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.