I’m presently midway through a visit to central NY state visiting a family member recovering from surgery. This isn’t my first of these trips, and I’ve developed a bit of a routine spending time in the area where I spent my formative years - and where I met my great friend and Two Sides of FI YouTube partner, Eric. Such visits always include reconnecting with friends who still live in the area, and I enjoy the meals, drinks, and conversations we share each time. Admittedly, I’ve always been rather nostalgic, and so it always feels good to revisit important people from throughout my life.

A few days ago, I had dinner with a couple of my closest friends from the High School years, one of whom I’ve continued to stay in contact with over the years. Over the meal, I shared that my last family in the area was planning on moving to California this summer. When I spoke it, this seemed like just an ordinary update that one would share with friends as you catch up on life. However, the response I received after a few moments pause was unexpectedly disarming: "So I guess this means you won’t be visiting here anymore in the future?” My heart sank. I hadn’t anticipated that at all, despite it being an obvious outcome of the forthcoming move.

I realized that yet another chapter in my life was going to close, and I was now forced to confront that. I had a deadline to see the people I wanted to see and try to cram additional visits in with those most important before the move happened. The countdown began that night, and it’s now no more than a few months until I will rarely, if ever see some of these people again. At the very least, I won’t have a convenient means to see them. It would require specific travel on either side of the equation to make it happen. But would it? Life has a habit of getting in the way sometimes.

After the initial shock set in, I started to think about the other transitions in life I’ve experienced. In essence, this will be no different than the very real and permanent changes that come with retirement at any age, early or otherwise. As many other retirees have confirmed to me, the relationships we have with most of our former colleagues change as soon as you walk out the door at your job for the last time. The texts cease, the shared struggles and victories disappear, and only those few true friends stay in touch. This is absolutely what I experienced, and is something with which I struggled the first few years after leaving my last job. I’ve come a long way over the nearly six years since retiring, and I now fully understand and accept this reality. But that took time.

After a few more days of reflection, I wonder if my initial reaction to my friend’s comment was that I’m essentially leaving the last shreds of “childhood” behind? That seems like an odd concept for someone over 50, I freely admit. But maybe the door closing on the place where I largely grew up, with its many familiar sights, experiences, and people, resonates that much differently than other transitions? Make no mistake - I have no love for this area. I have plenty of difficult memories about my school years, as many of us do. It’s a lovely area (with great fishing!) and I made some of the best friends of my life here, but it’s not really “my kind of town”. It’s quite rural, lacks access to much which I treasure, and the list goes on.

What I do love about this place is that there are still a few people here, friends I made 40 years ago, with whom I can readily and effortlessly reconnect. As I remarked to one such person earlier today, it’s amazing how facilely you can just drop right into meaningful conversations with friends from “the old days” - as if you’d never lived apart for many years, only occasionally sharing the same space. I am a firm believer in extra-corporeal consciousness. Perhaps this is just another manifestation of the shared consciousness that truly good friends experience? I certainly don’t claim to know the answer to that. But it’s one very reasonable hypothesis in my mind.

I truly appreciate my friend pointing out the reality of things for me. I’m actually grateful that this realization occurred sooner rather than later. I welcome this reality which has reframed the way I’m thinking about the conversations I want to have while I’m here during this visit, as well as the next - likely when the big move to the Golden State is upon us. It reminds me of my favorite truth: All we have is now.

If you followed my Camino Portugués journey, you may recall my reflections on this point. I know it came up in my “what I learned on my Camino” post. And if you haven’t read Eckhart Tolle’s 1999 bestseller, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, I highly recommend it. I appreciate whenever I have forced back into the moment, and having good cause to actively reflect on what I’m feeling and the conversations I’m having at that time. The past is no longer relevant and the future is not promised in any way. It is incumbent upon us to live in the moment we are fortunate enough to experience, and create the meaning in it that we wish it to have.

Merely writing these words here has brought me comfort and happiness. Deciding to tackle this topic ensured that I would give it the active thought it deserved, and for that I am grateful. As always, I thank you for being with me on this journey. I treasure this time we “spend together”, and I appreciate your support. Be well, live fully, and I wish you all the very best in all things. Mahalo 🙏

I’ve written plenty on milestones before, including posts about my 4th FIRE anniversary, leaving my first winery “fun job, turning 50 - not to mention the many Two Sides of FI milestone episodes. For some reason this one feels “bigger”, but that’s probably just staring down a large-looking number. It gives me a lot of satisfaction along with my usual healthy dose of gratitude, when I consider those 2000 days. Surely not all were great days - which is life, but merely the fact that I’m sitting here in my sixth year of early retirement writing this, it feels overwhelmingly positive.

I’m thankful that I’d decided my retirement date so early on, and was able to talk openly with my last manager about my FIRE plans. That gave me a much-needed countdown towards that huge milestone of the likely last day in my biotech career. Knowing what I do now, I’d also say it made the likelihood of getting caught up in working “just one more year” - a common FIRE path struggle - that much less likely. And for that, I’m extremely happy. The COVID stock market downturn happened early in my journey, and that may well have given me pause otherwise to consider putting in more time. I also might have been tempted to hang on for the potential payout of a nice annual bonus that could (would, I know now) have been realized after a strong year, working in diagnostics during such a time. But I’m glad I didn’t have to face those opportunities head-on, because I was concertedly working towards an endpoint. Had things been otherwise, I suspect I’d be nowhere near 2000 days yet!

Moving back to the present, my wife and I recently completed a 33-day roadtrip. I spent two weeks with family on the east coast, and then Lorri and I slowly made our way back across the country over more than a month’s time. We visited numerous National Parks we’d been itching to see for years (Badlands, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and Saguaro NP were my favorites), finally spent some days in Chicago (loved it!), saw many sights, and even got to visit a few friends along the way. We had a rough route in mind but didn’t pre-book anything except our first few days’ lodging. Rather, each day we thought about what we’d like to do next and booked hotels or AirBnBs accordingly, one stop at a time. So-called “slow travel” is a dream of many retirees - traditional or early, and we have had a first real taste of it - and are hooked!

