Hiking with Ernie

Today our hike was a shorter hike at 12 1/2 miles as compared to 18 yesterday. yesterday after hiking the 18 miles or so we both had about 45,000 steps. Robert had a few more for some reason but he had a goal of hitting 50,000 steps so after we ate dinner, we took a walk for another mile or so to get to that 50,000 for Robert! 50,000 steps in a day that’s a bunch of steps! Couldn’t get enough walking I guess in one day. Had to max the steps! LOL! I was really feeling it this morning. Had some pain in my feet particularly in my heels to start the day. I swapped my shoes out after about an hour and was able to make it most of the way without much difficulty but got pretty sore at the end of the day. We got to our hotel relatively early about 3 PM and staying off of my feet as much as possible right now. other than my feet issues, the day was pretty nice for the most part. Weather was really great to start. We stopped about an hour or so and to get a cup of coffee and started raining whil...

A really nice day today! Weather was excellent except for a moment long enough for us to get our rain gear on and then once again take it off in about a half mile!😀🤪 Today’s hike is sometime referred to as the “leg breaker” ( that’s encouraging,LOL) Well, no legs were broken but while it was a loooong hike it was probably the easiest yet! Rolling heals but no long or steep uphill climbs and the scenery was wonderful! Trees shaded us a good portion of the hike, like probably 80-90%of the way. Robert and I both commented that the hike seemed to go quicker that the previous two days. This 18 mile trek took us 8 hours and our feet keep reminding us about it! 😆 we had a truly delicious dinner tonight consisting of a unique tomato salad, croquets and for my main course I had beef cheeks stewed for 17 hours and then laid on a bed of sweet potatoes. Robert’s main course was an excellently prepared fish (hake) and chips. Sorry, no pictures :(

Friday was another good day but really tiring. 15.5 miles and nearly constant uphill but fortunately not steep, for first 8 miles before flattening out some. The terrain today was mostly street trails or trail right along side of the road which were wide and well maintained. We walked mostly through beautiful farmland with lots of opportunities to pick blackberries which lined large sections of the trail. Many sections of road were tree lined and completely covered. This is wine country also and yes we picked a grape or two that were hanging over the fences 🙂 Our lodging today is a quaint farm home that is quite unique. Our meal this evening consisted of Piquillo (red peppers, not hot) stuffed with hake (fish) and baby prawns in a great semi-tart sauce ooh so good, a main course of beef pot roast smothered in gravy and cream potatoes with carrots, and then finished off with a small slice of bread pudding and a scoop of chocolate ice cream! the cow video was from our first day on the t...

Hey!hey!hey! We’re here about to hit the trail! 😮😀. We’ve fattened up with a big breakfast a ready to rock!! ok, we hit the trail this morning about 9:30am local time. The weather is Awesome, upper 50s to start the day and the high was 70!! Partly cloudy with only one minute or two of rain!! Just long enough for us to break out rain gear, walk a half mile then put it back up!!🤪 There were apple and pear trees all along the trail as well as wild blackberries, umm umm good! We had lunch at a nice little place on the trail and after 30 minutes or so hit the trail again headed to Portomarin. You’ll see a pumpkin patch and then a vegetable garden that was part of the restaurant we ain’t dinner at!! Can’t get any fresher than this. Portomarin is a quaint little place that was moved up from the river in the 1960s when the reservoir was built. The photos and videos are just some of today’s encounters. I'm posting tonight without videos as I can’t seem to get them added. Will sad them as...

Well, we made it to Madrid after a long flight that was delayed by an hour. I got here on time however. Was unable to sleep at all unfortunately. Got here at 9:20 in the morning and to hotel about 11 or so and started our day. We were staying right in Midtown Madrid walked everywhere and visited the Royal palace of Madrid. That was quite interesting and we ate dinner at a nice restaurant right outside the door of our hotel. I feel quite safe in this city while we were walking around so very few homeless but did see some. This morning, I was able to visit the a la cathedral de Santa Maria. Oh my gosh, what a beauty I spent about 30 or 40 minutes in the cathedral and it just took my breath away. I’ll share a few pictures. I got lost trying to find my way back to our hotel or somewhat lost not bad but ended up getting back to the hotel a little late and we managed to missed our train to Sarria so we’re sitting at the train station waiting for the next train which is at 5 o’clock tonight. ...

Well, it’s almost here! Approximately 19 hours before boarding our flights to head over to Spain and begin our journey! I am excited and ready! Looking forward to meeting up with Robert (nephew) the young whipper snapper,(he’s only 55) in Madrid then boarding a train for Sarria and starting our 110 km pilgrimage!! I plan to share pictures and experiences daily as we make our way!! I’ll have all of you in my thoughts and prayers all along the way. Please pray for me and for Robert for safety, joy, and blessings as we traverse through Spain and take in all the wonders God has in store for us! see ya again soon!

A fter my post yesterday I got to thinking that maybe I was just hitting a wall at 10-12 miles so feeling pretty good today I decided to push myself past that barrier and decided I would do 14 miles today but after taking a short break at 12 miles I decided on 16 miles today and I got it done.   I am a bit sore but believe I could have done a couple more if I really needed to but being as I did not really need to I decided it best to stop at 16.   I am done with the long walks/hikes for this week but will plan to do 2 to 3 long ones next week, and only 2-3 miles/day for the rest of this week.  See ya next week! Vivo Christo Rey!

  T-21 days      I have been walking 40-55 miles per week the last several weeks and I am tired, so I decided to back off a bit rather than burn myself out so I backed off this last 7 days and only did 34 miles.  My feet seem to be in good shape and ready for the Camino but my legs seem to be saying enough already let's take a break.  So this week I will relax a bit and get ready for a 3 day camping, whitewater rafting, rock climbing, and repelling trip with my grandson Miles!   I plan to do 50-60 miles next week, then take it easy again so that I am well rested for the Camino the following week.    I fly out to Madrid on 8/25 and will meet my nephew, Robert the next morning in Madrid.   From there we will travel by train to Sarria, Spain, about 4 hours I think, and then start our adventure on 8/28 and ending in San Tiago on 9/1. I used the All Trails app on my phone to pull up the trails we will be taking each day on our journ...