Latest / Travel Joneses / S1 E1 | Why Walk 150 Miles? Saying Yes to the Camino Portugués | Travel Joneses
Transcript
- speaker-0: So when I first said I'm gonna go for a walk, what did you think? speaker-1: I thought you were crazy. I you know, I think I stopped like in the kitchen, like, huh? Aren't you glad that speaker-0: Sing it less. speaker-1: is Porto, Portugal to Santiago, Spain, on foot. 242 kilometers, two countries, and lots of surprises. This is our take on the Camino de Santiago, Portuguese route. speaker-0: We don't. speaker-1: Hey, where the Tribal Jones is, I'm Janice. speaker-0: And I'm Donald. We're a husband and wife team, storytellers by trade, and travelers by heart. speaker-1: Fancy trips, road trips, city walks, mountain hikes, and every great discovery along the way. speaker-0: Definitely do our research and we plan the detail. speaker-1: And then we leave room for surprises, because the best moments are rarely on the itinerary. speaker-0: Something better shows up. We are happy to pivot. speaker-1: So pull up a chair and come along. This is Travel Joneses. What did he say? What's wrong with him? Yeah, what's wrong with him? speaker-0: And to put it in context, folks, I'm a longtime cyclist. I I've always speaker-1: He doesn't walk or run. speaker-0: I've always loved my bike. I did run. I did run when I was working on I speaker-1: Come on. You like walking better than running. Yes. speaker-0: ran in high school, like cross country and some track, and then I I I just bought my first bike, I think going into college, my first racing road bike, and I was just addicted. So walking speaker-1: Walking was never a thing. speaker-0: was not a thing. speaker-1: And I walk regularly with a girlfriend, with the dog. And I had walked that day. Yeah. You know, and got back to the house, especially like randomly in the middle of the day. You're like, I'm going for a walk. I was like, hmm? speaker-0: And I was gone for a little bit. speaker-1: But I already kinda had yeah, you were gone for quite a while. And I had an inkling because I knew what you were reading about. And then you came back and you were like I don't know I lost track of where what you were doing and how long you were gone or whatever. But you came back and you were like, I walked seven miles. I walked the entire loop of our lovely giant neighborhood. And I was like, What? Miles. speaker-0: Yep. speaker-1: But I also was immediately envious. I was like, I I can't believe he walked all that without me. speaker-0: What in the world? Why didn't you tell me this? speaker-1: Well, I guess I did like pretty quickly soon after, right? speaker-0: So all that came about because I happen to be reading. speaker-1: Which was also a big what? from me. speaker-0: I mean I read, come on. I I read. I just not an avid reader where I'm popping up and, you know, burying my nose in a book often. That just wasn't happening. I'm a periodical reader, right? speaker-1: Yeah. And you do like nonfiction. speaker-0: I do like nonfiction. speaker-1: and he you might read like at bedtime or something like that, but there was a pattern that had developed. Yeah. And you were getting out of bed, doing your meditation, shoop, right into your chair in the front room with your coffee and your nose in a book. Yeah. Which is something I would do. speaker-0: So how did all this come about? Was one of the books was a a good friend said, Hey, I got this cool book, and and whether it's I don't know if you would rephrase it as just spiritual thinking, meditation, relaxing, speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: uplifting, self- and speaker-1: Help, I guess they call themselves help books like speaker-0: and the author is Cute Blackston and the book is You Are the One. speaker-1: Kristen loved the book and recommended it, right? speaker-0: A good friend of ours who we worked with. And so I whipped through this thing like cup I mean, days. And and in it was this beautiful story that he shares about his experience on the Camino de Santiago, the French way, which is the longstanding most popular route for pilgrims to walk. But I just loved it. And and I just had this immense attraction to the story. It was told so well. speaker-1: You connected with it and and it stuck in your heart. 'Cause you shared it with me. Yeah. Right after reading it. I mean boom. speaker-0: Boom, hit me in the chest and I'm like, I wanna read more on the Camino. Brrrr. I'm start googling. And mind you non-fiction Camino, nonfiction Camino book. speaker-1: We knew about the Camino at this point, right? Like this this what you're talking about happened like maybe four or five months ago. Yeah. And we had heard of the Camino probably ten or twelve years ago. At least. When we were introduced to it. Right. And that was Yeah. speaker-0: Family friend speaker-1: We had my parents' best friends had walked it and we thought that was super cool and very interesting. And then of course, probably around that same time the movie The Way came out. speaker-0: Martin Sheen, yep. And and what's