It was truly freeing to travel in this way, taking the days as they came, and planning our progress and our schedule however we wanted. There was no workplace vacation days limit, school schedule constraints, or any other obstacles with which we had to work. We’ve certainly experienced some of these benefits along the way, but especially given the context of a self-directed road trip, this is truly the first time they all came together at once. So once again, time freedom - a topic upon which I’ve often reflected, is ruling the day. We remain convinced it is the biggest gain and gift of a FIRE path, and are ever excited that this is something we are lucky enough to get to experience each day.

I’m writing this post the day after US Thanksgiving, so it seems a particuarly apt time to reflect upon gratitude. I have so much for which I’m thankful, most of all my family. I am also grateful for the friends I’ve made and the friendships that have been maintained over the years - some for decades, and some much newer, only since we’ve taken up residence in the CA Central Coast. I’m forever thankful that I got the chance to work on Two Sides of FI with my great friend, Eric. That show, along with my original FIRE blog, has been the most meningful work I’ve done post-career, and has absolutely eased the path into this next phase of my life more than anything. The fact that it has also helped others, as kind words have often conveyed, provides me with some of the most positive emotions I’ve experienced in my adult life.

As always, I’m thankful that others find value in my words, and care enough to read them and share their own experiences and feelings with me in return. So I’m also incredibly thankful for all of you reading this post, taking your precious time to consider my thoughts. It’s been a few months since my last post, and I’m glad that this 2000-day milestone provided me the inspiration to return to writing here. As has been the case since I rebooted the blog, I won’t promise a set cadence of posts to come. But I do promise to continue to share whenever it feels right. Thanks again for being here. I wish you all the very best. Mahalo 🙏

PS - apologies to anyone who may have received this post twice! Apparently, I erred in the way I posted it originally and only today realized it. Oops…

Recently, my Two Sides of FI show partner, Eric, and I recorded a milestone episode. In it, we discussed a topic we’d been dancing around for a few months - that is, whether it was time to take a break from the YouTube show and podcast we’d been producing for more than four years. Again, I think this episode provides essential background to this post and so I strongly recommend viewing it before continuing on:

2SFI has truly been an unexpected treasure since I left my career behind nearly 5.5 years ago. I could never have foreseen my interest in creating this content, nor how many benefits I’d receive from it. While Eric and I never lost touch after high school, our conversations for the show certainly brought us much closer than we’d been in years. It’s a pretty remarkable thing to do that given all the miles between us and the decades that have passed since our teenage years, when we were thick as thieves. And so no matter what comes for the show, I’ll forever be thankful for that.

Finding my way in early retirement took a lot of forms. Naturally there was the lived experience, which continued to evolve substantially as time went on; the subject of plenty of discussion with my always supportive wife, Lorri. Then there was the original iteration of this blog, which became a key resource and self-teaching tool for me. While I decided to archive those early years, I am thankful for the unexpected benefits that simply following a practice of what was essentially journalling brought me. In the end, it didn’t matter how popular my blog was(n’t), nor who read it and reacted to my words. It was most importantly a platform for processing a torrent of emotions and learnings, many of which I’d not realized until reading what I’d written. And then came our wee show, Two Sides of FI…

We’ve discussed the genesis of 2SFI on the show a variety of times, so I won’t recap that here. I’ve got to leave some homework for you, right? But it is truly remarkable how small acts like single conversations have butterfly effects in our lives. Reflecting back after nearly five years since the fateful conversation that led to our initial trailer, it’s both rewarding and pretty damn cool to reflect on our many conversations. So many of our chats led to important realizations and lessons for me. All humans are subject to tunnel vision, and having a platform for open conversation with a trusted friend can be a great wake-up call when you most need it! And the fact that our spouses were willing to join us in more than one episode? Amazing. Those are favorite episodes among many in our audience for good reason.

I’d be remiss if I went any further without thanking our many supporters over the years, both those who’ve been with us for the duration and those newer to the show. I’ve gained so much from the encouragement, guidance, and many positive interactions over time. I’d never have anticipated how important that would be for me. As discussed on the show, there have also been plenty of awful comments we’ve had to endure, and yes, that comes with the internet. But we surely won’t miss those - though shadow banning people on YouTube is a special kind of catharsis! Returning to the positive, I’m grateful for all of you who engaged with us in the comments section and via our Discord community. While we may not always agree, I always appreciated your time taken to consume our content and provide thoughtful feedback. Thanks also to our show guests who brought us valuable perspectives, sage words, and further exposure for our little show - particularly Fritz Gilbert, Karsten Jeske, Jordan Grumet, and Erik, each of whom made multiple appearances on 2SFI.

It certainly wasn’t easy to consider taking a pause from the show, never mind electing to share that possibility with our audience. Eric and I talked a few months ago about our next steps, while traveling in Scotland together with our spouses. At the time we agreed to continue the show so long as we had topics we wanted to discuss. And thus, our present conclusion isn’t out of alignment with that idea. As you heard us agree, we want to take a break. I don’t think we are saying goodbye, yet. We are open to the idea that we may not continue, but when topics arise that we want to discuss and share, we may well post them again as 2SFI episodes. That feels like the right outcome.

Lest anyone think this, I don’t believe that our uncertainty indicates any fear of “shutting it down” and hesitation to take a permanent decision about the future of the show. It just doesn’t feel necessary nor reflect our current mindset at this time. I don’t know if that’s any solace to our audience or not, but it is our intention to stay true to the honest sharing we always have endeavored to deliver in our conversations. And that’s what we’ve done here.

Not to say we aren’t open to hearing ideas that we may not have considered about what to do next with 2SFI… Eric is right: my “call to action” in the YouTube episode was complete garbage! I think it’s clear what we don’t want to do next with the show. We have no interest in churning out repetitive content, doing reaction videos, nor covering topics that are not of interest or relevance to the two of us and our families. 2SFI has always operated at a net loss and I don’t see us taking typical content creation paths for the purpose of becoming profitable anytime soon. But drop us a comment on the YouTube video if you think we are missing an opportunity to maintain true to our purpose and reinvigorate the show! 😂

In all seriousness… this isn’t goodbye. I’ll continue writing here as the urge arises. Should topics emerge that Eric and I want to share via the channel, we will do so. We aren’t shutting down the Discord server at this point either. Speaking for myself, I don’t plan to fully detach from responding to comments on YT or Discord. Again, we remain forever thankful for your support to date and welcome you to continue reviewing our back catalog if you are so motivated! Mahalo, friends 🙏🙏🙏

PS - kudos to all who understood my title without looking it up. you are my people!

