I just realized today why I have been reluctant to get to work and publish the stories as well as the pictures. Biking the Camino has been an amazing experience. It was tough and difficult, it was beautiful and joyful, it was sad, it was full-filing, and I feel once I publish the pictures and write the stories this experience will be completed…

Don’t get me wrong, I am happy to be home, see my friends, sleep in my own bed, go to Wegmans. However there is a big part of me that misses The Camino… as tough as my ride was this is the hardest part of my experience. I now understand that I have to work hard to make sure The Camino is always with me, it did have a beginning but not and end and hopefully I will find another opportunity to go again. Until then, I will cherish the friendships made, the memories, the little mementos, the pictures and most important of all, the learnings.

Since Monday (6/30) I have not been able to write because as I came closer to Santiago, room in the albergues became sparse and many times at the end of my riding day and after I had riden more than 50 difficult miles (the Galician terrain is very mountanous) I had to ride 2,3,5 or 10 more miles to find room.   Once I made it to the “albergue” or hostel all I wanted to do was shower, eat, handwash clothes and sleep.  I am trying to recoup but I promise I will write and post pictures soon.  There is a lot to tell as my last few days were not uneventful…

I can tell you now that as soon as I arrived at Monte do Gozo (Mount of Joy) which is a hill from where you could (in the past before the urban growth of the city) see the peaks of the Cathedral in Santiago, and where there is a large pilgrim Monument, I could not contain my joy and started crying.  As I write this my eyes water… 

A million thanks for your support, stay tuned…

Thanks to your enegry, prayers and Santiago Apostol.  Again, I will publish pictures after 4th of July weekend.

One funny anecdote, Since day one I have not fallen of my bike, nearly 200 miles.  Today we (Manuel and I) arrived at the albergue at 7:10 pm however as son as I stopped in front of the albergue I could not unclipped my right pedal and felt in front of the albergue….Again I am extremelly tired.

The last two days have been very demanding phisically, all in all about 120 miles covered through hard mountain passes. I have met great people and now ride with 1 friend from Valencia and from time to time we meet a Spanish couple and two guys from Madrid.  We make sure we know where each other is at all times in case of an emergency.  Also we have met at the end of the day in different albergues and shared stories from our travels.

I have tons of pictures to share but I think it will be easier to do so once I arrive at Galicia sometime after 4th of July.  My bike is holding up ok but there are noises coming out of it that I have never heard before which is the same I can say about my body because I am very tired…When I wake up in the morning I feel a train has run over me…However, I am in great spirits thanks to your positive energy, good wishes and prayers.  Keeep the coming.

As soon as I can I will write again and post pictures and videos.  Buen Camino

Tomorrow will be another tough day with temperaturs in the high 90s.  Thank for all your encouraging words. Keep me in your prayers!!!

Yesterday we arrived by car to Roncesvalles very late, too late to do the first stage from Saint Jean Pied de Prt to Roncesvalles.  Against advise from the person at the hotel we took a taxi to Saint Jean Pied de Port where I had my Pilgrim passport stamped and received strong advise to leave in the morning.  We have a very tight timetable until tomorrow (when I start on my own) and had to do the stage or call it a day.   We decided to start our hike on the Pyrenees 5 miles up the road on a mountain refugee…. It was almost 3 pm and we had about 4 hours to s the Pyrenees from France to Spain (really crazy)

We started walking and immediately were covered with fog so intense we could not see more than 15 feet in front of us.  The temperature dropped from about 80F to 60F and we had nothing more than our t-shirts.  We climbed more than 2500 feet with little visibility…It was treacherous….and amazingly beautiful once it cleared and before it started raining.  Many sections we could see (but not hear) the bells on the necks of cows, sheep, and horses… we walk a little more than 10 miles and climbed about 2500 feet before we descended 1500 feet to Roncesvalles. We made it but could barely move.  The best part of the day was the Pilgrim Mass and Blessing at the church in Roncesvalles at 8:00 pm

Sughey was a true tropper, she never complained and always keep her good spirits.  SHE IS REALLY AMAZINBG!!! I wish she would come with me the whole way…I owe you more pictures but this connection is really slow…

I am pretty tired, so I do not want say much about today…yet.  But I will give you a summary.

I Fell off my bike twice (very hard) I blew my tube and my spare tube had a slow leak so I had to stop every 1.5 miles to pump it a little until I blew it 5 miles from my end point (Pamplona) so I had to carry my bike (on my shoulder) until Don Jose Antonio, a retired gentlemen from Pamlpona, saw my pilgrim sign (I´ll show you later) and he helped me with my bike.

I hope I can tell you some  good knews tomorrow….

