Posts

18 Nov 2024
16:09 » It’s now a routine. I arrive in Montpellier on a Sunday afternoon after leaving Phoenix in the middle of the day Saturday, so I still …
17 Nov 2024
09:55 » If everyone is fleeing the United States after the recent elections, it surely wasn’t evident on my flight to Paris. The economy cabin …
16 Nov 2024
21:18 » Since my flight today isn’t until the middle of the afternoon, I decided to wait until this morning to pack. I had set out a small, …
12:35 » It’s been over four months since I last posted anything on this blog, but it is far from abandoned. In fact, I’ve spent a lot of that time …
30 Jun 2024
14:36 » At last weekend’s dinner party, having just gotten back to the U.S. from France a few hours earlier, one of my friends asked me whether I …
29 Jun 2024
13:36 » I haven’t gotten a lot of exercise since I got home from France a week ago, so this morning I decided to take a pre-dawn stroll in my fine …
26 Jun 2024
14:28 » I’ve been back in Phoenix for a few days now, and the questions I’ve been most asked by friends and colleagues are “How was the flight?” …
22 Jun 2024
06:39 » This is a new one for me. Right now, I’m waiting for my flight back to Phoenix. As usual, I had outbound border formalities here in Paris. …
18 Jun 2024
11:26 » From time to time, people ask me about the difference between how much things cost here in France and the United States. Naturally, it’s a …
9 Jun 2024
17:49 » After Mass this morning, I was chatting with a gentleman who asked me whether owning an apartment in France gives me the right to vote in …
2 Jun 2024
15:47 » I heard from the heating contractor on Monday, and luckily I was able to get on their schedule for Thursday. The technician was on time — …
25 May 2024
18:33 » It amuses me how often people ask me for directions here in Montpellier. I do exactly nothing to blend in. Yes, I speak French when I’m …
23 May 2024
10:01 » It has come to my attention that some readers have not been receiving e-mail digests recently sent from this blog. I did some …
16 May 2024
13:09 » I’ve been in Montpellier for almost four days now. The final flight here arrived only a few minutes later than expected, just enough for me …
12 May 2024
08:57 » For what it’s worth, my last post was written about 18 hours ago, but I forgot to push the publish button at the time. You’d think I’d be …
08:37 » I’m off again, heading back to Montpellier, this time for six weeks if all goes well. It feels a little different this time, not only …
9 May 2024
21:05 » I haven’t posted anything in a while, so just for fun, here are some food photos from last weekend’s road trip to Las Vegas. Overindulging …
2 Feb 2024
14:02 » In light of today being Candlemas, I’ll share a few photos of the crèche displayed at the Chapel of the White Penitents in Montpellier …
13 Jan 2024
23:33 » It’s already been two weeks since my last post, and I’m almost home again. This time, a very long layover in Salt Lake City, caused by a …
28 Dec 2023
17:31 » It’s been a while, but I’m back. Today, Kathryn and I are on the way to our place in Montpellier. Kathryn was there with a friend in …
18 Aug 2023
21:41 » Because the landscape is so big and open and rolling in this part of the country, I find it difficult to frame a good photo. To put it in …
17 Aug 2023
15:34 » Along with my friend and his mother, I spent the last two nights at a hotel in Spearfish, South Dakota. The property my friend inherited is …
15:33 » Fix one thing, break another. Apparently my recent fix for rendering legacy photo captions has broken new captions from rendering …
15 Aug 2023
18:32 » Last week, I was at a reception where I saw some friends I hadn’t seen in a while, one of whom mentioned how much better she liked my old …
29 Jun 2023
14:46 » I’ve been back in Phoenix for ten days now, and it already seems like forever. Not much has really changed, except that it’s considerably …
9 Jun 2023
11:44 » I’ve been safely back in Montpellier for a week now, and it’s perhaps no surprise that I haven’t done a whole lot. Kathryn arrived barely …
2 Jun 2023
00:20 » Today I’m experiencing the joys of European intercity bus travel. After enjoying 14 hours of sauna-like conditions on the bus from Santiago …
31 May 2023
08:23 » Just a quick post to say I’ve arrived in Santiago de Compostela. I made a strategic decision to go directly to the pilgrim office before …
30 May 2023
17:17 » A few days after starting this stage of my Camino pilgrimage in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, my wife wrote me a message that, at the rate I was …
29 May 2023
16:10 » Today’s walk was mostly about keeping my head down and focusing on the trail in front of me, one step at a time. I didn’t take many …
28 May 2023
19:35 » If I could sum up the last two days in two words, it would be these: poor judgment. It was poor judgment to underestimate the effects of …
26 May 2023
16:07 » Be careful what you wish for. Three days ago I was whining about how unvarying the scenery had been for nearly two weeks. Then two days ago …
25 May 2023
16:17 » Compared to yesterday’s long, knee-crushing downhill slog, today should have been a piece of cake. The reality is that I spent today …
24 May 2023
17:57 » When I got home from the first phase of this pilgrimage last year — an amazing, uplifting, spiritually edifying four weeks — I told my …
23 May 2023
14:14 » Today was one of the more enjoyable days of walking for the past week. The terrain started to become a bit more varied, with rolling hills …
22 May 2023