Photo by Andrew varnum on Unsplash

Four years, three months, and 20 days ago, in January of 2021, my good friend Eric and I released a short trailer for a YouTube channel we’d decided to launch, Two Sides of FI (2SFI). Fifty days later, our first full episode was released, one we called Our Financial Past and our FIRE Present - Two Sides of FI. I can’t recall quite what I was thinking at the time, and my decision in late 2022 to archive my old blog means it will take some effort on my part to find out. And that sounds like work, so I’ll skip it.

What I do know is that it felt like a big step, one that really involved “putting myself out there”. I’d not been open with very many people in my life about my FIRE plans prior to embarking on this next chapter for my family. Honestly, I didn’t know how to talk about it back then. I didn’t come from money, nor am I someone who enjoys outward displays of wealth. My decision at 42 years of age to buy a “nice" car (Tesla Model S) gave me a ton of pause about what it would convey given their high sticker price. Sure, I was always proud of my work and what I had achieved, but certainly didn’t talk about what I earned, which was reasonably well hidden given our long history of saving and investing well. Launching 2SFI would mean parting the curtains on some of these hidden things - that is if anyone even watched it.

It’s hard for me to watch the early episodes of the show. I’m guarded, fearful of being too vulnerable, and always seemed to want to portray a lot of confidence. These were effectively autonomic responses, not a well crafted strategy to deceive. Yeah, I’ve learned lots from therapy :) That said, thanks to the well-meaning advice of my show partner and friend of four decades, Eric, I got better over time. Along with all the technical upgrades on my side of the screen (better camera, mic, lighting, etc.), I relaxed more as time went on, and shared more openly. Talking with Eric gave me more confidence to be vulnerable about all of the “soft topics” - this was never meant to be a “financial show”, despite what some viewers want.

I don’t mean to say that sharing on the show or in “real life” was always comfortable. I had plenty of awkward exchanges online, on calls, and in person - and those are with people I knew, never mind what comes in comments on episodes. The FIRE path is anything but the most common route taken in the US, or anywhere for that matter. We are all just human, after all. Things that are unfamiliar or surprising can provoke emotional responses, even if people aren’t intentionally meaning ill or to offend. And envy is real and can definitely hurt. These exchanges were at times pretty uncomfortable, but I learned something from most of them. I also got more confident about how to handle those kinds of conversations.

I think Eric and I have done a good job staying true to our stated intentions of the channel from the very start. We merely want to share conversations we’d be having anyway, simply with the benefit of recording equipment and where needed, some editing - mostly to cut out my rambling, particularly in those early episodes! While we would never have minded if the show was financially fruitful (it isn’t), it wasn’t our stated goal for it to make a bunch of money. It has always felt good to share openly and create content for a space that seemed to lack it. Most FIRE-themed podcasts and YT channels focus on financial topics almost exclusively, and often in a lot of technical detail. We enjoyed being known for our conversations about “what X feels like”, or “what is on our minds”. Our financial topics get more views but the feedback is nearly always more positive - and meaningful - on the non-financial episodes.

But what I didn’t count on, and have continually been surprised by, is what I’ve gained personally from our little project. An honest answer would be that there have been too many benefits to exhaustively list them. I’ve had great conversations with Eric, of course. These have surely produced the largest wins for me - talking with a trusted friend who will always be honest with you and call you on your BS is priceless, most will agree. Now overlay that with the opportunity to create something meaningful together, and you’ve got gold. Plus, I’ve learned so much just hearing his viewpoints, considering his challenges to my own thoughts and plans, and being forced to confront tough topics. During our recent shared vacation we had some good conversations about this partnership. Most of that isn’t for public consumption, but let’s just say it was really great to have the chance to share openly how we feel about 2SFI and working on it together.

And there have been so many other benefits - we’ve gotten to have great conversations with others in the community, and learn from them, too. That includes some FIRE-famous people like Fritz Gilbert, Karsten Jeske, and Jordan “Doc G” Grumet, just to name a few. They were open to working together even in the earliest days of 2SFI, where we stood to really gain from an increase in views given their existing popularity. But it also includes some old friends, some new friends, as well as a few talented financial experts. It’s wild to think that other people saw what we were doing and were willing to participate in producing content with us. How cool is that?

As I’ve mentioned on the show a number of times, I’ve also been surprised how much positive energy I get out of engaging with (most of) the online community. We have a huge number of supporters among our podcast and YouTube subscriber base, Discord community, and other consumers of our content. I’ve had some great exchanges with people over the years and learned plenty. I’ve even made a few IRL friends from the show, which is totally wild and also really awesome. I’ve gotten to connect with experts of all kinds, including in the investment community. None of those exchanges would have happened without our little show as the underlying spark. And the sheer volume of positive feedback serves well to help me ignore the trolls and haters!

I can’t celebrate a milestone like this without sharing some numbers, the mere act of needing to gather them forces me to think more about the impact of 2SFI:

• 2.7 million video views

• 750 thousand podcast downloads

• 108 different countries

• nearly 30,000 YouTube subscribers

• >800 Discord members

All of that gives me a lot of pause and humbles me. While I still might think plenty about how I come across on the show, always revisiting the idea of being authentic and vulnerable, I no longer fear sharing openly as I once did - good thing, given the reach of our show, ha! Our channel may not be so large as to warrant notice by most people, but I can’t feel anything but proud about the show. It feels good to create material that I earnestly believe can be helpful to people, and I am awestruck by how far our signal travels. It blows my mind that I’ve had several people recognize me in public due to the show now, something Eric has experienced as well. We sure ain’t celebrities, but it sure feels good hearing in person that your content matters, and has helped someone in even some small way.

As always, my idea of writing a short post about what I’m thinking about has turned into a much longer endeavor than I’d planned. Shocking, right? Suffice it to say, 100 episodes later, it still feels really good to be creating content with Eric and sharing it with whoever is interested in it. This project has produced returns for me far beyond what I ever expected it would. I’m truly proud of it, and thankful for the many positive things it has brought to my life. I have no idea how long 2SFI will continue, but I’ll always be able to look back upon the body of work and remember how this felt. Hell, more people will probably remember me for this than any of my career work. Now that is a wild idea… Anyhow, it’s been a great ride, and I’m so thankful for it.

