On our way and a travel nightmare

April 17, 2013, 9:00 AM 

Departure day has finally come!  We're ready and eager to get back to the Camino and start walking again.

Our flight just took off from San Diego.  We can now turn on our electronic devices in airplane mode.  This iPad is still new to me.  At the terminal while we were waiting to board, the iPad said it was connected to wifi but nothing worked.  Hope that's not a sign of what's to come while we are on the Camino and hoping to connect to Internet, email and blog.  

April 18, 3:00 AM (Dallas time), somewhere over the Atlantic

We boarded our connecting flight in Dallas as scheduled.  Then after all the passengers were all seated on the aircraft the announcement came...'bad news, we would all have to disembark so they could check the plane'.  At the gate we were told that our plane could not cross the Atlantic.  We would have to wait for another plane. 

The delay would not have been that bad except that this flight was only getting us to Paris.  We had booked a separate flight to Toulouse, via Lyon.  Now we would miss that flight.  The change fee and new flight charge was steep so our next option is to see about taking a train once we get there.

We finally boarded the flight and I checked email on my phone one last time, just on time to receive two fraud alerts from American Express.  Had just enough time to call and learn that my card had been used for several questionable transactions in Canada.  Was able to cancel the transactions and the card immediately.

While we now aren't sure how we will get to Toulouse because of this flight delay, there is a silver lining.  We found out about the credit card fraud right when it happened and were able to take care of it before the problem could get worse.  

April 18, 4:00 pm, Lyon, France

We actually made it to our next flight with literally one minute to spare.  The plane made up some time with the help of tail winds.  We had a half hour to get thru customs, baggage claim, shuttle to a different terminal, and run to ticketing, then found that the flight was delayed 20 minutes.  We're now in Lyon waiting for our connecting flight to Toulouse.  We're back on schedule again!

Not quite a nightmare any more, but plenty of excitement for sure!

Almost time for departure

Just a few days left before we embark on this journey!  This weekend we took our last long hike before departure.  Last year, on our last long hike before our trek I ended up with a stress fracture and was unable to hike for entire trip, so this year, we definitely didn't want to be too ambitious.  We covered some of our favorite trails in the canyons that weave through and around the neighborhoods of Tierrasanta, then entered the vast expanse of trails in Mission Trails Regional Park.

From West Shepherd Canyon you can see North Fortuna

The Tierrasanta canyon trails have new signs

Krishna checks out some wildflowers

 Anyway, we both feel ready, both physically and mentally.  No aches and pains.  The toes, knees and backs are feeling good.  I can tell that Krishna is ready to once again be a pilgrim along the Camino - this morning he stopped to appreciate some purple wildflowers that he noticed for the first time, and during last week's hike he paused to protect a caterpillar as it made its way across the path.  He is living in the moment.
  

On Friday we were surprised with a beautiful send-off, emotional for us, from our Rotary Club, which included a reading form "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran, which started, "Then said a rich man, "Speak to us of giving". And he answered:  You give but little when you give of your possessions.  It is when you give of yourself that you truly give..."  A familiar reading with words full of meaning.

We attended a second Friday meeting at another Rotary Club as a make-up meeting.  In spite of our travels, we still try to keep our record of perfect attendance.  We visit other clubs wherever we travel.  Attending a meeting overseas is always an experience.  We've made many new Rotarian friends that way.  Attending a meeting in Peru even led us to an NGO that we continue to be connected with and that our own club supported by providing materials for guinea pig farms in a community outside of Cusco.  You never know what may come out of visiting a Rotary Club in another country.  This time, though, we couldn't find any clubs in France or Spain that meet on the days that match our hiking and travel schedule.

The Journey and the La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club

Our journey begins in less than 2 weeks.  Time to backtrack and think about why we decided to start writing this blog in the first place. 

We finalized our plans to walk the last part of Le Chemin de Saint Jacques last October.  As we were going on one of our almost daily morning walks, we talked about our 5 treks along the Camino over the last 10 years and how this coming trek would take us over the Pyrenees to Roncesvalles, Spain, the starting point of the Spanish Camino, and tie together a JOURNEY OF 1000 MILES for us.  Krishna suggested - "what better way to complete this journey than to dedicate these last miles of walking to support our La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club".  That's how the idea for a club fundraiser began.

Donors can pledge support based on the miles we will walk, the number of days walked, or just specify a donation amount.  Donations can be made online at the La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club webpage: http://lajollagtrotary.org/ .  Donations can also be made by check payable to:  La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Foundation.  Put "A Journey of 1000 Miles" on the memo line, and mail to:

La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club
P.O. Box 13023
La Jolla, CA 92039

All funds donated will be used for Club service projects.  Members are currently involved in many local and international projects.  How it works - members who have project ideas or who have hands-on involvement with a particular non-profit organization share their interest with the club at committee level meetings.  The committee will decide if it is able to support the project hands-on and/or financially (if needed and if money is available in the budget).  The member who introduced the project takes the lead in planning and seeing the project through completion.

In recent years the club has supported several of the projects that we have been passionate about:

In India - provided new toilet blocks for a school for blind children in Behrampur, India
In Pakistan - Built a water filtration plant that provides clean drinking water to an entire community in Jhang, Pakistan
In Peru - installed a solar panel on a school in Q'eros, an isolated region in the Andes where there is no electricity.  The solar panel provides enough electricity for 20 light bulbs and provides the only electricity for the hamlet of Munay T'ika.
In Peru- provided the construction materials for the roofs of two guinea pig sheds in the community of Lahualahua, in order to help families of the community expand productive capability and become economically stable.

