Leaving Jake :(

We are bringing a back pack and belly pack for each of us and checking through a duffel with non-carryon items. They will be dispersed to our packs on arrival and the duffel will tuck away until the return. 

Hate to leave Jake, even though people and animals he loves will be with him.

Off Tomorrow to the Camino

Here is our plan. Tomorrow Gainesville to Charlotte to Madrid via USAIR. Wednesday we take the train from Madrid to Pamplona. Thursday we start our walk.

In 2008 we hiked the parts of El Camino that are highlighted in red. We started in Figeac, France and walked to Moissac, France. then we hopped a train to St Jean Pied de Port on the French side of the Pyrenees and hiked over the mountains to Pamplona, famous for the running of the bulls among other things.

This time we will start where we ended in 2008 and hope to hike all the part highlighted in blue. That will bring us to Leon, the beginning of the green highlighted section. We hiked that in 2009 from Leon to Santiago. This time, we'd like to repeat a favorite section of the 2009 hike, if time allows.

We have cut about 5 pounds each from the weight of our 2009 packs. That will be nice! We plan to stay in small hotels and boarding houses or B&Bs. Looking forward to the slow pace.

Leaving

Leaving? Not quite yet, but Jake seems to somehow have gotten the notion that we will be going away. For the past several days he has left his normal hangouts and has been blockading one door or the other. He needn't worry about us forgetting him, but we definitely will not be taking him with us on our trek across Spain.

He is very fond of the house-sitter, so will likely much enjoy our absence.

Packing

We're packing for our month-long trek on the Camino. We don't leave until Tuesday, but will have company over the weekend (who will need our staging area -- aka the guestroom) and other commitments on Monday. We plan to use our packs as carry-on luggage and send the things we can't take on board (walking poles, knives, scissors, etc.) in a duffel as checked baggage. We need to plan carefully so we won't be left in a bind if the duffel doesn't arrive with us.

Here's Peggy with our stuff two years ago as we were waiting for our train in Madrid's Atocha railway station. When we got to Leon we transferred everything to our backpacks and left the duffel behind.

Lilies

We are in countdown mode. Seven days to El Camino!

But between now and then we are enjoying Florida beauty in our yard. Ahhhh, lilies.

Fantastic Cedar Key Weekend

Talk about a fun-filled weekend! We started with an adventuresome paddle at Shell Mound. If the Gulf looks flat between the Shell Mound launch ramp and Hog Island, and the wind is blowing about 10 miles an hour, what will the waves be like on the outside of Hog Island?  Adventure! Ride those little waves in your tiny little kayak! Splash on through! Of course I didn't get the camera out until I was back to the calm side, so you'll just have to trust that it was pretty darn fun.

Russ blogged about it on Random Ferments.

Off we go

Pretty little waves

Looks calm enough on this side if the island

Russ and our friend Mark

I love floating up next to the sea grass, but it is still hard to see how it is attached to the bottom.

Slow Food Gainesville came to Cedar Key to learn about the clamming industry and to share a pot luck dinner. Check the Slow Food description HERE.

to the Clam Shack

Learning from Leslie Sturmer

Clam types

Leslie answers our questions

Look at the tiny seed clams

Almost too pretty to eat

The Small Boat Meet was this weekend too. Sometimes Cedar Key looks quiet and boring. Cedar Key deceives.

Party for the Small Boat Lovers at Jeri and Bob's

More partying