Mahalo, to each of you. Thanks for supporting my work and being here with me for the journey. I appreciate each one of you. 🙏

To put it bluntly, the Camino did a little damage to my body. For those who read my trail journal, or perhaps even just what I’d thought would be the final entry in it, you know that my right leg was really acting up. Perhaps I downplayed that a bit, but it was definitely a thing. I was pounding Advil for the second half of my walk, as my trail friends will attest. After some x-rays, MRIs, and an orthopedist consultation, it was decided that it was “just” the very common IT-Band Syndrome, and it would clear up it in time without intervention. While I was relieved by that finding, it’s accurate to say it resulted in limitations to my activity - mostly real, at least for the first few months, though perhaps more recently it was just more a mental block, if I’m being honest.

Admittedly, I had a lot of different emotions about the limitations I had upon returning home, and was regularly frustrated by, and very conscientious about them. My desire to walk the Camino was understandably not met with uniform joy by the family I’d be leaving behind while I was away, and coming back “broken” seemed to me like rubbing salt in that wound. So particularly in those first few months after returning, I hated having to decline hikes of a certain type, or choosing to stay behind at times. I hated those shooting pains in my thigh and initially I even feared I’d done permanent damage, and my bent was to do anything to avoid those feelings. It was really frustrating and while I talked about it in therapy, I now realize I didn’t talk about it nearly enough with loved ones.

Happily, that right leg pain has largely vanished now, though the injury is not fully gone. I still experience numbness in my right thigh after standing too long (like after a busy shift at the tasting room), or following a hike with any decent climbing, and do occasionally feel pain there. However, for the last few months, my left knee has now begun acting up, particularly when walking down stairs or steeper slopes. I’m optimistic that this latest issue is the result of pushing my strength training too hard, increasing weight too quickly and/or overextending range of motion. So I think this will pass. But admittedly it’s still caused me to fear that I’m now somehow “less than” I was just a year ago prior. And that admittedly makes me sad, frustrated, and occasionally angry.

Lorri has been supportive along the way, and of late has been good about reminding me that it’s important for me to get out and walk. I’ve not been good about my former daily morning walk since returning from my trip. Let’s be honest - I’ve barely walked on my own in recent months, and mostly have done so when prompted by my wife or when we meet up with our son at college or when he’s home on break. Recently, I’ve been pushing hard on some programming projects - more on that soon, perhaps - and that’s provided a convenient excuse to shirk the benefits of getting out and walking. But today I woke up and decided to acknowledge Lorri’s nudging and end my bad habits.

If I’m being truthful, I don’t think I’ve walked or hiked much more than five miles in one go since returning from my Camino. And so this morning I decided to resurrect an old favorite “walk with a nice destination” route, a 9-mile round trip where I could stop along the way for some lunch and a beer. The route is largely level, mostly sidewalk/paved, and I thought would be an easy way to test the waters and get in some audiobook time. A route of that duration certainly wouldn’t have a place in my pantheon of “long walks”, but it was a good start. And so that’s just what I did.

The weather was lovely, my walk was good, and my lunch of garlic fries and beer (a true hiking meal!) really hit the spot. I felt strong on my outbound leg and while it was the easier (read: more downhill / flat) route, I was pleased with how it went. That felt really good and I hit my midpoint break in high spirits. I’m also happy to say that while fatigue was certainly building on the return leg of the route, it also went well. I experienced no right leg pain while walking, and only feel a little numbness right now. Perhaps even better, the first real knee pain I felt on the left side was while walking downstairs to let the dog outside after returning home. I definitely consider the walk a success, though of course tomorrow will be the true test of how I’m feeling :)

While the arc of this post wasn’t fully formed after my walk today, I did know that I wanted to get some words down. I’m not pleased with myself that it took so long to get over whatever mental hurdles were holding me back, but I’m happy that I’ve arrived here now. I’m hopeful that this will be the kick-in-the-ass I needed to resume a more regular walking habit, whether that includes more solo long walks or not. It’s good for me, and the head-clearing and thinking time it provides is definitely appreciated even if I don’t realize how much I need it sometimes.

I’ve decided this post also has a place in my Camino journey, and so I’ve tagged it as such. I recall that I really enjoyed writing my last Camino post ten months ago. My walk was a tremendously impactful experience, and my writing seems almost romantic to me when I read it now. This piece is, I hope, a good postlude to my experience, and serves as a useful pairing to that earlier post. I still have many fond memories of my journey, of the friends I made, and all the lovely things I saw and experienced. I treasure having had the opportunity to make that journey, and a recent viewing of my Camino photos with a dear friend has only reinforced that. But like everything else that has come prior, I experienced growth from it, but it was just another chapter in my life. All we truly have is now, and I am only renewed in my desire to return my focus to that important truth.

Be well, friends. I am all-too aware that there is much afoot that troubles many of us, and I hope you are finding comfort and joy wherever you can. Mahalo 🙏

We’ve been rather consistent in all the travel we’ve done to date: it’s all been self-directed. And by that I mean that we’ve never taken any tours, been on cruises, or undertaken any coordinated travel. All aspects of any given trip were thoroughly researched and arranged by us, without the support of any travel professionals or organizations. When we started to consider options for our first empty nester trip - to take place shortly after our 20th wedding anniversary, we came upon the idea of trying out an organized group tour. The idea of having someone else handle all the logistics was really appealing! We knew we’d want it to be a small group (perhaps 10-12 people at most), a tour that employed local guides, and also an experience where we’d have at least some unprogrammed time on our own. And so we turned to Google for ideas…

We looked at a number of options before settling on the tour operator, G Adventures. Why did we choose them? They offered many types and durations of tour packages, including ones with National Geographic Journeys. They ticked all the boxes mentioned above, and also had dedicated tour leaders (Chief Experience Officers or CEOs) as well as a stated philanthropic mission. After considering a number of the many tours they offered, we landed on the Inca Explorer 15-day experience in Peru. While Lorri and I have traveled extensively, South America had been a gap in our travel to date. Machu Picchu has long been on our bucket list, we love Peruvian food, and so it wasn’t too hard of a sell for us.

