Random Musings

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Generic Things On My Mind

Stats on the 2024 Season LOL

DateDec 18, 2023 (Monday)


Total 2024 Caminos: 0 miles
Total All Caminos: 2000 miles


Planes: $ 1300 (United) 
Total Planes /
Travel Insurance: 		$ 1470



Why the Bad Dreams?

Been having bad dreams lately. It is not stress or anxiety related to the upcoming hiking/camino trip to Berlin Germany. Last year, I hiked from Munich to Kempten through Bavaria and into Baden-Wurttenburg. I've had another year of study in Intermediate and Advanced German level courses to improve my still survival skill language abilities. Yes, my limited ability to read, hear and speak German was even less then than it is today, 
 
However, on a personal front, I recently crashed thru the big - 70 birthday, which causes me to confront some truths.

Approaching the Swiss-Italian Border at Col du Grand St Bernard (Age 66) 2019

Sometimes monsters are big and scary and frightening creatures, and sometimes they are insidious and tiny creatures ... so tiny that you don't even know that they are creeping up from behind and right on your tail ... or monsters can be lying just to the side of your path, behind a tree or bush, waiting for you.

Munich Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) 2022

Never before had I considered my age as a factor in thru-hiking Europe. Of course, I know that there are many folks older than me that continue to take on "the big hikes". And I know that to a degree, age is a state of mind, while still allowing for the biological factors to sometimes rear their ugly heads.


Staying "young" at the "Frozen" Performance at the Rochester Broadway Theater League 2023

"Aging" is a particular kind of creature that has stealthily, steadily snuck up on me, such that I did not see ... or chose not to see ... it coming.

I didn't give it a thought, when I finished crossing the Swiss Alps in 2019, and stood on the Italian border, I imagined myself back soon to tackle the Alps again. 
I was 66 then.

Last year (2022 at age 69), "it" made me self-assess. I terminated my hike through Baden-Wurttenburg in southern Germany because:
  • it was December
  • the weather was turning snow-laden
  • the stages were getting on to 25 - 28 miles
  • there were steep climbs and ascents in the Bavarian Alps
I had made a promise to someone very important to me that - in my words - "I will not do anything stupid." 
So I decided that it was not worth the risk. I know it was a good decision to terminate ... it was a decision that I would have chosen differently a few years earlier.


Cape Finisterre, Galicia, Spain 2023












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