20:13 » So this happened. There weren’t a lot of people taking dinner at the albergue this evening. Rather than sitting by myself, I decided to sit …
14:28 » The best part of today’s walk was enjoying the early morning light as I left León, a city I could see myself visiting again with my wife. …
14:16 » Yesterday’s walk from El Burgo Ranero to León started out as boring as the previous days. However, a couple hours away from León, the …
06:32 » For years I’ve been joking to my wife that, when I passed through León, I would stay at the five-star Hotel Parador. Of course, I did not. …
20 May 2023
19:43 » Beautiful walking weather today, even if the scenery was a little dull. Cool, some clouds, and the insufferable winds of the previous two …
19 May 2023
18:34 » Many of the pilgrim menus I’ve had over the last 13 days have been pretty bad, enough so that I’ve started avoiding them. However, if …
15:50 » My bed tonight is a mattress on a floor, and I’m grateful to have it. It was the last mattress in the village. Today wasn’t my longest day …
18 May 2023
16:20 » In my few previous travels in Spain — usually to major cities like Madrid or Barcelona — I remember how difficult it was to have dinner …
17 May 2023
16:04 » For what it’s worth, for me personally, this shorter-form blog posting is working well. Even though my posts are often still several …
15:50 » I was getting ready to write a post yesterday after a long walk from San Juan de Ortega through Burgos to Tardajos. Then two women walked …
15 May 2023
13:31 » After leaving Belorado this morning, the trail started quickly gaining some altitude, and it worked its way into the first real forest I’ve …
14 May 2023
14:59 » I’ve walked about 65 miles since I left the comfortable hotel room in Los Arcos three mornings ago. The weather has been unseasonably cold, …
13 May 2023
19:47 » I’ve spent the last two days taking advantage of the unseasonably cool and cloudy weather to put some distance behind me, so my recent life …
11 May 2023
18:34 » Cool and windy walk today from Lorca to Los Arcos. I decided it was time for a hotel room for a night, so I’m at a …
08:11 » The rumors are true: There is a wine fountain on the Camino de Santiago. I thought it was a lot closer to Santiago de Compostela, so I was …
10 May 2023
16:50 » As I mentioned in a post before I left Montpellier, my new blog software was short of features before going live. Among the missing …
15:22 » I’m spending the night in Lorca, again not one of the usual stages. I’m in a small albergue, only 12 beds, with very friendly hosts. At …
9 May 2023
19:52 » Today I walked to Zariquiegui, which I have no idea how to pronounce. I’m still in Basque country, and a lot of place names reflect that. …
13:09 » I’m in Pamplona right now. It seems my plan to avoid the throngs of pilgrims worked. I’ve been walking for about four hours, and I’ve …
8 May 2023
16:56 » Today’s route was a lot easier than yesterday’s, even though it was longer. There were a lot of clouds at the start, and although it was …
7 May 2023
14:47 » I can say, without any qualification, that today was the most challenging day of my Camino. I started in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France, …
08:50 » It’s official. I’m in Spain.
04:32 » A few photos from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port before I hit the trail.
6 May 2023
15:39 » I arrived in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port about two hours ago. I checked into the gîte and had a nap for a little while. I woke up hungry and …
11:48 » Arrived in Bayonne. I had a really good hamburger near this train station last year on my way home from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. My …
09:48 » Apparently the train to Bayonne passes through Lourdes. I had no idea until I boarded. Kathryn and I drove from Montpellier to Lourdes when …
08:16 » Brief connection here in Toulouse. The next train is to Bayonne, which will be the longest segment of the trip. The train was already in …
05:09 » I left the apartment 20 minutes before the scheduled departure time for my first train, which will take me to Toulouse. It was 15 minutes …
5 May 2023
16:32 » I thought I uploaded this photo of a take-out pizza I had for dinner shortly after I arrived in Montpellier three days ago. I didn’t, so I …
16:29 » It’s been a relatively boring 72 hours in Montpellier. Putting together furniture and buying last-minute trail supplies is hardly worthy of …
2 May 2023
15:57 » The flight to Montpellier also departed late, but I suspect this delay was due in part to an air traffic controller strike. After giving no …
09:24 » I’m safely on the ground in Paris, waiting for my next flight. I wrote my last post from Atlanta too soon. The aircraft had some mechanical …
1 May 2023
21:45 » So far, so good. I have a relatively short layover in Atlanta. Boarding should start in just a few minutes. They were making a generous …
15:22 » I’m going to try to post more, shorter posts this year, rather than a feature-length article every few days like I did last year. Some …
15:20 » Since our church is only a few minutes from the airport, and since there’s a convenient 6:30 am Mass, my journey today started there with …
28 Apr 2023
14:59 » A few photos from my early morning hike in the Sonoran Preserve, Phoenix.
27 Apr 2023
16:02 » I hard-coded a reply address for e-mails for a new feature I was testing. Unfortunately I left it there went the code went into production. …
26 Apr 2023
20:40 » My house is down there somewhere, I think. Shaw Butte, this morning. Shaw Butte, 4.4 miles.