cool is now they're doing a part two finally years later. But that was 2010 the movie came out, but I think we watched it in 2012. speaker-1: Yeah. And we loved it and we were like I think both of us were like, That's cool. I would do that. I wanna do that. speaker-0: But we were in in in these crazy careers, broadcast journalism and there was no way we were getting at the same time forty days to walk the French way of the Camino de Santiago. speaker-1: Well, we were w o starting our own business back when we had learned about it at that point. Yeah. It w so it went on that long term bucket list. You know, everybody has the bucket list. It went on that list. I don't know where it was on that list, but it was on the like one day. Yeah. And then a few years ago we had a friend who walked it and that was super cool. And I'm like, I could know somebody else that has done it. It's speaker-0: They walked a different route. Yeah. Which we'll get to, right? We'll get to. The French way is the most popular route. And and by the way, let's give a little context. For those, I I if you've searched the podcast because we had Camino in the in the title, maybe you're familiar with it, maybe you're not. Maybe your friends or family joining us because you know we walked it. But the Camino de Santiago is translated as the way of St. James. It's a historic network. of ancient European pilgrimage routes that all lead even outside of Spain, but they all ultimate lead to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, which is in northwestern Spain. And you know that's where the story goes, the remains of Apostle St. James are traditionally believed to be buried. speaker-1: Thousands of people walk it every year. speaker-0: We'll we'll share more facts about the Camino and the different routes as we get through our episodes, but let's go back to the books. Okay. So I searched Amazon and I want to share this with you all because maybe you'll be interested. The very first one that came up that was an international bestseller and speaker-1: And this is when you decided I'm gonna start reading Camino books because of that one story in Cootsbook. speaker-0: Right, I need to Kuth Blackson's book, shared it about his walk on the French way. I'm like, I've got to get into this. So the first one I ordered, which was an international bestseller, was about a German comedian. his travel and his name is Hape Kirkling, and it's I'm off then. speaker-1: Come off then. speaker-0: Yeah, I'm off then, losing and finding myself on the Camino de Santiago. And it's funny, it's descriptive, it's just cool. speaker-1: and every German that we met on the Camino that we just walked, yeah, had read it. Had read it speaker-0: At it and love him. speaker-1: and they somebody made a comment that like ninety percent of Germans on the Camino now were there because of that book. speaker-0: It's it's great. And so again, it's documenting his walk on the Camino the French way, but still it's beautiful. And I was just speaker-1: Inspiring. speaker-0: few days, right? So then I tell her, I'm like, I'm done. I'm ordering another one. And the next one I research, I can't believe it. We're 80s kids, you know. I'm a fan. This is cool. Andrew McCarthy, right? Here it is. Andrew McCarthy walking with Sam and he walked it. in his early thirties by himself, but then the book is about him saying to his son, Hey Sam, you wanna go for a walk? And they walk it together. And us having two boys and one that's in college and one that's just graduated. speaker-1: Sam is like our boy's age when he walks with his dad. speaker-0: And I so connected. I mean, Andrew McCarthy writes this so beautifully. And as a father-son relationship, I'm so familiar with, I I was laughing. I was on the verge of tears, just like, my gosh, this is this is me and my boys. And he nails it. and it's a beautiful book. It's a beautiful experience that you got to experience with the two of them. And speaker-1: When Donald's excited about something, you know, he stops. I he's got his pencil when he's reading and he's making notes in the books, but he stops and he tells me these stories or over breakfast or lunch or whatever, he'll s he'll share stories from the books. So I'm like living vicariously through his reading. speaker-0: So then I got to do that in what a couple of days. Then I order another one. And it's called Off the Road by Jack Hit. And this has been out there for a while. And this is basically about the French way as well of the Camino. And it's another great one. I I I it it was amazing. and I and I was just so enthralled. I kept like little excerpts sharing them with Jan. And I'm like, honey, listen to this. You you gotta hear this, or listen to this story. And this is what they experienced. speaker-1: And there's a lot of books out there we've learned, but i he know, he was definitely inspired. speaker-0: So I mean I finished that I don't know if it was right after the walking with Sam that I pulled the whole, Hey honey, I'm going for a walk and then seven miles later you're like, Wait