Traveling with Joe

And so it begins.

I need to start this blog with just a tiny airline rant.

After I had decided to go to the Camino again I tried to think of other people I knew that might enjoy the “Experience”. Three came to mind, two considered it, and one came along; my Sister (Ex-Sister-In-Law) Marji.

I had already booked my tickets to and from Barcelona on different airlines using up miles that I had banked so we decided to try to at least get her on the same flights TO Barcelona and then I would get her to the airport on the day we returned home and make sure she got to her gate. A quick check showed a Business Class fare that was surprisingly reasonable so I emailed it to her to approve. She did.

The VERY NEXT DAY I logged in and tried to book her fare and it had gone up $900.   I tried every trick I knew and even brought in a Travel Agent friend of mine but they had sold one more seat on the LAX-JFK (New York) leg of the flight so the fare had jumped. Long story short we had to put her on an earlier flight, we met up in New York and finished the flight uneventfully.

Now the real rant.

I really don’t understand what Delta or, for that matter, most of the USA based airlines are doing with their planes. The last time I flew Delta Business it was one of the worst experiences I had ever had in a plane. Coach wouldn’t have been much worse. The seats were at a 45 degree angle so people walking down the aisle stared right into your business, they were tiny, and “Lay Flat” was so laughably incorrect it would have been truly funny if it weren’t a 14 hour flight.

So I was (pleasantly) surprised to see that the planes I was on the other day had either returned to the old configuration or that these had not been changed at all. After further investigation it was obvious they were new seats and the side by side, looking straight ahead seating is far superior to the herringbone crap they had tried to cram yet another row into Business Class, and they had even dramatically increased the width of the amount of room that each seat occupied. My seat and the console next to it was well over 3’ wide. In a 767 there were only 4 seats across; a very generous amount of space. But after about an hour I had to ask “What kind of an idiot would make the actual seat so damn narrow that your shoulders would barely fit between the sides with no rooms for your arms when you tried to lay down and then leave over a foot for you to sit a coffee cup on? My actual “Seat Space” was huge but once the seat was reclined into a bed my shoulders barely fit into the recess and there was nothing and nowhere to put my arms. They could have easily taken 8” out of the giant side console and made a really nice bed. Did they use airline executives to make the movie “Dumb and Dumber”.

They should have.

Note the wide separation between the seats.  Now, couldn’t they have made that part of the actual seat?

So, Delta Airlines, I have to ask you “Doesn’t anyone from your Airline actually sit in one of these seats before you purchase hundreds (thousands) of them? If so, is this person a “little person?”. Or, WTF. Next time you want to shop for a new seat, I will fly, at my own expense, to wherever you test this stuff out and try out the options that you are considering. Seriously. When I think of all the grief I could save my fellow man by pointing out the obvious shortcomings, it makes me all warm inside.

Enough of the rant.

We arrived on time in Barcelona, there is no more of that ridiculous “fill out this form” crap, we flew through Immigration and were in our Hotel by around 8:30am on Friday the 13^th. While many people find this to be on unlucky number, it has generally been a good day for me. It was again.

We got to our hotel which is a fantastic 5 star hotel but which is also always very busy, and were praying they would have clean rooms. As we approached the counter, smiling and greeting the front desk (in Spanish), someone from the far end of the counter came scurrying over and greeted me. “You’re back” he said. I honestly don’t remember this guy but he must have seen me in October (on my way to the first Camino) or in November (on my way back), or just confused me for someone else, but I acknowledged that, yes, I was back to do the Camino again.

He must have been the Front Desk Manager because he slid into place behind the keyboard in front of us basically pushing the girl that had been there aside and said “let me find you some clean rooms”. I could tell by how much time it was taking that we might be out of luck when he said “Well, there are no basic rooms available right now (what we had rented) but I have upgraded you into a Suite and a Junior Suite so you don’t have to wait. He turned the keyboard back over to the Front Desk Clerk and I looked skyward and thanked God, yet again, for being Gay making me a member of the world’s largest private Mens’ Club. This guy didn’t know me from Adam and I sure has hell had never slept with him, but he recognized a “Member” and took care of us. Our rooms were palatial and, the best part, they were ready for us so we could shower and rest up. Marji and I parted ways to meet up later.

I’m going to jump ahead here because I’m running out of time. We met up with Tim’s friend Emmeline, she took us on a fantastic walking tour of Barcelona, we had a nice dinner then called it a night. The following day we flew to Pamplona, spent the night there then met up with our group at the Pamplona train station on Sunday at 1pm.

In October we drove up to a mountain peak where you could look down into France where the Camino originates. The Camino walk that we do with the Tour Company I’ve used twice now, starts about 25km into Spain which is past the actual starting point in France (not sure why) and in October we only hiked a few kilometers down to a town called Ronscavales (population 30).

The plan was to hike to Ronscavales then continue on a few more kilometers so that Day 2 would be shorter. Instead, we had to drive back down the hill and pass on the first 6km to find where a trail even started. We went to the Pilgrim’s Office there, got our Pilgrim’s Passport (This is an official starting point), found out that a guy had indeed frozen to death less than 500 meters from there the previous winter, then we took off down the trail. We didn’t get very far, had to double back and hike the road instead. The snow was intense.