As Eric and I have just recorded a Two Sides of FI episode on our experience (I’ll update this post once the show is released), my thoughts on the trip are fresh in my mind. At a high level, it was a really great experience. In some respects, it’s hard to believe just how much we packed into 15 days. We were truly fortunate to have had gorgeous weather nearly every hour of our trip (thank you, Pachamama!). Our experienced and capable CEO, Joshi (she’s from Lima) did an amazing job at all times on our journey - whether providing expert local information, ensuring all the travel logistics went smoothly, assisting at the pharmacy, recommending meal options, and everything in between. Lorri and I both agree that the CEO model that gAdventures uses is highly effective and something we really liked.

In other positives, having someone else handle all the logistics - a stated goal for this trip - was amazing. The only thing we had to plan were our flights to and from Lima to bookend the trip. All internal flights, bus trips, tickets, boats, guides, hotels, some meals, etc. were handled by gAdventures. It’s quite refreshing to know that it’s all taken care of and that you have a local expert at the ready to answer all questions and navigate any tricky situations should they arise.

The experience overall was great. All the planned and optional activities we undertook were both informative and enjoyable - perhaps barring the dune buggy experience that was much more aggressive than I’d expected. Lorri certainly enjoyed it! I’d need 10X the pictures I’m sharing here to fully describe all that we did - the tour itinerary spells it all out for those interested in more details. But just to list a few: we visited the floating islands of Lake Titicaca, took a flight over the famous Nazca Lines, toured Machu Picchu, saw numerous archaeological sites, learned tons about the rich and long history of Peru, shopped at local markets and cooked together at a restaurant, and ate many amazing meals.

Admittedly, one of our biggest hesitations going in was how it would feel to be with a group of other people most of the time. As Lorri put it, to “share your vacation” with others. Fortunately, our small group (nine guests including, us plus Joshi to make ten) was made up of lovely people. There were three couples from Canada, an English woman, and us as the lone Americans. It was nice to have the opportunity to meet and talk with others who also love travel, and the company at meals and on some of the long van rides was definitely welcome. At times we did feel somewhat of an unstated obligation to take meals together - even though this wasn’t mandatory, but I guess this is part of the tour experience. There were several evenings that we elected to go our separate ways for dinner and for us, this was important.

Speaking of dinners, we decided to cap off our tour with yet another 20th anniversary celebratory dinner on our last night in Lima. One look at the picture below will make clear just how lovely (and also affordable!) of an experience that we had at Mérito. It was impossible to resist having just a little more ceviche (a favorite of ours) before leaving Peru, and all the other dishes we selected were wonderful too. Taking this evening off from the group meant that our “last supper” as a collective was the day prior, but that seemed to work well for others too.

Were there any negatives? It seems overly harsh to describe them as such but let’s call them factors worth considering if you’re thinking about taking a tour. If you really value flexibility, it is certainly different than solo travel. It’s pretty easy to take a down day if you’re on your own, but there is a schedule to be kept when you’re part of a tour. The logistics are pre-planned so you do need to accept that adherence to the schedule is part of the game. In addition, the quality of groups can certainly vary. Any fears we had about this were quickly put to rest given how nice our tour peers were. But perhaps we were just lucky? It’s certainly possible that you could end up with a domineering or otherwise unpleasant person in your group. Thankfully, this wasn’t something we experienced - quite the opposite.

What lessons did we learn? Two weeks is probably our limit for this flavor of travel. It’s a lot of moving around, packing, travel time, etc. Any longer would probably be too much for us unless the tour had fewer locations to travel between along the way. We also like the idea of pairing a shorter (perhaps 7-10 days) tour with a week or more of time on our own - a hybrid experience, if you will. We also think that at least for us, these kinds of tours are a great fit when solo travel is below our comfort threshold - perhaps due to language barrier, safety concerns, etc. But we’ll likely continue to do solo travel in much of Europe, for example.

So would we do it again? Absolutely. We learned much from this experience and made so many positive memories. Lorri and I agreed that the cost of the tour was well worth it and the model that G Adventures uses proved to be a great fit for us. We are definitely much better informed about this kind of travel now - and even more so thanks to all the great information we got from the much more experienced travelers on the trip - and know what we’d consider doing differently in the future. Got any questions? Ask away in the comments below! Mahalo 🙏

Wikipedia defines kintsugi (Japanese: 金継ぎ, lit. 'golden joinery') as “the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with urushi lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.” After one of our cats broke a ceramic bowl by pushing it off an end table, I had the idea to order an inexpensive kintsugi kit from Amazon to repair it. I’d never done it before, but I really like the way kintsugi looks and figured it was a safe experiment.

After a few hard-learned lessons (take your time, mix the epoxy well, and do one piece at a time), my efforts yielded what I think is a passable result. I certainly know what I’d do differently next time. And now have our bowl back and perhaps we’ll move it to a more cat-friendly place where it can steer clear of any zoomies-related calamities :) Yesterday, as I was looking at the bowl, it struck me that kintsugi’s deceptively simple philosophical meaning was worth sharing.

Our lives are of course an amalgamation of our many experiences over the years. I won’t claim that it’s a perfect Gaussian / bell curve distribution, but if we collect all that occurs over our time vertical on this planet, that’s not a bad model. Most of these experiences are pretty mundane, and rate somewhere between “a little crappy” to “pretty decent”. And then we have the tails of that distribution - on one side, the truly amazing, joyous, and overwhelmingly positive memories, and on the other, those which are tragic, sad, and sometimes horribly painful. But they are all a part of who we are as individuals and play a role in forming our identities. Every one of these experiences has value, whether we realize it at the time or not.

Leaving my career behind has given me the gift of a lot of time for reflection. As other retirees I’ve corresponded with have agreed, when we finally stop spending the majority of our waking hours in the grind, we more often take advantage of the time to simply think. Whether you employ formal meditation (highly recommended!), long walks, or some other mechanism to spend time alone with your thoughts, that reflection is remarkably valuable. And you certainly don’t need to wait until you’re retired to take it.

Between the time spent thinking, the days I spent walking the Camino, and through talking with a therapist, I’ve learned a lot about myself. Not all of those discoveries were easy to confront, that’s for sure. But I now welcome the lessons that come my way, and actively try to improve based on them. As a human I’ve made many mistakes, done and seen much, and made positive and negative contributions to the world around me. Despite (or in part because of) our big brains, we humans are pretty complex and far from perfect. But through understanding, acceptance, and learning from all our experiences - not suppressing or denying them, I truly believe that we become a better whole.

