One week

One week from today (Western European Time) I'll be getting ready to walk the first leg of the Camino. I'm excited, and I'm a little bit nervous. Surprisingly, I'm not so concerned about logistics, though there are two plane connections for me - and more importantly my backpack - to make. I'm worried about things here. Have I got all the bills set up on AutoPay? Did I let all the credit card companies know I'll be trying to use their cards overseas? Are the cars appropriately situated for a month of disuse? Do the cats have enough food? Will the cats kill each other?

Of course, this is exactly why I'm undertaking this pilgrimage: to force myself to jettison the detritus of daily life that so many of us allow to define who we are, when really these are meaningless details of existence, not manifestations of our God-created souls.

Mom and Dad left yesterday; I ran them to the airport on my lunch break. They were surprisingly calm. Dad texted me this morning (which in and of itself was a miracle) to let me know that they had made it to Madrid and were settling in. Actually, what he said was, "Arrived safely." The rest is my inference.

I have downloaded some books to my iPad, bought a digital camera connector and a roll-up plastic keyboard for blogging. This weekend I'll pretend like I'm going to pack (which will probably actually happen Tuesday night/Wednesday morning) and will finish getting the cars, house, and cats ready for me to be away.

I can almost see the Pyrenees opening out below me as I crest the top of the pass that takes us from France across the border into Spain. The weather is a bit on the warm side, but with a breeze. We are in the mountains after all. Roncesvalles, our stop for the night, is about five kilometers off and 1500 feet down the mountain. Below that is a forest that covers the rolling foothills that in turns gives way to the very northern reaches of the Spanish Meseta. In the Dark Ages, this was the Marca Hispanica, the independent counties created out of old Visigothic city-states by Charlemagne to protect France from the advancing Moorish threat from Andalusia, and the south. I have a feeling I'll be looking forward to a cup of wine, dinner, and a hot shower.