In December, 2022, I printed out a monthly calendar for 2023 and started filling it in.

• January: My sister Meg was coming to visit.
• March: My parents.
• May: Michael and I were going to New York for a wedding and California to visit family.
• July: Dad was coming out to walk another section of the Camino Francés.

“If I can just make it ’til August,” I thought.

I made it ’til March.

Planning my parents’ visit had nearly done me in. Probably because planning trips to New York and California hadn’t been the easiest thing to do either. And that wedding in New York? I was the Matron of Honor and planning the bachelorette party weekend as well.

And then planning a Camino for July . . . flights, buses, trains, hotels, food. “Travel agent” has never been on my list of “Things I’d Like to Try One Day.”

I missed the days of solo, unplanned Caminos: the ones where I’d do just enough research to have a clue and then take off and let my intuition be my guide. I hadn’t done one of those in four years. And even then, I only walked for a week. My last solo, multi-week, unplanned Camino? Six years ago.

I didn’t want to let my father down. . . so I asked Mom for help.

“I think you’ve walked enough of the Camino,” she said to my father during their March visit.

“No!” he insisted. “I have to finish it!”

“Becky needs a break. She needs to do her own Camino this year,” she said.

He looked at me with the face of a kid who was slowly seeing their dream trip to Disneyworld disappear. “You need to do one on your own?” he asked, hoping my mother was wrong.

“Well,” I started, taking a deep breath. “I haven’t done one on my own in a long time.”

The disappointment in his eyes almost killed me.

“The last four have been with either you or Michael,” I went on, hoping a further explanation would make me feel better.

It didn’t.

“Well, okay,” he said with all the joy drained from his face.

And so it was that, with mixed emotions, I began searching for a Camino route to do. Solo. And unplanned.

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**Note: Dad and I will be back at it again this year. Camino Part 4 begins June 10, 2024.