I hope this post finds you well. I wish you all the best and thank you as always for being on the journey with me. Mahalo. 🙏

What started as just being bummed about some physical limitations grew into something more serious. I got really up in my head about the leg issue as it impacted numerous aspects of my life. I gained weight. The depression that I thought I’d been managing well through chemistry and therapy rose up again. I felt really down about how protracted of a process it was to get a doctor appt, get several MRIs approved from health insurance, and to finally get some answers. And yes, all the while I knew that this was just a temporary setback, and that so many people are dealing with much bigger, longer term health issues than I’ve ever had. But that doesn’t mean my subconscious could square those things all the time.

I’m happy to report that I’m feeling much better the last few weeks. I’ve gotten some answers about my leg, a situation that has thankfully been slowly improving. I was grateful to learn there’s no scary root cause, and that with time I’ll be back to 100%. I’ve been doing some 3-mile walks again and currently have no restrictions on activity. I need to resume my daily walks, try some longer distances, and see how that goes. For the last couple of weeks, the flare-ups have been minor and short-lived. I’m starting to allow myself feel more optimistic about the situation.

Otherwise, life is really good. I have so much to be happy about. Our son graduated from high school, which included a fun week with family visiting from out of state. We’ve made plans around his move-in week for college, which feels like such a huge milestone - a bittersweet one, to be sure. I also had a nice relaxing day celebrating my recent 51st birthday with family and good friends. I’m enjoying my pastry baking journey, and am feeling pretty confident with choux now (creampuffs shown with this post). In very exciting news, Lorri and I booked a two-week vacation in Peru this fall to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We are super excited to finally be exploring South America and can’t wait!

Yesterday, Eric and I released a Two Sides of FI episode about my four-year milestone since leaving my career behind in June 2020. It feels really good to be having our regular chats again. I think we covered my learnings well in the video so I won’t rehash them here. But the key take-home for me from that conversation was how leaving my career behind has provided me ample space to think and focus on “how I’m doing” all around. In the big picture sense, the outcome of that has been a focus on mental health; I’ve written about and talked about this before. To be 100% clear, I’m grateful for this outcome. It’s a gift. The work is hard but it’s long overdue, and is clearly going to serve me well over the long term.

I hope this post finds you all well, and enjoying time with family and friends. Take care of yourselves, and I hope to “talk” to you again soon. Mahalo 🙏

Yesterday was the first time I reviewed my blog posts from my recent Camino Portugués since returning home from my trip. This experience provoked a lot of emotions, particularly when viewing the photos I took and replaying the journey in my mind. Speaking of emotions - I suspect this will be my final Camino post, which in a way makes me sad as it seems like a chapter in my life is now over. But stay tuned until the end of the post for more on that idea!

The most common question I’ve gotten about my walk is whether I got out of it all that I hoped I would. To that, I can provide a resounding “yes”. It was clearly one of those experiences which you can’t fully understand before doing it, but my expectations were definitely met. It was a big ask of my family to spend three weeks away from them, and I certainly feel strongly that my time was spent as well as I’d hoped it would be. I hope that with time they’ll agree. While I’m still bearing some physical challenges that manifested from the walk, mentally and emotionally, my Camino bore tremendous fruit.

Mechanically, the Camino Portugués was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the challenges of walking the ~175 mile trail, making new friends, and most importantly, having so much “walking meditation” time alone with my thoughts. Yesterday, I got a lot of pleasure out of making a Google Map of my journey (courtesy of the GPX output files from my Garmin watch), along with one final Relive video (note that the 190 miles shown here includes the boat journey on the penultimate day). It was just really cool to remind myself just what my path looked like and all the places I saw!

But as you might have guessed, the inner journey was the one most important to me, and the one to which I’ll devote the remainder of this post. I received a number of comments from blog readers and YouTube viewers asking me to summarize what I learned from the walk. I gave a quick rundown of some of that in a recent Two Sides of Fi video. To expand further:

1. Be open to whatever the universe presents you with. Don’t waste energy trying to run scenarios of what might happen. You might be pleasantly surprised by what you can learn on a path you find yourself on that you’d never have predicted.

2. All we have is now. Focus on the current moment, as the past and future aren’t real to us at the present. Most of us spend far too much energy there vs. spent being present in the moment we’re actually in and which matters most!

3. Much of a challenge is mental. This is perhaps a very obvious statement but the Camino remind me just how many obstacles in life have 90% or more of their difficulty in our minds.

4. Relationships matter most of all. Again, to many this is like “Duh, right?” But there’s nothing like solo travel away from loved ones to remind you just how important and precious the time we have with people about whom we care, matters.

The first on this list was a stated goal from the very start of my journey. I’m one who is prone to over-analysis, worrying, and trying to plan for all possible outcomes. While SSRIs and therapy have given me much more awareness and increasingly control of this, I knew I’d need to dedicate brain cycles to being open to whatever the Camino threw at me. And I was generally happy with how well I did. I didn’t keep my video updates from the Camino going after the first few days, but if you saw any of them, I hope you’ll take away how well I did with the rain and other unpleasantries that are just facts of life on the trail. This truly was progress for me, I promise!

“All we have is now” is a concept I first heard a month prior to my walk via Eckhart Tolle’s 1999 bestseller, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. While I enjoy philosophy quite a bit, I don’t typically read what many would categorize as “new age” content. But this book was a referral from a trusted friend undergoing his own personal transformation, and so I readily grabbed the author-read audiobook on Audible. What a read! Parts of the book were harder to swallow, particularly towards the latter end of it. But the central thesis about living in this current moment, and how most of us waste so much energy pining for or worrying about the distant past or an uncertain future, is killer stuff! And the Camino only strengthened my belief in the power of this message. I’ve decided to re-read the book to think through this a bit more. But I encourage anyone, particularly those who struggle with troubled pasts or worries over the future to consider a read. Focusing on the present made so much of the Camino much more enjoyable. Colors really are brighter, and sights + sounds much lovelier, when you are truly present and focused on the world around you!

