That is Father Tom Hall and myself, talked all day. Wasn’t a problem really. Man and I learned a lot. Maybe Tom learned a few odd facts from me. We covered a lot of ground and there doesn’t seem to be anything we wouldn’t take on. Major fun.

Just woke up after sleeping 12 hours. Apparently Father Tom really worked me over, I was exhausted. But up and at’em here now though. Off to Bible Guys to study Daniel.

Love you guys. Sing a beautiful song today! Yours, Felipe.

When I woke up this morning and looked out the window I had to stare a while to get what was going on. It was a blizzard outside. A fresh wind came in and blew the air full of blossoms at that very moment. What a sight! Just when you think all is normal.

I have been watching a short movie recently,over and over again, and showing it to others. Les, my old Navy Corpsman lent it to me. I just googled it and learned more. It came out in 2002 and was highly awarded. One of the sites called it a romantic mystery, a term that I have never heard before. It can be watched on something called PrimeWire, something else that I have never heard of. Anyway, it’s name is “Jillian’s Vantage” and it has the endorsement of Phil’s Camino.

So, I’m back over to the hospital today but not before picking up Father Tom Hall from Seatac airport. He is coming to walk and talk with me on the backyard Camino and I am deeply honored. He is a friend of Annie’s from California. Most of the good things in the world go through Annie, if you hadn’t noticed already.

We may stop at Sister Joyce’s office to deliver some homemade jam for her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. My Rebecca and I made orange rhubarb jam that is just super. Rhubarb season right now, a spring tonic.

OK, have to go and wash my truck and get ready to go to the big city. Oh the sun is breaking through the morning clouds. Alperfect, love you, Felipe.

p.s. – then here is a comment from my buddy Steve-0 on Tuesday’s blog post: (He sometimes comes and hangs out with me on Tuesdays at my big treatment.)
Comment: Wish I was sittin with you today– but I’m 30k feet above Miles City on my way to a nice week of work in Fort Wayne.
Details at 11…..
Thinkin of you
S

Hey there! How’s things today? I think that they slipped me some extra steroids yesterday in my chemo cocktail as I’m swooping around acting like I’ve got too much coffee in me and that’s before coffee before coffee. Barely slept and had a dream about fuel, my I was fueling along!

OK, dreams, check out this dream. It was in a friend’s email yesterday and I can give you a rough idea without confidentiality problems. This is the first time I have heard of this specific angle although dreams can be prophetic in a big sense as has happened with the Big Guys like Daniel in the Bible. But my friend had a dream of a particular person before meeting same person the same day. Very specific it was. Hmmm.

I got a hand done map of Phil’s Camino done and have to have it scanned and sent to Todd and Jess for the documentary. It was a fun art project. Hope that they like it. Maybe you will see it on the film which could be soon. And we will keep you posted so you will be able to catch it.

OK, we’ll keep it short today. Things to do and peeps to see but it is always fun to be with you and vital. Only the best for you and yours, love, Felipe.

Yea, Anamaria sent this pic of her out in the boonies on a hike. Guess she got to escape from school. It is fun to keep up with her with her year in Spain. Send us more pix when you get a chance.

Here I am in the comfy chair at Swedish Hospital in Seattle. I’m getting my twice monthly chemo treatment. A little while ago ther was some woman laughing hysterically on the floor here. It wasn’t close by and I couldn’t see her but she got me laughing. I was asking the nurses if there was some new drug around that I could try. “I’ll have what she’s having!” kind of thing.

Yesterday I spent half a day trying to finish up a map of Phil’s Camino that I have been working on. It’s for the documentary. Things are reaching a flaming crescendo with the film. We are less than a month away from finishing I have been told. I am kept away from the nuts and bolts of it all, just a pretty face.

Well, that’s about it for now. Things are good and thinking about you and all the fun we could be have if we were together. Come walk the Camino with me. Let me repeat the hours:
Mon 0900-1000
Wed 1600-1700
Fri 0900-1000
Sun 1000-1100

Later, love, Felipe.

