We booked our return flight on Norwegian Air but they cancelled the flight and booked us on Wamos. What in the world is Wamos? I have no idea. They advertise that they are just like a Greyhound bus, but with wings. That can’t be good. I just hope we make it to Denver without any mishaps and without too much discomfort. I got a little worried when they passed the hat for gas money while we were in line waiting to board.
The plane is an Airbus A330 – 200. There must be 300 people on board this plane. They just announced that there is ONE person, just ONE person, on board who has a peanut 🥜 allergy. That means the nuts that they were planning to give us for snacks on this LONG flight are going to be off loaded from the plane and this will be an entirely nut free flight. That is incredibly unfortunate as I went shopping last night and bought a bunch of NUTS to snack on during the flight. Maybe I will have to sneak into the bathroom to enjoy my nuts. What do you think will happen if they catch me eating nuts in the bathroom after they have warned me that this is a nut free flight? Do you think they will arrest me and put me on a permanent no fly list? I know they have smoke detectors in the bathrooms of most airplanes. But do they have some sort of nut detector in the bathroom that will blow the whistle on me if I decide to have a little nut snack while I am using the can?
This is the only plane I have ever been on that has absolutely no in flight entertainment. WTF! It is a nine and a half hour flight and there is no in flight movie! You have got to be kidding. It was a very cheap ticket and I guess you get what you pay for. Nobody ever said that traveling around like this was going to be easy.
What an adventure this has been. I absolutely loved every part of this trip. Well, maybe not the short stay in Paris.
Certain parts of the trip stand out as indelible highlights. Getting to spend the first two weeks of the trip with my daughter Sara was without a doubt the best part of the trip.
Sara was born during the fourth quarter of a Denver Broncos/Oakland Raiders game. John Elway was leading a drive to put the Broncos ahead of the hated Raiders. The doctors and nurses were watching the game while they were supervising the delivery. I silently promised God that if the Broncos beat the hated Raiders I would name my first born daughter John Elway Hansen. The minute Sara was born, John Elway threw a touchdown pass with no time remaining on the clock to beat the hated Raiders. Everyone in the delivery room went crazy and started chanting “Broncos, Broncos, Broncos.” I jumped to my feet, thrust my clenched fists toward heaven above and declared that from this moment and forever more our beautiful baby girl would proudly bear the name, John Elway Hansen. Sara’s mother, in a fit of postpartum aggression, slapped the crap out of me and threatened to go full bore Lorena Bobbit unless I dropped the idea of naming our beautiful baby daughter, John Elway Hansen. With that clear and present danger on the table, I relented and agreed that Sara Jean Hansen was indeed a perfect name for our firstborn. A perfect name for a perfect daughter. I was the first person to hold her after she was born. I was the first person she heard say her name, Sara Jean, not John Elway. I was the first person to tell her, “I love you.” Sara and Dana have been beautiful priceless gifts in my life and I always have been and always will be so proud of them. I am so grateful that Sara decided to take two weeks out of her busy life and spend it with her dear old Dad. I will continue to keep my fingers and toes crossed and pray that one day Dana has the time and the inclination to walk the Camino with her dear old Dad. In order to avoid embarrassing her too much, I might agree to give her a 30 minute head start out of the alburgue each morning.
One of the obvious highlights of this trip was walking the Way. And one of the highlights of walking the Way was my stay at the alburgue and church at Zabaldika.
I truly believe that I experienced the magical presence of God in that Church. And I talked to other Pilgrims who experienced that same magic at this church.
In a previous blog post I shared the description of El Camino that the nun at the church in Zabaldika gave me. She also gave me a card entitled “The Beatitudes Of The Pilgrim.” I would like to share these Beatitudes with you.
AbeAndMarkontheCamino 