If you’re reading my blog you are likely asking yourself ”Why is he doing this?” Don’t think for a moment that I haven’t asked myself this very question many many times. Here is what I have come up with.
- I started thinking about hiking the Camino about 3 years ago. At the time I believe that my thoughts were that my brother had recently finished a 14,000 mile motorcycle trip over 62 days from Southern Florida to the Arctic Circle in Alaska. How great is that. He was 68 years old and struck out on this adventure that many people likely thought was nuts. This caused me to think about what I may want to do. I’ll say that this was the genesis of my trip. I can’t do the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Coast trail or other major hikes so I settled on this.
- I probably wanted to prove to myself that I can take on a major physical and mental challenge at 68 years old and accomplish it. Let’s face it my working career is over and I am trying to prove to myself that I can do things like this.
- Dee and I have spoken many times that this is a spiritual trip as I will be hiking alone except for the people I meet along the way. That is about 35-40 days of hiking with my thoughts in a beautiful country with few distractions.
- I speak rudimentary Spanish and while not really a reason to hike 500+ miles it entered my mind that I will be immersed in speaking and listening to Spanish.
- The above are my initial thoughts. Now for the current reason. My brother Rod contracted Covid last July and is still in and out of the hospital and not in very good condition. He left Florida last July 4th and has not returned since. He was 68 when he did his motorcycle trip and was in great physical and mental condition. I want to accomplish this hike because we are not promised tomorrow and I see how things can change so quickly. I will think of him much of the trip
That’s my thoughts as I think about why I want to hike the Camino.