Cat Island Paddle

Finally, last Tuesday, the weather gods smiled and after 4 cancelled attempts we paddled the final of the 12 trails that will be in the Friends Paddling Guide! Not only are we relived to be finished with the research, but it was a fantastic paddle. More photos are here on the Friends of Refuges website.

The Great Suwannee River Cleanup

Russ and I stayed ashore to sign -n the volunteers, and to help weigh and haul away the 1 ton of trash the volunteers brought in at Fowlers Bluff. Then we had a down-home lunch at the Treasure Camp next door to the boat ramp. About half of the 82  Fowlers Bluff volunteers stayed for lunch on the screened porch at the Camp. What a way to spend a December Saturday! More photos are posted here on the Friends website.

Teaching the Camino Courses

Our class at Santa Fe College had 14 students, all of whom are thinking of doing the Camino within a year or so. That meant we had the opportunity to talk about all the nitty-gritty fun stuff that nobody who wasn't planning to go with ever care about. We talked about clothes, walking sticks, backpack features, how much water to carry, first aid, boots, rain, accommodations, trains and buses, scallop shells and pilgrim passports. We had a grant time and they kept coming back for more. They even liked to look at guidebooks and pictures of the trails!

What's Up?

Since the Mercy Reunion we have been happily busy. I attended the Friends Academy sponsored by the US National Wildlife System at the National Conservation Training Center in West Virginia. Here is a link to more photos from the week of intensive networking and learning.

When I got back, we were off to Cedar Key for a couple of weeks of kayaking, Friends activities, and Halloween fun.

Now we are back in Gainesville teaching a mini course at Santa Fe Community Education for folks who are seriously considering walking El Camino.

50-Year Mercy Reunion

Fifty years since 1961...having not gone back to my high school in all that time, it seemed right to go this year. And it was. I greatly enjoyed seeing everyone and hearing what they have been up to. It was also nice to be back in the building. The school is going strong.

More photos are here. I fermented more about it on our Random Ferments blog

Camino Presentation and Class

We had great fun doing a presentation about the Camino for the Prime Time Institute on Thursday. About 30 attended. The audience was wonderfully interactive, full of questions and comments. We talked about the "What", the "How", and the "Why" of walking the Camino...the historical and cultural path, the practical path, and the inner path. 

I enjoy talking about the legends related to the Camino and its historical perspective. But I must admit that the "how to" parts are the most fun for me. Our show-and-tell was a hit. We brought our backpacks and sticks for people to try out. We brought our packing lists and examples of all our gear.

Now we are looking forward to the short-course we will teach for the Community Education program at Santa Fe College on three Tuesdays in November...the 8th, 15th, and 29th. In these we will have time to expand the how-to information as well as the discussions of the historical and inner paths of the Camino experience.

If you are interested in taking the course, it will open for registration October 12 through the College's Community Education website www.sfcollege.edu/ce/ The class is listed in the "Special Interests" category and costs $24 for all three classes. It requires at least 10 to run.

Camino Glow

The Camino never seems to leave us when we leave it. All summer we have been enjoying the glow of having been there in May and June.

Now we have started a new novel...set on the Camino.

And, we are going to offer a three-night course about it for the Santa Fe College Community Ed program here in Gainesville in November. More to come

!

Back from the North Country

My spent much of August in Star Lake, NY again this year. We went to Montreal from there for a day at the American Cheese Society Conference and to attend the Festival of Cheeses. This year over 1600 American made artisanal cheeses were on display. See the photos here.

Meg, Pam and James came. We ran in the Save Our Schoolhouse Fun Walk Run. Russ came in second to Gary in the men's 60 to 69 age group, but both were beat by classmate Bonnie. She, Gary, Russ and the others in their class celebrated having graduated from Clifton-Fine High School 50  years ago.

Larry and Donna visited. Well actually they came to see Jake, but we enjoyed their company too.

We saw Cousin Charlene, who looks wonderful and laughed at all our jokes. Russ's mother's friend Agnes, who is now well into her 90s, had us over for lunch at her house in Carthage. Gary, Tracy, Aaron, and Kayla were there.

What a great trip! The lake was even warm enough for non-teenagers and good-old dogs to swim in.

Monasteries

Above is the monastery in Roncesvalles in the Spanish Pyrenees. We stayed there in 2008 and to our pleasant surprise, the accommodations were superb. In fact they top the list of all the places we've stayed in the three years we've walked in France and Spain.

In 2009 we stayed in the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria Carbajalas in Leon, Spain. It was nice, but our room looked out on the courtyard seen in the foreground, which was the scene of all-night partying by crowds of young people.

 Coming into the town of Samos, one gets this view of the Monasterio de Samos. Impressive as the facility is, we'd been warned away from staying there. Peeking into the cramped sleeping rooms, we discovered that we had received good advice.

We stayed in the huge Monasterio de San Martin Pinario in Santiago in 2009. The building covers almost an entire city block, but one day at breakfast we were joined by only four other guests.

Peg lounges in our rather basic room in the Monasterio de San Martin Pinario.

This is the Augustinian monastery of St. Nicholas de Barri in the tiny town of San Juan de Ortega. Built in 1150, it has accommodations for pilgrims. We didn't stay there, but stopped this year for a cup of coffee in the adjoining cafe bar.

All that remains of the Monastery of St. Felix de Oca is this gateway. Founded in the 9th century, it was once an important institution.

These ruins are what's left of the convent of San Anton, near Castrojerez in the Kingdom of Castilla y Leon. The order was famous for curing the disease St. Anthony's fire, now thought to be a form of ergotism, resulting from the eating of moldy bread. These ruins date from the 14th and 15th centuries. Unlikely as it might seem, a small facility tucked into one corner of the ruins was offering lodging for pilgrims when we visited in 2011. We took a pass on the opportunity and opted for more traditional accommodations.

The monastery of St. Zoilo, near the town of Carrion de los Condes now functions as a luxury hotel. Walking by this year we thought we might stop for a cup of coffee, but decided to walk on.

These ruins are nearly all that remains of the once-important Monasterio de San Facundo in Sahagun, Spain. Behind them is a much more modern clock tower. The monastery was founded in the mid 800s, but these ruins may be of more recent structures.


We missed others along the route, some having been reduced to little more than rubble, and many more probably re-purposed. Those that are still active as monasteries or convents are mostly reduced to mere handfuls of occupants.