Here are some Meseta pics fresh in from the gals:

The miles roll by. I write you every day as I walk but when we get somewhere with “wee fee” the vino comes out, conversations start, and well, you know how it is. All wonderous. Covered over 200 miles of amazing country and great souls. Good humans and one fine dog. Think of you every day. Buen Camino!
Dana and Catherine

Monday morning here at Phil’s Camino and Raven Ranch. The sky is blue and another day unfolds. Time to blog. I have some great pics stacking up and I thought that I would share them with you. Maybe say a few words in between.

That was nice and will give you a glimpse of life at the ranch with friends and relations. Well, off to walk this morning with Deb. Lots of stuff to do today. Off to Swedish Hospital tomorrow for treatment and “smoking and joking” with docs and nurses. Alperfect gang, love you, Felipe.

Which way to go? So many ideas whirling around in my brain. What to write about? Some of them are too crazy and some not crazy enough. Let’s see.

How about horses as a topic? Our neighbors bring their horses over most days for seven months of the year when our pastures are solid enough to support them. When the ground is too wet they can tear it but now it is good and solid. So they are back today for the first time. And they will only stay for a few hours at a time to start as the fresh grass needs to be gotten used too after a winter of hay.

Oh how they ran and bucked and did horsey screw around this morning. They were so happy to be back. And we are happy that they are here also. The pasture grass in starting to grow fast now with all the rain, light and heat of the spring sun. Paradise all over again.

I was off to church early this morning as usual at the eight o’clock service. Most of my “tractor guys” go to the early service. They need to get church in and get going with there projects on Sunday. They don’t need the high Mass with the fancy music. Nothing fancy about these guys, my guys. One of the reasons I love them because I can drag any question conceivable in there about things mechanical or working dirt or building stuff and one of these guys has done it last week, no problem. Well, this is after church at coffee, kind of a Norman Rockwell sort of deal.

And Sister Joyce was supposed to be here today to have office hours where folks talk to her about things spiritual but she got a stomach bug and won’t make it. She will be missed but back again next month to clarify things for us. If I ever get to be eighty two I want to be that alive and productive and happy to help out. We are so lucky to have her.

Our son Wiley has a wonderful girlfriend, Riley. Yea, Wiley and Riley. We are having a birthday dinner for her this evening. So that will be fun and I am looking forward to that.

My Rebecca and I are busy getting the garden planted and the corn patch ready for planting. Busy busy time of year when we both just fall into bed at night pretty near exhausted. That’s life at the ranch as we know it.

Well, great hanging out with you for a few moments. Nothing major going on but it’s solid good. Smile for the camera, love ou, Felipe.

Hello Dear Ones,

What a journey, what an adventure. Suddenly a 13 mile day seems easy. We must be getting stronger. Our legs and feet are still quite sore and tired at day’s end, but nothing that ibuprofen, arnica gel and a cold water foot soak (when we can get it) can’t seem to help. (I did not say “cure” on purpose). 🙂

After leaving the big city of Burgos behind this morning we entered a whole new countryside. It is as if we were suddenly walking through the Palouse. We have fallen in step with our Camino familiars – we look for them daily and they for us. It is very sweet. We struggle along with our languages, but share the walk, the day and the intention of Santiago in common.

There is still many miles and many hours passed in silence that lends itself to prayer or thoughts of those whom we love. We’ve had mostly good weather with just enough rain and mud to feel like true “pelegrinos.” The way has been mostly rural through small villages where time seems to have stood still. Sometime it feels as if the spirits of the ancients are walking with us. There’s been some stretches, some very ugly miles on asphalt through a littered and impoverished industrial landscape that remind us that we straddle two worlds as we walk, one collapsing beneath the weight of unsustainable and impersonal systems and one more eternal of simplicity and caring cooperation.

Our time here is a blessing as are each of you in our lives. Each of you is truly with us as we go.

Much love and gratitude for your love and support. We miss you.

Xo Catherine (y Dana)

(Isn’t great to hear these reports from the front. These guys are doing it and I am so jealous, well not about the pain part. But it is cool to see our friends and neighbors in the Camino context. These two were so fun to work with on Phil’s Camino and I have to believe that they are going to have a bang up experience in Spain.)