As mentioned, the latter two entries on my list are the more obvious conclusions from my walk. But particularly once my leg started bothering me on the Camino (don’t worry, I’ve sought medical care), and then got a cold, and I had to find ways to work through them, I was reminded how much of many struggles is mental. And to be clear, that’s not to diminish the challenges of mental struggles! But in this case, I had a goal in mind and was determined to achieve it. So this was often about the question of continuing or not, and what accommodations might need to happen in order to continue on. I never actually contemplated ending my walk. I knew I could take a rest day if I needed to, but didn’t end up needing it. I just rested when I had to, and remained open to my plans changing if they had to for any reason.

Finally, this was the longest I’ve ever been away from my wife and son. Sure, I used to travel plenty in my former career. But if my memory is correct, the longest stretch I’d ever been away was ten days in Southeast Asia, and this was more than twice as long as that. I still maintain that I needed to do this journey alone to maximize the benefit. Sure, I would have enjoyed the Camino a lot having my life partner, travel buddy, and amazing support system there with me! But I’m certain I wouldn’t have taken nearly enough time with my own thoughts on the walk if I’d had Lorri there. It would have been more of a hiking holiday than a personal journey - super fun, but less personal growth almost certainly. But now having this behind me, I don’t see much appeal in future solo trips. Sure, I’ll continue to find value in walking meditation. But I get a lot of benefit from that in day- or weekend-long walks.

One of my favorite things about the Camino was the people I met along the way. And I found that one of the most interest topics of conversation was each person’s “why” they were on the trail. Many were undergoing times of change in their lives and hoped to learn something from their journeys, or in several cases, to process grief from the loss of a loved one. Some were doing it just “to see if they could” i.e. to determine if they could meet the physical challenge. Still others were there simply supporting a partner who had caught Camino fever. While I walked alone nearly all of my Camino, the hours I spent with others at meals or just chatting at a hostel with fellow pilgrims, was another valuable example of how much relationships matter in life. I’m glad I followed the advice of other walkers to take pictures of the people you met on the journey. I hope I remember them all.

One last question I’ve been asked a few times: would you recommend the Camino to others? If the idea of a walk like this (or a longer one - see my earlier Camino posts) appeals to you, definitely! As mentioned in the 2SFI video, the infrastructure around the more popular Camino routes makes it a simpler prospect than other long hikes. Food, bathrooms, lodging, pharmacies, etc. are readily available along most of the route. That means you only really need to carry clothes, first aid supplies, and water. Sure, most people put more in their pack but the essentials list is pretty short. You can also tailor the route to your abilities and to the time you have available. That customization increases the likelihood of success since you can truly personalize the experience. Personal safety is also less of a concern than many fear, as there are almost always other people around, plenty of places to seek help, and at least on this route, ready cellphone signal if needed.

I’m really glad I did this walk. It’s too soon to make any sweeping declarations about how it’s changed me, but I believe it will demonstrate over time to have been super impactful to me, and be an important step in my own personal growth. Re-reading my posts from the walk have me thinking there just might be a book in my experience. I have no delusions that it would be popular or even a good read. But I think I’m going to try writing it up and I’m either gonna finish and put it out in the world, or I’ll give up because I’m not enjoying the process of writing. Both are totally fine with me!

As always, thanks for all your support. I really appreciated your positive comments during my walk and since I’ve returned. I didn’t share my thoughts to provoke this outcome, but I am certainly very appreciative of your kind words. Mahalo 🙏

Tot. distance walked: 174.5 mi (280.8 km)

Walking route: Cruces to Santiago de Compostela

Spent the evening at the guesthouse chatting in the kitchen over wine with Jack (67 UK), and later joined by Olivia (28 Finland). The other two guests are a Spanish woman who seemed to want some alone time, and a 20-something Brazilian woman. The latter sat with us for a while and ate some dinner, but her discomfort in English and our poor knowledge of Portuguese was a substantial barrier. She took off once her pizza was finished.

I slept on the couch last night as my nighttime cough returned and I didn’t want to wake up Jack in the dorm. I slept well enough there and got my intended early start to the day. I want to allow plenty of time to reach Santiago by the Pilgrim mass at noon. I’m not religious, but I look forward to the shared experience with other peregrinos, nonetheless.

I can tell it’s going to be a weird day full of emotions. I’m glad that once I finish I can give my leg a rest, and also will be happy to reunite with friends already in Santiago and with those who’ll arrive tomorrow. But I’ll miss the long days walking in thought, and know I need to ensure I put good process in place at home to keep up the good work. It’s too beneficial not to do so. I’m eager for daybreak so I can get this walk started!

My walk was good and I made really good time for much of it. There was more climbing than I’d prefer, but the weather was perfect today and the sun was around for most of it. I was admittedly pushing pretty hard the last few miles as I wanted to get to the cathedral by noon. I made it with 10 minutes to spare. After some initial confusion about what to do with my backpack (not allowed in the cathedral), I went in.

If you’ve seen any European cathedrals you know what the place looks like - huge, lots of gold, and generally impressive. Mass was ok and I was trying (and failing) to translate from Spanish. Hearing the Pilgrim’s Blessing was nice. Afterwards, I met up with the Canadians, Paul and Stephanie, took some photos of the cathedral, and proceeded with the usual SdC pilgrim activities: go under the altar and view the relic alleged to contain the remains of St James the Great, and come back up and hug the statue of his likeness (photos not allowed).

After that, the three of us had a nice lunch together, I went to the pilgrim office to get my Compostela, picked up a few souvenirs, and we took some photos together. We split up from there, checked into our lodging, ditched backpacks (phew!), and took a break. We plan to meet up again with some of the others before we all leave SdC.

I went into today with no expectations about how I’d feel when my walk was over. I didn’t think it likely I’d burst into tears in front of the cathedral, and I didn’t. Honestly, my highest point on the walk was getting my first glimpse of the cathedral off in the distance, 4 miles from my goal. That image suddenly made the impending conclusion feel real. I did feel relief and happiness once I stood in the plaza. But I think it will take some time before I fully process the journey I’ve made.

I plan to take a break from posting about the Camino. Perhaps I’ll feel inspired to write again before I head home but I think it’s likely it won’t be until after I’m back in CA. But for now, I’m truly grateful to have had the opportunity to take this journey. I’ve learned a lot about myself, have thought through some really important things, and met some nice people. I look forward to getting home, being with my amazing family, and put a number of things into action. Mahalo 🙏

PS - It feels weird that I won’t be walking tomorrow!