As you can see – NO TRAIL

But we got our groove, put in some kilometers and the rest of the day/evening went as planned. Had our orientation meeting for the people that had never hike the Camino, a nice dinner, then off to bed. The hotel we stayed in had been a Monastery when it was built over 1,000 years ago and they had done a great job converting it into a place to sleep. Big room, big bed, and huge shower. I took advantage of the big shower and all of the steam radiators to wash all of my dirty clothing to date, draped it on every radiator in the room, then had a fitful night of sleep. (Still jet-lagged).

Day 2 was pretty much a perfect day on the Camino. Took the classic start picture showing how many Kilometers it is on the road to Santiago (it is much further on the trail) then took off.

  Today, unlike day 1, the group didn’t stick together. I walked with Margaret and Marji for a while then Marji jumped ahead.

(Margaret standing next to a sign I had seen in October that says “Don’t Stop Walking”.  She thought it was hilarious so I took her picture there. )

For those of you following Marji, she is handling the trip like a trooper. Not a single complaint, has weathered the flights and running around then more flights, then a van ride, the unusual eating hours, the hours without any food, and has clicked in nicely with everybody in the group. It’s all women except me which is a bit odd but I guess I will just be the one rooster with my 5 hens.

The Group (Left to Right) – Margarita (Italy), Eileen (Laguna Beach), June (Texas), Me, Marji & Margaret (Canberra, Australia)

Day 3. This was our first long day on the trail. The official map said 20km (12 miles) but my FitBit said it was closer to 14 miles with over 1,000 feet of altitude change. We actually walked back into Pamplona today which is where the group had convened 3 days ago at the train station. But we had learned our lesson this time. Instead of going on a “Tour” that had been arranged for 4pm, Marji and I had a big Italian lunch, then came back to the hotel to rest. We got here right as the one person in the group that wanted to do the tour was heading out while everybody else was either eating (while they could) or resting their sore feet.

 Marji Day 3 Kicking Butt on the Camino

It doesn’t matter how much you train, you can’t train for an infinite number of terrains. Today’s hills and valleys will be different than tomorrows and that will be the case every day of this trip. You’re pretty much sore from this point out but you do get stronger. Tomorrow we have 24km scheduled (So God knows how many miles it will really be) and it looks like we might actually get some rain. So far we’ve been beyond lucky dodging in after a huge snow storm and catching two perfect days. It’s not supposed to be a lot of rain but nobody is thrilled. The mornings are cold so you have to gear up and wear rain clothes. In a few hours it warms up so you’re baking and it looks like tomorrow the decision will be to strip off an under-layer or strip off the rain gear. Hopefully it will be the outer layer if the rain is just a morning phenomenon. We all knew this day would come.

But at least we are being realistic. Yesterday we stopped at a café at the end of the day to have a snack. There was a guy sitting buy himself next to us and he glanced over a few times so we said hello and asked him if he was doing the Camino. He had been up since 4am and had walked 40km that day. His plan is to get to Santiago on April 10, a full week before we do. I told him that was an ambitious schedule and he replied “Yes, but today was the hardest day, wasn’t it?”. I think I choked on my pizza, took a sip of my water, and had to tell him the sad truth. “Dude, you have two mountain ranges to pass and a lot of ground to cover before you even get to them. In addition, today was a nice day. Between now and April 10 you will hit everything from rain to snow”. It literally was almost comical to see the expression on his face.   He got up and limped (I am not kidding) away from his table to go upstairs and go to bed. It was about 4pm. I didn’t get his name, only that he was from Hungary. I wish him well but I would bet a large sum of money he ends up on a Bus or in a taxi for a hundred kilometers or more. His “Hardest Day” might have included the climb out of France but that’s nothing compared to what lies ahead. Having done this just a few months ago, my memories of that part are still fresh.

Speaking of a few months ago; I did not walk into Pamplona that time. My knees had stopped working outside of town and I had been taken in with the van and then shuttled out to a medical clinic.   I think I also took the day off after that so this afternoon and all day tomorrow will be uncharted territory for me. This time I have powered through and my knees are humming. Yeah!

And it looks so different with the trees barren, the rivers gushing with water, the once beautiful Fall leaves on the trail now well on their way into becoming mulch; no, this is not the Camino I have walked already. That is actually a relief. Except for a few minor sign posts that I remembered, this all seems new and fresh. And meeting the people along the way (not many Pilgrims but the locals are out in force because the weather is nice) reminds me of the fact that walking the Camino, for the most part, exposes you to some of the best parts of humanity.

Well, I’ve rushed this a bit but I wanted to get caught up. We are so early on in the trip and there will be stories. Let’s hope that as I get stronger it will be easier to write at the end of the day. As I expected, it’s been tough once I take off my boots and get some food in my stomach. It’s 10:00pm and we have to be packed and ready to eat at 8am.  Time for sleep!

I promise that as things progress I will put more energy into the writing.  Even though these first few days have been dramatically easier than what I experienced in October, I’m still jet-lagged, it’s still a long offing way to walk, and I still have almost 30 days left to go.

Buen Camino & Happy St Patrick’s Day

 

March 17, 2015

Joe Jeter

These are screen shots from my FitBit Watch Data.  Unfortunately today got split into half by accident but if you add all this up – this was today’s walk.