(And more good news, Vashon Island is opening it’s first Mediterranean restaurant! No more corn dogs for me. Here I am searching for some bad news but can’t find any anywhere. OK, I’ll drink to that! Here’s to no bad news, love you, Felipe.)

Hi. Yes, that’s Esther and I Caminoing along barefoot. She thought it would be a good idea so I went along with it. Well, the idea was good but it got a little pokey back in the woods.

Because work on my corn patch is calling me today I am going to not be long winded. I got started last evening raking up after the tilling with the tractor. This is the third year that we have been working this piece of ground and it gets easier.

But the main idea today here is for us to be upbeat and positive. We have a day given to us and we need to figure out a way to use it to the fullest. And not only to our benefit but to those around us.

I want to remind you that there is a jewel of a YouTube video on my December 23rd post back in the archives. You need to check out this version of “Don’t Worry Be Happy”. One of my Camino buddies, Laura, is responsible for the art’s center known as “illa de l’aire” in the beautiful city of Barcelona. What you are going to watch and listen to are her people there at the center putting together this recording for us. They are not professionals but just folks like us who egg each other on and they come up with inspired stuff like this.

So please take a minute to go back in the archives to December 23rd and check this out. You will be rewarded. Remember upbeat and positive gang. Alperfect corny loves, Felipe.

p.s. – Steve-O wrote in to comment on “Funky Donkey” post:
Oh, myyyy. I sure needed – and need – that. Thank you.
Really.

I’ve called Phil’s Camino Repair and Towing to take a look at our blog problem. He’s got his greasy hands all over it as we speak. Somehow all of the comments for the blog have disappeared and new ones can’t be published. Yea, and just at a time when great ones are coming in. I will try and publish things as they come in from now on till we get a handle on it.

Here is some great news in from our dear Mary Margaret: Beautiful, Phil! And the May issue of National Geographic is featuring El Camino. You can read the intro here and it should be on newsstands about now.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/05/the-way/george-text

OK, got that. Now here is some real life stuff from folks that have a long long way to walk before getting to be Caminoheads.
Here we go (thanks Kip):
(hit the WC before you start this, no peeing in your pants)
THESE ARE ACTUAL COMPLAINTS RECEIVED BY “THOMAS COOK VACATIONS” FROM DISSATISFIED CUSTOMERS:

1. “On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don’t like spicy food.”

2. “They should not allow topless sunbathing on the beach. It was very distracting for my husband who just wanted to relax.”

3. “We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish.”

4. “We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our own swimsuits and towels. We assumed it would be included in the price.”

5. “The beach was too sandy. We had to clean everything when we returned to our room.”

6. “We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as white but it was more yellow.”

7. “It’s lazy of the local shopkeepers in Puerto Vallarta to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during ‘siesta’ time — this should be banned.”

8. “No-one told us there would be fish in the water. The children were scared.”

9. “Although the brochure said that there was a fully equipped kitchen, there was no egg-slicer in the drawers.”

10. “I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local convenience store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts.”

11. “The roads were uneven and bumpy, so we could not read the local guide book during the bus ride to the resort. Because of this, we were unaware of many things that would have made our holiday more fun.”

12. “It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England. It took the Americans only three hours to get home. This seems unfair.”

13. “I compared the size of our one-bedroom suite to our friends’ three-bedroom and ours was significantly smaller.”

14. “The brochure stated: ‘No hairdressers at the resort.’ We’re trainee hairdressers and we think they knew and made us wait longer for service.”

15. “When we were in Spain, there were too many Spanish people there. The receptionist spoke Spanish, the food was Spanish. No one told us that there would be so many foreigners.”

16. “We had to line up outside to catch the boat and there was no air-conditioning.”

17. “It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly guests before we travel.”

18. “I was bitten by a mosquito. The brochure did not mention mosquitoes.”

19. “My fiancée and I requested twin-beds when we booked, but instead we were placed in a room with a king bed. We now hold you responsible and want to be re-reimbursed for the fact that I became pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked.”

Hehe! Yea, that’s it from this cowboy, have to go walk. What can we make of this day. Sandy beach loves, Felipe.