“How do you know how to do all this?” Dad asked me as we stood together waiting for the metro in Madrid. “Do what?” “This–trains, buses, subways . . .” “On that high school trip to London, Mr. Briggs taught us how to use the subway, and once you know the idea, they’re pretty much…
Tag: camino with dad
Camino with Dad 2024: Routines
Dad: Did you check for bedbugs yet? Me: No! (I stop what I’m doing and walk to my bed.) Dad: Though in a place like this, I doubt there’s a problem. Me: Yes–I’ve heard that bedbugs look at how many stars a hotel has and choose accordingly (as I pull up the sheets of one…
Camino with Dad 2024: A Poem
June 15, 2024: Another dayAnother fresh squeezed orange juiceAnother bar giving us a free snack when we order our breakfastAnother medieval bridgeAnother taxi ad in the middle of nowhere in case the 16 miles walk is too much for usAnother napAnother day meeting people from all over the worldAnother day Dad and I are lucky…
The Best Laid Plans
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…
No Deaths In The Afternoon. Or In The Morning. Or . . .
When his time comes, I prefer my father die in his sleep, at home, surrounded by his family. What I don’t want? For his death to come while walking the Camino de Santiago. I can’t recall when this possibility first crossed my mind. Probably back in the planning stages when a sibling wondered if our…
Learning Spanish: The Lost Luggage
June, 2012: After 37 days walking Spain’s Camino de Santiago, every pilgrim knows what a mochila is. Many bars (where we stopped for breakfast and snacks) required us to leave our mochilas outside. There was hardly enough room in some of these bars for people, let alone their 11-25 pound mochilas. In some hostels, we…
