t minus 10

its been a few days since I posted. Life has been a bit crazy with the house closing in a few days and the trip coming quickly! The riding is still going daily but only steady rides 1-3 hours and no heavy effort just trying to get miles in the legs.

Its a strange feeling to be moving out of a house that has been home for 17 years. Its the only house Trey knows and neither one of have felt like it was a home for a really long time. We are both ready to create a new home and some new traditions along with a clean slate on our future. It will be fun!

So with it being really only 8 more days to the trip I am focusing on getting mapping done for the trip and getting the details worked out since quite a few things have changed since starting on this solo journey. One is I will have big Joe riding the last 250k with me into Santiago de Compostella Spain. The second is I will start the ride from the Bordeaux area of France (most likely a train stop south of Bordeaux to get out of the city) to Santiago. The last portion will be a day ride to Finisterre Spain which was termed the "end of the world" by Christopher Columbus before his fateful journey which led to some island near the Bahamas or in the Caribbean. I plan to leave some of Susans ashes at the beach in Finisterre. Most pilgrims burn their clothes or boots (I will be continuing my ride so no burning planned as of now). Following the ride I am going to take in a few sites in Madrid Spain and then join a ride starting in Carcasonne France with a friend. IT will be the CSF (cancer support foundation of France) ride. This organization helps English speaking people in France with getting cancer treatment, care and general assistance for English speaking people in country who are dealing with Cancer. Rides are a little different there because here there is a push for fundraising up front. There, the ride is free but they ask for a donation if you are willing but the ride gets attention for the organization. Kind of neat! Following the ride I will take a little time to take in some wish list sites.

So the daily blog plan will be to update the site and hopefully post photos and if I can figure it out some video. The first day on the Camino will be over the top of the Pyrenees Mountains which will start with a 9 mile climb which I think will be a lot of fun!!! Hopefully it will not be clouded in and I will get some great photos. I am told that over 250k people hike/bike/donkey the Camino each year so it should be a lot of fun meeting people from all walks of life and all with a personal journey in mind (probably similar in some way to mine). I will additionally post to Facebook and try to run a bunch of photos through my smugmug site if anyone is interested in more photo details of the journey.

On a last note. I have received several calls from Citadel Classmates and friends from all walks of life. I am amazed at the outreach and positive support from my friends and Citadel brethren! Citadel Class of 95 rocks! I met Brandon Wyatt the other night at dinner (with his awesome wife Elise). They were planning to go again this year but they are pregnant so Brandon gave me his Camino guide book which should be awesome since I have not sourced one as of yet. He has hiked it 2x so gave me some great details and tips for the journey. This will be a great experience.

I will plan on giving some shoutouts during the trip but todays will go to TJ Pomian, Mark Clements, Andy Ruth, Tom Stikeleather, Kirby Baker, Daniel Vallini and Brandon Wyatt. Thanks guys! The support is awesome and appreciated!