a second, and what did you say? speaker-1: So well, what happened is is after what he write reads Walking with Sam, Andrew McCarthy's book, Walking with His Son, he's all inspired to walk. And this is kind of this is just brewing under the surface. It's not really conversations we're having fully in the house. But our son happened to our our older son happens to be home and he Donald Donald says, Hey, you wanna go for a walk? to our son. And he thinks he's being funny. I already know the stories. And I hear it and he's like he's thinking, wouldn't it be cool if I went to Spain and walked this with my son? And I heard that and I went, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. There's speaker-0: Nobody going without mama. speaker-1: nobody walking without me. I mean, I know this Camino. Nobody's going in doing the Camino without me. I want to do the Camino. and so that's how we get to speaker-0: Especially when Troop, our oldest, was like, Sure, I'll go and you're like, No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, wait a second, wait a second, you're looking for a job speaker-1: I'm like, you just got out of college, you're looking for a job. This is not your Camino time yet. Right. This is my Camino time, which is also part of the story that will come up. Yeah. This is quite a pivot time in our household. speaker-0: This is a Saturday. I walked the seven miles and and after all of that, Jan says, I'm walking with you tomorrow. Let's walk. speaker-1: Now that I know you're walking, let's walk together and let's, you know, like double or triple our dog walk right that our typical. speaker-0: Which Friday our Golden Retriever was certainly happy to go longer on the walks. speaker-1: So we did. So we walked, you know, in the neighborhood five or six miles the next day. speaker-0: Yeah, we're like, wow, I'm you know, I'm used to doing many miles on a bike, right? But I was proud of myself that I'm like churning out a seven mile loop on foot, which is so funny, right? speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: I mean it I didn't tell you that, did I? I'm walking along in the neighborhood and I find this big stick on the on like the yard trash pile. You did not tell So I walk around the neighborhood using my walking stick. I I I was legit. speaker-1: I mean it's interesting, I'd love to know people who listen in their perspective of how, you know, two miles, four miles, six miles, eight miles, like what sounds like a big walk to you. Because people have different peop a lot of people walk. When I walk the dog, a two, two and a half mile walk is about what we fit in for time wise. And so, you know, I don't know when you think about walks, if that sounds like a lot or it doesn't sound like a lot. To some people it sounds like a lot and to some people it It doesn't. Right. If you're a runner, it's completely different 'cause it goes by a lot faster than walking. So there's the length of time that you're out there with your brain, you know, with your thoughts. speaker-0: So this all fell on like a perfect weekend. Well, at least if I'm in my mind conspiring to how can we do this walk one day? And we walk Saturday I walk Saturday, we walk Sunday together. Sunday's speaker-1: Monday's a holiday. speaker-0: Memorial Day, and we're all you know, we're off and Jan says, Hey, we can walk again tomorrow. Let's go down to my parents' house where we can do a little walk around this area. speaker-1: We'll walk in a new pretty spot, we'll visit them. Yeah. And we'll go for a longer walk. speaker-0: Right. That's what we did. And so our brains just churning and we're talking and I'm sharing more endless stories about things from the books that I read about the Camino. And and I I forgot to mention this, but on that seven mile walk, well, what do I do? I immediately search podcasts for anything on the Camino, just like I searched the books, right? So I find this podcast about the Camino. And so you're thinking about a Camino and episode one, episode two, and I listen to three or four, so then I'm like Gushing about that to Jan and I think we actually listened to an episode speaker-1: Maybe we did, yeah. We eventually regularly listened with one earpod in each, you know, shared to podcast Camino podcast. we've listened to a lot of them. speaker-0: And it's about people's experiences and what to do and where to go. And and I I think it was was it on the walk down near your parents' house? speaker-1: Well, my wheels were turning. Your wheels are turning. I'm enjoying the exercise. I just like to be outside. So I was enjoying the leveled up exercise, the longer turn time outside and the camaraderie of having you with me. And I'm not cycl we've cycled together, but I can't keep up with him. So walking, we're we're side by side, even though he does walk a lot faster than me. We were like, we could walk. This walking and preparing for the Camino is super exciting and I'm like thinking in my head like the Camino is like thirty five or forty days, the French way, the traditional way. speaker-0: Like