Blog
March 29, 2020
It’s a strange (no pun intended) new world we live in…I peer out from the blinds acknowledging we have ceded our patio to the creatures which inhabit the hill–a family of California quail, a pair of squirrels, the dark eyed juncos and towhee birds that forage in the leaves which, left unattended, have turned to mulch. Through all this, the […]
July 24, 2021
Eighteen miles on foot is a long way, especially in Galicia where the summer weather can be fickle. This would be the first time on our pilgrimage where it rained. Halfway through the final leg of the journey ‘Mother Nature’ reminded us who was in charge. While the rain storm was short in duration, our shoes and socks were soaking […]
July 23, 2021
Once again our friends at Follow The Camino had placed us at a wonderful lodging called Hotel Chef Rivera in Pádron, Galicia. Madame Pirriette from France and her husband, the renowned cook, José Antonio Rivera, aka Chef Rivera, run the place and as I gifted them a pair of my books they gifted us his cooking book in return. Their […]
July 22, 2021
1. We’re seeing more and more pilgrims since the first day in Baiona when we counted only seven. Since the Coastal and Interior Caminos merged outside Redondela, we’ve observed a steady stream of pilgrims on the Camino. We’re actually seeing a few Americans although most pilgrims are from Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe. BTW, today we witnessed some […]
July 21, 2021
Yesterday a Spanish friend asked me if I had had a spiritual experience or awakening since returning to the Camino. And it caused me to reflect on spirituality during today’s challenging section from Redondela to Pontevedra, Spain. The trek was a mix of coastal scenery and arboreal fern forests coupled with a never ending series of hills. Exhausting. However, for […]
July 20, 2021
The climb from the city of Vigo was challenging. Perspiring in the heavy humidity, we counted ourselves lucky for both the cloud cover and cooler temps. Soon we were on level ground passing through quiet neighborhoods and forests with expansive views of the harbor, mussel farms and the iconic Rande Bridge. En route to Redondela, we encountered more pilgrims than […]
July 17, 2021
We’ve never worked harder in our lives trying to make this second Camino work. In just 72 hours we, intrepid travelers, have experienced one challenge after another as we make our way through the Portuguese Camino during this new world of COVID. Yet, as we settled in at an outdoor restaurant in Oporto, Portugal and raised our glasses of Albariño […]
July 7, 2021
You can imagine my pleasant surprise to receive a Facebook message from someone I’ve admired from afar since my wife, Aurora, and I took our first steps from the French Basque village of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port bound for Santiago de Compostela in 2018. It was Samantha Wilson, a ubiquitous and prominent Camino presence whose CV alone should qualify her for a Princess of […]
June 7, 2021
An IPPY Award Last Tuesday I received an unlikely Instagram message from Christine Reed aka ‘ruggedoutdoorswoman’–at least that’s what her handle said–who claimed my book It’s Your Camino: One Couple’s 500-Mile Pilgrimage Across Spain had garnered a 2021 IPPY Award. The young outdoors woman from Colorado, an author (Alone in Wonderland) in her own right, offered her ‘Congratulations.’ My first […]
April 25, 2021
It’s been a few short weeks since we returned to California. The hummingbirds are still where we left them–at their feeders. The red-tailed hawks are soaring above the hill behind our house, doing what hawks do best. Everything is as we left it. Yet something was amiss—we had just returned from an epic journey, a sacred pilgrimage, but I could […]
February 11, 2021
It’s been over a month since I forwarded my law enforcement memoir “FEDS: From Silence of the Lambs to the Castro Brothers” to the FBI’s Pre-Publications Unit for review. Mind you, I don’t expect to have it back any time soon. The reviewer told me the manuscript would be forwarded to the Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General, another […]