Today we depart to France and then will cross the Pirynees (on foot) back to Spain.  It will be a long day.  I will keep you posted.  Did you like the pictures?

I took a couple pictures at the Frankfurt Airport to share with you.

In the next few days our friends Iratxe y Javier will give us a tour of Bilbao and San Sebastian and the Basque Regio. On Monday Sughey and I head to France where we will cross the Pyrenees (on foot)

I will keep you posted.

The ground crew from USAir here in Brussels did a fantastic job re-routing me.  They were waiting for me at the gate, they had all my new flight information ready and they had already call the baggage people to let them know what they had to do with my bike…My bike is one element of the story that has me worried.  I saw the folks in Philadelphia getting it off the plane and throwing it rather harshly into the baggage car…I hope it can endure two more flights.

So far, the flights have been good and I have managed to walk around a lot first in Rochester, then Philadelphia and now here in Brussels.  Let’s see what happens in Frankfurt, if I have the opportunity I will write again today so saty tuned. 

The day began early, lots of enthusiasm and a nice drive from our house to Mendon Pond Park. The energy was high as people parked their cars and greeted us as we parked ours. The day was warm but at 7:20 a.m. it was not hot yet. We took fresh at this time.

As I unloaded the bikes of my car I realized I had left my bike computer at home…..WHAT???? I had to ride without instruments? If you know me, you know I was not a happy camper, How was I going to do this? I have not ridden w/o instruments since…ever. Not a good start.

The day was getting hotter so the organizers decided to let the riders start earlier. According to Sughey, who was starting later, I started my ride at 7:45 a.m. I had no way of telling what time I started for I was not carrying a watch or cell phone, there was not an electric device on me, back to the stone age…. (looking at the sun did not help either)

I started pedaling and I was trying to figure out ways to entertain my brain. Under normal circumstances the only way I can pedal for many hours is doing math in my head. I start doing calculations based on the numbers from my bike computer. How long it should take me based on how fast I was going, what my pace would be if I accelerated through a hill, or if I break at a stop sign how much my average should drop, etc, etc, etc Can you imagine my panic when I realized that I had no way of telling how fast I was going or how far I was, or how long I had left? On top of that I already had doubts on my ability to complete the 62.5 miles on my heavy mountain bike…I had done 100 and 62.5 miles before but on my much lighter and more efficient road bike. And how I was to entertain my brain for hours…

As soon as I left Mendon Pond Park and headed West towards Rush on route 251 I realized that I could try/attempt to figure out how far I had gone based on two facts. One, I had read the map that outlined the different rest stops and knew how far these rest stops where from the start. Two, a few days earlier I had driven part of the route with Sughey to make sure she knew where to go. I remembered some landmarks and how far they were. If I could concentrate and remember some things at least I would know how far I had gone (and ho far I had left to go) You will be surprised how well this method worked. I know this because during my ride I asked two people (one biker with a bike computer, one volunteer) how far we had gone and the distances they told me where at least 10 miles off. How do I know? Well the biker told me we had gone according to his computer 27 miles and I knew that number was wrong because we had not reached the second rest stop located at the 21 mile marker. At the fourth rest stop I asked a volunteer how far we had gone and she said 46 miles, I could not believe it!!! I only had 16.5 miles to go and felt great! NO WAY!!! I knew I had to reach the Avon rest stop to reach 46 miles, she was confused but she made me very happy for 1 second…

The last problem to solve was to figure out how fast I was going so I could pace myself and make sure I had enough gas until the end. Well, that problem I could not solve. There was only one place where I saw the time and that was riding trough downtown Geneseo. I saw a large clock making the time as 10:40 a.m.(and the temprature tha was a scorching 82F) I had hoped to go through Geneseo between 11 and 12, but I had started 15 minutes earlier. At least I knew I was a few minutes ahead of schedule…

Another interesting fact was the number of people that commented how fast I was going on my mountain bike. ‘You are my hero” or ” man, you can really push those big tires” or “you are doing 62.5 in that bike?” were some of the comments I received from people riding alongside. It made me feel good and I did not want to tell them about my pace strategy…since I could not totally pace myself due to the lack of computer I decided to go as fast as I could until my body collapsed… That started around around mile 54, just after Lima and right before Honeoye Falls. However at that point I could smell the Outback Statehouse lunch that was waiting for me at Mendon Ponds Park…

I want to thank all the people that donated to this worthy cause, Sughey and I raised over $1000 for the American Diabetes Association. Also, this was Sughey’s first year and she is wants to buy a faster bike for she wants to do at least 62.5 miles next year…Life could not be better, she even mentioned that with better planning she could have come with me on my pilgrimmage…I told her, there is always next year.

Here are some pictures from the ride