The Journey

Why I decided to walk the Camino de Santiago. I have always wanted to walk the Appalachian Trail. Now that I’m retired, I have time to do a long distance walk/hike but I’m concerned that at my age and advanced stage of decrepitude, I don’t have the stamina or endurance to hike the 2,200 miles of the Appalachian Trail from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Mount Katahdin, Maine.

I was visiting my parents in Springfield, Illinois during Christmas, 2017. On Christmas day there was an article on the front page of the local paper about a guy in his late 60s who is a long distance walker. He said that of all the long-distance walks he has done, his favorite has been the Camino Frances, a 500-mile ancient pilgrim path from St. Jean Pied de Port, France to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Santiago, Spain. I mentioned this to my father and he said I should talk to a friend of his, Ron Marr, who has done this walk. I talked to Ron for three hours and Ron encouraged me to “just do it.”

At the end of January, I was on a plane asleep when I heard someone ask if I would like to see her pictures of the Camino. I woke up and asked the woman sitting next to me if she had recently been on the Camino. She said that she had just returned from the Camino and proceeded to show me all her Camino pictures and encouraged me to set aside my fears and commit to the Camino. I decided that if I was even thinking about walking the Camino I would need a good pair of hiking/walking boots or shoes. While I was at REI shopping for Camino footwear I met Joyce Detoni-Hill, the chaplain for the Front Range Chapter of the American Pilgrims on the Camino, who was shopping for shoes to wear on her second Camino. Joyce described the Camino in glowing terms and said that I should watch “The Way” and that all the signs were pointing me to the Camino. After speaking with Joyce and watching “The Way” I knew that I had to walk the Camino as a Peregrino or pilgrim.

My Father Bob turned 90 at the end of August 2018. My Mother, Rita, is in her late 80s. After they retired they did a great deal of traveling and enjoyed their gypsy lifestyle immensely. They are very excited about my Camino and wish they were younger and could walk the Camino with me. They mean so much to me that I wanted to find a way for them to walk the Camino with me. As most of you know, I am a computer and social media illiterate. In spite of my illiteracy, I promised to do a travel blog for them, without knowing what a travel blog is or how to set up or add content to the blog. I found Jules, a wonderful social media manager/journalist writer, who set up this blog and coached me on content. This blog is my way of taking my parents with me on my Camino and sharing the journey with them. I invite everyone who gets the link to my blog to hop on board and enjoy the journey with us.

My sister Anna is struggling with non-Hodgin’s lymphoma and I am dedicating every step of this journey to her.
Buen Camino

Mark Hansen

markhansen715@gmail.com