forty days. I mean thirty-five if you're moving. Yeah. And then forty days, forty-five speaker-1: If you put speaker-0: if you put some rest days in there. Yeah. Because you're walking eight hundred kilometers. It's five hundred miles, right? Just across the border in France. Your first day you cross the Pyrenees and the rest of it's walking all the way west in Spain. So you're five hundred speaker-1: So you're talking like a month and a half to two months, you know, with traveling there and all of that, like to take out of your life to do this. And it's on our bucket list and I'm like, what are we we're never we're not gonna be able to do that anytime soon. I mean, we own a business, we're working regularly, we have had some, you know, changes in our life and that we're now we're empty nesters. speaker-0: Empty nesters. Your your mind's churning. Hey, well we can go do things together. The boys have got their things going on. It's this new chapter. What can we do? speaker-1: Are we empty nesting talking right now? Because like that's a big part of it. And we're we were not literally empty nesters yet, but we were preparing ourselves to be and speaker-0: Because our our oldest had graduated and was looking for a job. speaker-1: He was back home, but he was applying and he was freelancing and we knew that he wouldn't be there for long. And our youngest was preparing was doing a summer session and then going off full time in the fall. Yep. And so I was mentally preparing myself to, you know, have your children leave the house. Right. That's a that's a interesting thing to start engaging with, the idea of not having them around. It popped in my head, well, our friend From church had gone a a woman who went solo not not too long ago. On one of she speaker-0: And speaker-1: did a shorter route. And I said, Remember she did that shorter route? I think it was like two weeks or or you know, a fat two weeks or something like that. And I think she started in Portugal. We should we should look into that. Like that's something maybe we could actually do. Right. It was that moment, like Monday. speaker-0: And I'm basically at that point in the car, in my head, driving to REI. speaker-1: Well by you. I but I said were you thinking that before I said like so we finished our walk that day morning of Memorial Day and I said we have the whole rest of the day off. Should we drive to REI and look at trucking poles? 'Cause that would be a cool thing to just be practicing whenever speaker-0: And I mean, did we even venture to say we could look at backpacks too? speaker-1: I don't think so. It was just the starting with the trekking poles. speaker-0: Well, that was the the green flag for me. I mean, dude, it was waving and I was off because I'm thinking this can be done. We can do the Camino Portuguese and and we can go for two weeks and we're on the way. And literally this is the third day of walking. I walked out of the house on Saturday for the first seven miler. We walk Sunday together, we walk Monday together. speaker-1: And when I do you want to go to REI, you were like in the car. speaker-0: I'm I'm ready. So we get in the car, we walk into REI and serendipity. I'm telling you, it is serendipity. You couldn't you couldn't write speaker-1: This is where the Camino begins. This This is what they say. You know, when you like mentally commit to Camino, which we didn't know we had done, but we had done, that's when your Camino begins. speaker-0: Again, yeah. speaker-1: So we walk in and a gentleman with his REI vest comes to greet us. speaker-0: What happens mean, we're feet in the door and he's walking by like he's going for somewhere else, but all of a sudden stops and does this chill. hi guys. anything in particular we can help you with today? speaker-1: Wh where can I direct you in REI? And I'm like, Donald's gonna like blah blah blah everything you know. We're speaker-0: Verbally. speaker-1: just here for trekking polls. Just trekking polls is what I'm saying in my head. speaker-0: And I just throw up, well we're thinking about a Camino speaker-1: Do you know the Camino de Santiago? And he says, speaker-0: Do I? speaker-1: When are you thinking about going? And we were like, maybe September. because we had done a little research between maybe in the car on the way up there, that this was a decent time and it was a good time for us. And he said, What route? And we said, Portugal. And he said, the fourth. May speaker-0: We're like, what do you mean, the fourth? speaker-1: the fourth be with you? What like what are we talking about? And he goes, I'll be there on the fourth. And we were like, Really? You're doing it too? And he's like, I've done it like eleven times. I have my backpack with me and all the things I take. Would you like to see it? speaker-0: I stop I mean I'm literally about to fall over on my face and I go, my gosh, Greg, you are our first Camino angel because it it just solidified it and I I the word came out of my mouth, this is total serendipity. And he's big smiling, goes, Come on, let's go live. speaker-1: Like w would we like to see your pack? Why, yes we would. We'd be very interested in seeing your pack and what you put in it and hearing all about speaker-0: full pack his pack that he's walked the camino with and he starts telling us here's the exact one I have and why here's what's in it he l he just starts to to go through the process of emptying everything and showing us how much it weighs and we're like amazed speaker-1: Fast forward of all the podcasts and books and websites and research and YouTube and documentaries that we've watched and listened to to learn how to prepare, he probably gave us all the you know the most and best advice. speaker-0: Shout out to Greg at R E I in Jacksonville. speaker-1: Jacksonville, Florida. speaker-0: He he is the man and he's very speaker-1: Shoes socks to you know, talking about your the bedding and everything to do's and not to do's and water bottles and weight and helping fit us for backpacks. Two hours later we walked out of there with backpacks and trekking poles. That speaker-0: was it and the excitement began because that was the go, right? I mean I think I had the go in my head before that, but within the next week or two we start the serious planning. speaker-1: What were you thinking at this point? Were you like, why were you wanting to go on it at this point? speaker-0: I think it was the connection of all of the stories. I mean, we have story at heart because that's what we love doing and that's our profession. and and that's what we did for many years, learning about people, learning about cultures, sharing that when we could through broadcast journalism and now ultimately running our own production company. we just are so attracted to people and what makes them tick and what their passion is and what they want to share. And I soaked up so much of that from the the interactions and the stories shared about the Camino experiences in these three books that I I was just craving it. And I I'm also I don't know there's something about challenges and the adventure and the endurance aspect of yeah, I want to do this. Can I do this? Well I'm gonna try, darn it. and I y it was just there and and I was ready to go explore. How about you once you started thinking about? speaker-1: Yeah, there was definitely that sense of like adventure and can I push myself to do something outside my comfort zone? You know, could I do this? I can do hard things kind of. However, the funny part that it's really opposite from you in the in the beginning was that it represented to me quiet time. It represented to me me getting to have quiet. And space and time to myself, although we would be walking together and be side by side, you know, not literally side by side. Sometimes we were walking separately with talking to different people and going different paces. But I look forward to my own time, some spiritual growth, time for prayer, time to just be outside and explore and be quiet. And so when he was like, I can't wait to meet people, I kept thinking, I don't really We agree. speaker-0: We agreed and and we can we can talk about that to the point of everybody's Camino experience is different and even though we were walking as a couple, we had to respect the space of each other and you know, we've known each other long enough and and work together and live together and just operate together twenty four seven that you know, we had to make those agreements and that's talked about in a lot of the podcasts or episodes that you know that speaker-1: Listen to particularly sought out couples who went 'cause we wanted to hear their advice. speaker-0: And just knowing when to be like, Okay, I'm I'm gonna hang back here and we'll walk same pace, but I'm gonna give you your space. speaker-1: And I will say a a teaser that now reflecting upon my experience, the people are probably the best part of it. speaker-0: Yeah, darn straight. speaker-1: But like we're the type of people that go on an airplane and I want to put my ear pods in or in my nose in a book because I want the time to be quiet and I don't want to talk. And he's like looking around for who can he have a conversation with. I just like learning about people which is fantastic. speaker-0: From people. speaker-1: So that's how we went into it. Like you were wanted to be social and and I wanted quiet time was that you know. So and we both got both of those. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah, we you have expectations going into it, from what you can at least kind of take a guess at what's gonna happen, what it's gonna be like, and you're hearing all these other experiences, but when you get there, it's gonna be totally different for you in your own way. So we'll touch on that in coming episodes. speaker-1: Did anything make you sw all of a sudden be like, n you know, almost say no, like we're not doing the right thing or I don't think so. I think you are full throttle the whole time. speaker-0: Never. I I was never I never paused. I never had a second thought. it was full on I mean, you know me, I was buried in the computer then looking and researching and when we booked and what we decided to do. speaker-1: And that was a big deal because I'm the planner, the researcher, the producer, the organizer, and I let you do that. Yeah. speaker-0: Y y I was amazed. You kinda hands off with that and then I I kept saying, Honey, is this alright? Are you sure? Does this look good? I'm gonna pick this one. Is this all right? Yeah. And and you were good with speaker-1: I enjoyed that experience having you research the places and Yeah. that worked out great. speaker-0: What about doubts? Because right, we've booked we we've decided we're gonna do it. We start booking things and there weren't second guesses, but that doesn't mean we might not have like a doubt. And so a lot of that comes with we were already training, right? We we like immediately start thinking, get the shoes, get the stuff that we need, and my goodness, let's start training, because we've got I think we had three months to train. speaker-1: Yeah. And and some people do not train at all. Some people think they don't need to train, some people just aren't able to train. We felt we needed to and we're very glad we did and trained more. speaker-0: 'Cause it came down over a couple of weeks, averaging almost twelve miles a day. And it was done. And so we were thinking, Okay, we don't have time to train back to back twelve miles a day because we're working. So we could walk the four or five miles during the week maybe speaker-1: For work or something like that. speaker-0: three times a week, and then we would do the one long hike on the weekend, and that was ten to twelve miles on a Saturday. So when we were doing that, what what did you think about how you were feeling and can I do speaker-1: I was super excited when we're like knocking out five miles easily, and then we would do seven miles, and like maybe our first what we thought was gonna be a twelve mile day, I think ended up being more like fifteen miles or something like that. that was a lot. But we did it. Mentally it's a lot for me too. And exciting speaker-0: Excited. speaker-1: that like there was some point in there where I was like, we're gonna do that. Every day for 15 days, because that's what it ended up being for us. An average of twelve. Some days were longer, some days were slightly shorter, but an average of twelve over fifteen days straight. And I remember thinking, my gosh, what have I gotten myself into? I did. I was like, What have I gotten myself into? Can I do this? But like, you know, you gotta push through. Yeah. speaker-0: And we kept going, we kept our training going. There there wasn't really anything that almost made us s change our mind or say no at all, right? speaker-1: No. But the training wasn't easy because we were training in the summer in Florida and the entire summer was a heat index over a hundred and sometimes a hundred and nine. And that was really hard to get training in. Yeah. speaker-0: That was rough and we resorted to an indoor space because when it's feel like temperature of a hundred and ten and you got a train with a backpack and everything in it, like almost fifteen pounds, and use your trekking poles, it it just wasn't gonna work to do twelve miles in feel-like one hundred and ten degrees. speaker-1: We were like racking our brains like where can we go inside to walk? Because we we don't belong to a gym. We don't have a treadmill. Those would those would have been decent solutions. Do we get a gym membership to do this? And you know, and we were like, Well, you know, our malls, people walk in malls. We have a little teeny mall. We went and checked out our tiny, tiny little mall and they had sectioned off half the mall. speaker-0: was closed. speaker-1: And we walked anyways, and you we had to like drag our shoulder along the wall to get as much steps in as possible. How many speaker-0: How many do we do to make one mile? speaker-1: I think we looped it four to six times to get one mile and we were like, Okay, this is not gonna work out. speaker-0: So we drove north, about forty minutes north of us. We are in St. Augustine, Florida, and near Jacksonville there's a larger indoor mall and people walk. They open early, as you probably know if you still have a mall that exists where you are. speaker-1: Well we researched and found this out on Google. The mall opens at 10, but they open at 8 a.m. for walkers. speaker-0: In the main space AC and you can go and walk upstairs and downstairs and like one hole only on the upstairs, the perimeter all the way down and around was almost a mile, right? So we're like, we're in. And then we we became mall walkers. speaker-1: For three months on Saturdays, we walked the mall. It was ten o'clock and that consisted of us with our full packed backpacks on and our trekking poles in the mall. Yeah. There were other mall walkers, none of them were doing that. Doing that, but and to walk twelve or more miles takes, you know, it would take us for almost four hours. Right, right. And So we were walking two hours after the mall opened. speaker-0: And we got some looks, people. We got some looks. And then and people that were they speaker-1: But also people loved us. speaker-0: loved us. The the walkers that were there early in the morning, they were curious what speaker-1: So nice and friendly and supportive. speaker-0: And you know, my gosh, we're gonna cheer you guys on, we'll pray for you, we'll you we'll support you and they would wave at us every Saturday and they're like going strong and they'd speaker-1: How many days till your trip? speaker-0: one lady would call us, There's the mountain climbers We're like, We're not really climbing mountains, but speaker-1: Which we ended up doing. speaker-0: Anyway, it was good. It was just so fun. It was like our own little a separate community of support there in the mall. So there's a there's a pro tip. You want to escape the heat, you want to get something going. If you've got an indoor mall near you, there's a good chance that they open early for walkers. We mentioned that as soon as we had that green flag in our minds, and Greg gave us the great advice at REI. We bought the packs, we bought the trekking poles, we started booking. speaker-1: Yes. speaker-0: And you know That was the big decision. What do we do? Where do we stay? What kind of rooms do we pick? And that's a big part of your Camino experience, whatever you decide, and that's the biggest thing we we learned from many people is everybody's gonna have their own experience, and nothing is wrong, nothing is the right way or wrong way to do it. You just find your way. speaker-1: And the conversation in communities will tell you there are right ways, wrong ways, better ways. Some of them. Yeah. But there isn't a right way. It's your way. Yeah. So and you should feel comfortable about the way you do it. And we met people doing it in different ways than us. And we walked side by side with them for days and enjoy them and are probably forever friends. And people do things differently. You know? And that that is how you when we're talking about different ways, that's like how you book your trip. Do y do you book ahead? Do you carry all your things? There's we can get into all those details. speaker-0: you do it all by yourselves? Is it independent? Did you use a group? Did you use a trip planner? is there a Camino organization that you decided to speaker-1: Is it for exercise? Is it for prayer? You know, it's different for everyone. speaker-0: So we we got a lot of those questions as we were telling people, you know, what we were doing and then when they found out we were training and my gosh, how did you do it? What are you gonna what what are you gonna do about where you stay? so we'll we're gonna share a good bit of that on episode two about booking, why we decided what we decided to book. speaker-1: Why we decided the route that we took and how it worked how that suited us. speaker-0: And we'll share it with you and and you can look into that if you're interested in Camino, but you may find another way that suits you best. speaker-1: Lots more episodes ahead 'cause we can talk a lot about it and down to the tips of what types of socks we'll have and also some amazing things that we found and why we think you can do it and you should do it. speaker-0: So to keep up with us, you can follow Travel Joneses on Instagram. And we'll be sharing pictures and updates that we did from each stage as we continue throughout the episodes of the podcast. And no doubt, just like we had, you have questions, right? You've got Camino questions. So send them to us. speaker-1: We have a lot of people who are asking us about the details of this trip and people who probably think they're never going to do it and they're still so interested in it and have so many questions for us. So speaker-0: So comment with your questions. Make sure you subscribe on the podcast so you know when the next episode's coming out, whether you're on Spotify or Apple or whatever platform you may be using, give us a love. speaker-1: And this season is about the Camino. we have so much to share. However, we're gonna sprinkle in our other travels because this is Travel Jones's and so there are some one off trips that were amazing that will have the same sort of tips and advice on ways to discover and things we discovered that will be in those that will be sprinkled in. Yeah. speaker-0: We love sharing, but we also love learning. So if you've got something that you want to tell us about a cool trip that we should experience or look into, send a comment on that as well. Thanks so much for listening. Now speaker-1: Alright, we'll see you on the next one. That's our story. speaker-0: go find yours. The Travel Joneses is produced, hosted, edited, and occasionally argued over by Donald and Janice Jones. Emotional support and Velcro snuggles provided by our golden retriever, Friday Jones. Quality Control, Keyboard Napping, and General Supervision by Juni Bug Jones, who has reviewed this episode and remains unimpressed. No interns were harmed in the making of this podcast because we don't have any.