Some of the local organizations and/or projects our club is involved in include:

Braille Institute
Ronald Mc Donald House
Salvation Army TLC
San Diego Rescue Mission
Voices for Children
Dress for Success
Social Advocates for Youth
CCSA Holiday Baskets
Police Project
Camp Pendleton
Rotarians at Work Day
Therapeutic Horsemanship/Upward Bound
VA Hospital Visitation
YMCA OZ
Educator of the Year
Four Way Test Speech Contest (high school students)
Model UN
LEAD (Leadership, Ethics and Determination) Conference for 8th graders
Literacy Program
Preuss School Projects
(Interact, Symphony and Theatre trips, Service above Self Scholarship)
USD Upward Bound
USD Expanding your Horizons
UCSD Rotaract
RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award)
Salk Mobile Science Unit
Sister Schools
High School Institute

Some of our club's international projects during the current Rotary year include:

Afghanistan: Sister Cities (Jalalabad-San Diego)
Afghanistan: Rotary Projects
Guatemala: Computer Labs
Indonesia: Bali Educare Program
Indonesia: HIV/AIDS Project
Kenya: WAPIs
Kenya: Children's Peace Initiative
Mexico: Surgery MOST
Mexico: San Diego Zoo Trip
Mexico: Children's Hospital (District Grant)
Mexico: Tijuana Safe House
Mexico: Ensenada School Project
Mexico: Thousand Smiles
Nepal: Donkey or Yak (for single mother)
Peru: Guinea Pig Farms
Philippines: Surgery
South Africa: Reading Program
Tibet: Scholarship
Turkey: Breast Cancer Awareness Training
Uganda: Hospital Water Project
USA: Somali Sewing Project
USA: Non-Rotary IPJ (Inst for Peace & Justice) Scholars
USA: Project Refuge
USA: Rotary Scholars at UCSD
USA: Rotary Scholars at USD
USA: UCSD International Cafe
USA: USC Rotaract
Worldwide: Shelterbox

Each of the above are lead by members who are passionate about their individual projects and supported by club members who are able to participate in the activities.  So, you can see how active this club is!  Sorry the above is just a long list.  There are too many items to write about each one, but you can check the club webpage or contact me to find out more.  

Rock Art

Saw this rock art on the trail this morning.  We see it often on the Camino as well.  I think there is an actual name for this but I can't remember what it is. Does anybody know what it's called?

Local hiking and foot pain

This weekend we had glorious weather for hiking. One of the best things about our neighborhood is the easy access to wonderful hiking trails, long and short. We hardly ever get in the car and drive somewhere to hike. Its just a few minutes walk from our door to a trailhead for Mission Trails Regional Park. Mission Trails has around 50+ miles of hiking trails, so the possibilities are endless. Also, for shorter hikes, we can pick one or more of several canyon trails that weave through the neighborhood.

Last week I had some great news at a visit to my podiatrist. Xrays showed no sign of the stress fracture I had last year. That means its completely healed. The pain I've been feeling in my left foot was actually due to a hammer toe that is out of alignment and causing pressure on the metatarsal bones. My podiatrist showed me a way to wrap the hammer toe with paper tape when I hike. I tried it on Saturday and...no pain! The tape ended up causing a blister on the next toe, but that was easily patched up with moleskin.

I can now walk with no fear of re-stressing the stress fracture. What a relief! I've been so worried that the pain I was noticing was due to the old injury coming back.

I'm writing this blog on the iPad we'll be using on the Camino next month in order to get familiar with using it. It doesn't have the same options as on the computer, so I haven't figured out how to move photos around or change their size yet.

The photo below was taken at Mission Trails on Sunday, just a few minutes walk from home. Hard to believe how quickly one can get away from the hustle and bustle. Wildflowers are starting to bloom and there's more green on the trail thanks to the rains we had earlier this year.

Preparing for the Walk

Had our first workout with our trainer yesterday and came up with a training plan for the next 4 weeks, which is pretty much like our normal exercise routine anyway:

Monday - 1 day per week - workout with trainer
Tuesday - morning walk and workout
Wednesday - pilates session
Thursday - pilates session
Friday - walk and workout, but sometimes Friday turns out to be a day of rest because we have our Rotary Club meeting in the morning.  If we don't get our walk or workout done first thing in the morning, it often doesn't happen.
Saturday and Sunday - hiking days; at least one day should be a long hike

While in India we took morning walks at Lodhi Garden in New Delhi.  When there was enough time, we could also do our workout there.  Here's a photo of Krishna working out amid the Mugal ruins of Lodhi Gardens.

Time to get serious

Back from India. Now it's time to focus on training for the Camino! Started the day with a glass of protein drink then went for a hike. Made our favorite drink when we got home - beets, apples, carrots and lemon juice blended in the Vitamix. Sure missed this the last three weeks.

In New Delhi we took several morning walks at Lodhi Garden, so close to where we were staying. It was amazing to walk amid the Mughal ruins there. The grounds there were really spread out and so well-kept, with many of the plants and trees marked with their botanical names. Each day we found a new Mughal tomb, watch tower or other ruin to explore. How lucky to get this experience.

The feet did get some rest while we were traveling and my foot injury had plenty of time to heal. Now we're very ready to do some serious walking.