan had terrible blisters and says he is doing okay, i saw his blisters and don´t know how he could walk, but he did. we were suppose to meet our friend andrea at the cathedral at 7 pm but he must have moved on. we met a couple dave & heather from reno, nevada yesterday and had several fun visits with them, they might leave leon tomorrow so we might not see them again. they reminded us that july 4th is in two days and we should get a watermelon or something to celebrate, that sounds like fun. i´ve only seen watermelon in one supermarcado and that was a while back. our days & memories are becoming a blurr for others as well as nicole and i. i can´t believe we´´ve been walking for 20 days today. our spirits are up tonight knowing we´ll be getting some rest. please tell me stories of what any of you will be doing for july 4th, i´d love to hear. it´s been interesting over here as far as bush is concerned, he is certainly not loved. i saw a news flash this morning for a moment on tv while eating a croissant and cola cao with protesters marching with a sign....impeach bush! it put a smile on my face but, he´s still in office. how did that happen again? luckily we are treated kind by nearly everyone and only a few older people have given us a crunched up face with a smart comment. i think my wonderful husband is going to put a picture of the two of us and our beautiful orange jeep on the blog....the two things i´m missing. i´d love to give him a great big kiss and a great big hug so consider it done sweetheart. and great big hugs and kisses to all my sweet, sweet grandchildren (Tyler, KÁnna, Kaden, Atticus & Killian)....grandma willi loves you all very, very much. Of course love to all my wonderful children and their spouses. i love you all so much. i love all my wonderful friends, i guess i just love everyone. kati, i hope you´re doing well and getting back to your wonderful self. mom, dusty, and barbara & troy, i love you too. marc and bob (marc´s dad) have been on their own for awhile now and doing a good job of it i hear. i´m thinking of everyone i know and sending lots of love your way. i´m getting hungry and sleepy, i wish you all a wonderful happy day and sweet dreams tonight. LIFE IS GOOD, HAVE FUN - AriZona marc tell me several of you are having problems posting a comment keep trying please don´t give up.