"Good Luck is the Result of Good Planning"

This was the fortune that I got in my cookie last night when we ate Chinese for dinner. How apropos given everything we have going on right now getting ready for the Camino. As you can see from Caroline's great post, I have become overly consumed with trying to plan.

At first I was trying not to be too focused on the preparation. I am the typical Boy Scout that wants to have all the plans made with contingencies before he leaves. But on this adventure, it has to be different. Never in my life have I only had transportation to a place and transportation back, but no other reservations. I truly have tried to leave that to God to make sure we have room and board along the way.

Yet in the beginning, every time I would explain the Camino to someone, they would look at me incredulously and say "you are walking 20 miles, every day, with a pack! Are you crazy!"
After a while I started thinking we were. We have never walked that kind of a distance for this long before. Yes, we both have been exercising almost daily, but not at the same intensity and duration we will have in Spain. What were we thinking?

So my point then became figuring out how to minimize the weight in our packs so that we would carry the least amount possible. We will see how well we do on that. The final packing has yet to be done and I think we may have some hard decisions to make.

I have also been involved with Forums that focus on the Camino and give a meeting place for neophytes and experienced sages. The one I frequent most is Ivar's Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. So many of my minor little questions have been answered here by those that have already lived the trip. I don't know if people often realize how much they help those who need it by merely participating in these types of sites. They really are a great help. There are others on the Links portion of the blog in case you are interested.

A thread began on that forum a month ago stating that they has seen a significant increase in the number of Pilgrims and that many are going without beds or are having to walk 5-10 km more to find a place to stay. This scared me to death. Can you imagine having walked 20 miles to find nowhere to stay and then have to continue on several miles more! You could be totally broken. This has been my biggest fear the entire time since.

But we are mostly done with the preparation and now it is just accepting what this adventure will bring. Caroline has finals this week, so I want for her to be focused on school and this will take a back seat now.

I just finished the last book I plan to read about the Camino before we leave. It was Joyce Rupp's Walk in a Relaxed Manner. This a great book to finish on and one I may bring to leave in an albergue and let other pilgrims enjoy. It uses the Camino as a way to learn life lessons and really helps you to become focused on the most important reasons you are doing this type of pilgrimage. I strongly recommend it.