Half Way There

Finally made the half way point in our Journey. It has been a long three weeks of walking, still two more weeks before we reach Santiago. The views are amazing! Every town has its own personality that you will never get a chance to see again. Towns are located about 5 miles aparts in certain areas. Over the last four days towns have been futher apart forcing us to stock up on foods and water for meals. We arrive in Leon, Spain tomorrow with a short 10km (5miles) walk. Other Camino walks have been walking 30km days just like us to spend as much time in Leon before heading out the next day. Over all there will be many things that will be changed in my life when I get back.....and not taken for granted. We are very SPOILED in the United States.

It's been awhile

So we have been walking for 8 days now and have walked over 243km. (150miles) I am very tired and very sore. Only have one blister that I have been nursing for the last three days. It's now a blister under a blister. OUCH!! Weather has been amazing, with evening rain showers starting around 4pm. Today we were caught in the rain for the last 5km of walking. Very pleasant drizzle, but still needed the rain gear to keep things dry. Humidity has been very high due to all the rain, making clothes harder to dry. We were lucky tonight, we found a Casa rural that had a drier. Now our pack will be much light due to not carrying wet/damp clothes. Have taken lots of pictures. But for some reason ipad2 does not support adobe flash...oh well guess you guys will have to wait. Trying to set up a relay point in the states to help post the pictures. So hopefully soon. Other then that we are having a blast!

No photos yet

Upon reading different blog FAQs. iPad is not supported with google blogger. Which means photos will not but uploaded do to hassles and limited time with internet connection. Sorry blog readers. Will post them through my facebook page for everybody to see.

A Nice Day

Well, yesterday was spent traveling leaving DFW at 550-600,due to a delay and an over sold flight. We arrived in Paris around 1030am. Went through customs, got my first passport stamp! WOOHOO!! Pulled our bags then off to find the TGV, there high speed train service. After catching the train, we spent the next 6 hours until we arrived in Bayonne, France. Bayonne is a very active town. Everybody rides scooters. Had dinner at a local diner just from the hotel. We then walked around taking pictures. I tried to upload photos to the blog but for some reason the ipad isn't allowing it. Need to figure that out to. We catch our next train at 805am. Hoping next post will have photos. Until then

What a Day!

So today started off with everything going in the right direction. Then about 1000am we received a message that our flight was delayed by one hour due to weather in the Chicago area. Ok, an hour delay that's not bad. Well that hour turned into two hours, pushing us to a 220pm departure time from El Paso. With this 220pm departure from El Paso we have now missed our flight to Paris from Chicago. Upon talking with the CSR at the American Airlines desk we were told our flight would not leave until 620pm from El Paso....really are you kidding me!!! Please keep in mind we have been at the airport since 1100am this morning. Finally 620pm rolls around and we board the plane and arrive in Dallas Fort Worth area. We were re-routed to Dallas. Next objective is praying that our bags were pulled from the first flight in El Paso and re-tagged for Dallas. YES...we have bags waiting for us in Dallas!! Now to find a place to stay for the night since our flight doesn't leave until 550pm the next evening. Finally found a place to stay about 4miles away from the airport. Called about 5 places before we found an open room. Turns out there is an engineering convention in town booking all the available rooms and dislodged passengers from cancelled flights from today's weather. We were told we are very lucky. Didnt feel like I was lucky. So getting ready for bed, need to be out by noon. Let's hope tomorrow is a much better day. Maybe my next blog will be from France!

Final Hours

Well, its in the final hours before we leave on an adventure of a lifetime. Bags are packed and ready to go. Ducky has been quaking about for a few days wanting to leave, not sure who's more excited me or him. Ducky's hoping to collect a few stamps for his passport on this trip. He also has his rock to place at the cross four days into our hike. I also have my rock to place at the cross. Tradition with the rock is to take one from your home town and place it at the cross. So I have decided to have all my co-workers sign the rock that I will be placing when we get there. Think the next blog entry will be from Paris, so until then.

Packed and Ready

Yesterday was spent getting the pack ready for travel. Shopping for final items and making sure all items are acquired for. Clothes were washed to give them that final freshness and mental reminder of home. Clothes were laid out one last time to truly make sure everything is there. Everything was acquired for and packing began. I will say, I pack a really nice pack. Packed weighted in just under 25 pounds, which I am very HAPPY about! Keep in mind this weight will be with me for 500 miles.

The pack is finally ready for travel and Ducky has already claimed his spot. Ducky always gets the best spots to ride. For those of you who do not know Ducky, he is a world traveler and very well known. His website should be up and running after this trip, but I'll have a talk with his Site Admin to get it running sooner. So keep your eye out for the link.

Will try to get one last entry in before we leave. Until then have a wonderful day!!

Getting Closer

Well, it is getting closer to our departure date, getting nervous not sure why. My clothes are laid out and everything else that I might need for our 500 mile journey. This will be the most important thing for me to look at, that's keeping the pack's weight down. So far I have 3 days worth of clothes, some cold weather covers, mainly a beanie, gloves, arm warmers and one of my lite cold weather jackets. Taking two different pairs of shoes my Merrel Hikers and Merrel Bare foot's. Also taking a flight pack for the plane, which will double as a dirty sack during our walk.

This picture is what my layout looks like now.

Oh and not to leave out my rain gear (pack cover and rain jacket) After looking at the weather, I'm seeing afternoon and late night showers.... and with rain....there will be plenty of mud!!

Futile attempt!!

At this current moment I really don't know what to say. I'm trying to understand how this blogger works and all of it functions. In my futile attempt to make this as interesting as possible its taking a spiraling nose dive straight into the ground. As the trip becomes closer to the departure date blog entries will be updated daily unless we do not have a WiFi connection. Photos and Video may be uploaded as well. Our trip date starts on May 25. Over the next couple of weeks I will try and upload some Photos of the area that I currently live in and talk about those, to break up the time. Until then I hope everybody has a good night.

Two Week Count down

Well, its almost at the two week count down before we leave. Have been using the spare bedroom as a staging area for my clothes and other items I will be taking on my trip. I've added a few new items and taken away a few items, its really hard trying to figure out which to take and keeping your pack weight down. Spoke with a friend that has been to Spain, on what items I might be able to leave behind and what I could acquire over there. She basically  told me anything you can find in the states you can find a similar product there in Spain. Photos will be added as the trip progresses. Again, this is my first attempt in having a blog and this is a new learning experience for me. I'm super excited in making this trip. Still working on my Spanish. My co-workers are helping me out with understanding the language. Will post a new entry in a few days.

First Blog Entry

So this will be my attempt to creating a blog for my up and coming trip. I have never done anything like this before, so please be patient.

A little bit of history on the blogs name. My brother in law has this famous saying  "Carry Me". It has become a family joke when we are out and about. So upon doing this walk I felt the name would fit right in.

Our journey will take about 6 weeks to complete, 30 of those days will be in Spain, walking the Camino De Santiago. My Brother-In-Law and I will be making this journey. Our pre-journey will consist of 3 days of Air and Train travel to our starting point. Upon leaving the states, we will be heading to Paris, France, catch a Train down to Bayonne, France, spending the night and continuing the next morning to St-Jean France. Our walk will start in St-Jean the next day.