Total walked so far: 163.6 mi (263.3 km)

Boat route: Vilanova de Arousa to Pontecesures

Walking route: Pontecesures to Cruces ***

It’s weird staying in an albergue all alone! But that’s what I did. And I slept great by myself in a room made for six. Got ready and headed out. It was unsuccessful i in my search for coffee. Not much to do except wait to board the boat.

Today’s journey will begin with an hour boat trip from Vilanova de Arousa to Pontecesures - the so-called La Translatio route. This is said to be the sea route that the body of the martyred St. James followed on the way to what became Santiago. It completes the Variant Espiritual, and features the (allegedly) only maritime Roman Catholic “Stations of the Cross”, which mark the way to Santiago. I love boats and am happy to start my day a little differently before commencing my walk.

We first saw the many platforms used by Galicians to farm mussels. Apparently the region is second (behind far larger Canada) in mussel production worldwide. We then journeyed through the Ria de Arousa to the Rio Ulla, viewing the crosses, which would eventually deliver us to our end point.

Bao was on the tour as well and wanted a picture once we disembarked. The boat was nice and I was happy to get underway at Pontecesures. I tried to keep up with Mattis and Ed (the other California from the beginning, who I’ve kept in touch with but may not have named yet). This failed due to 1) the crowds gathered at the market and 2) my leg pain. After a mile I lost them and grabbed a solo coffee.

I got some amazing (and cheap!) fresh churros from a vendor and set out. I had several nice visits at area churches and added a few more stamps to my credencial. I’ve still got plenty of room so perhaps I’ll load up today! I’m glad I decided at the start not to charge for Santiago this day. Splitting it is both great for my leg and provides time to explore a little!

A little before 3 miles in I stopped for a coffee and to rest my leg. From there the rest of the walk went fine, and only saw a little light rain in the last 15 min. It’s so hard to believe that tomorrow I’ll arrive in Santiago!

I’ve booked a nice place about halfway between Pontesecures and Santiago. The host isn’t around but one other guest has already arrived and there are likely at least a few more. I got in a bit before 3PM so we will have time to relax this afternoon. Sounds good to me!

On the walk today I found myself thinking about what I’ve learned, plan to take home, leave behind, etc. It was a good start to a thought process that will surely continue until I’m on my way home, and then perhaps not wrap up until I’m home and take time to reflect on the trip. Going through my pictures and notes will surely help, and that will take a bit of (well-worth it!) time. I’m starting to think I have more writing to do!

*** I screwed up recording the route on my Garmin watch for the first time today. The first portion of the walk (from the docks to the busy market square) was missed in the route video as a result. But the mileage walked listed here (7.2) is correct!

Total walked so far: 156.4 mi (251.7 km)

Route taken: Armenteira to Vilanova de Arousa

Very interrupted sleep last night despite a comfortable bed. I was glad to be in a private room where I didn’t have to worry about making noise. Still have a bit of a cough at night despite feeling so much better. Hopefully that doesn’t continue as my next two nights are in a hostel with the usual bunkbed setup.

Breakfast was great and huge, so much so that I was able to take some bread and cake to go to have as a snack on the trail. The host gave me a ride to the monastery, which is right after the point where I stopped yesterday. It was a nice place to explore and get a few photos, but also so early in the day that there was no activity. Nice and quiet isn’t so bad.

The first section of the walk after that was among my favorites so far. I’ve now stopped after 3 miles for a snack and to recollect. The English name for this part of the path is “the way of stones and water”, and it’s got all of that in spades plus tons of trees and moss. The sound of the water is effectively white noise, and is great for clearing your mind and just enjoying being present. I found it to be an effective place to focus on what’s happening now.

I’m really enjoying walking alone today. I feel pretty quiet, but not in a bad way. I did see Mattis earlier, but he was on a sprint, hoping to find coffee soon after a night of poor sleep. I saw another group of three including one very chatty young man. I’ve run into him twice now, despite my best efforts to lose him. But he has moved on quickly each time. I’m not really complaining, I’m just enjoying the peace and quiet.

It’s beginning to hit me that I only have a few days left before I reach Santiago. It is definitely one of those bittersweet realizations. It’s exciting to get there as it’s the achievement of a challenging goal, but it also means the walking will soon be over. I suppose this is why some walkers immediately go onto some other journey such as to Finisterre. I even met one man walking this path in reverse because he reached Santiago via the Camino Francés and didn’t want it to end. I don’t have any urge to do that, as I really want to get home to see my family. But I do understand and I’m not surprised to feel a sense of loss that is starting to grow. I must channel that energy for good! After all, all that we have is now, not what will soon be in the past.

I resumed my walk. In another mile, I briefly reunited with my Lithuanian friend, and also saw the talkative young man from Hong Kong. Matis headed out, I got my snack, and spoke with Bao. He is very energetic, and basically learned about the Camino after quitting a recent job. It’s exciting to me to learn how many people decide with very short notice to do this walk.

I started walking again, and it started raining lightly for an hour or so. Out came the poncho again. Uneventful walk otherwise, barring my sciatica, which is really acting up. I take breaks periodically, which seems to really help. This portion of the walk is largely along small vineyards, and a larger, slow moving river. Hopefully the rain doesn’t stick around.

I stopped at a café a little before 9 miles into the journey, first, an OK empanada, a nice coffee,and a few tapas sized bites of a delicious piece of cake that came with my coffee. It was a nice little rest, and they had a very nice purple stamp for my credencial. And we go, proceeding on what seems to be along the side of the road. Joy

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The final 6 miles were pretty uneventful barring my leg acting up at times. At least it was largely flat, something for which I was thankful. It’s also nice to be back to the seashore, though that also meant a much breezier, cooler ending to my walk. I just might be the only one at my hostel - both comforting and a little spooky. Now I’m heading out to do laundry and find Mattis and some dinner. Have a great day! 🙏

Total walked so far: 141.1 mi (227.1 km)

Route taken: Pontevedra to Armenteira

Slept only ok last night as some of the other hostel residents were pretty loud coming home late (why do they always rearrange the furniture?) and woke me up. I was happy I was up early enough to have a protracted “getting ready” time this morning - but still made it out by 9AM and found some coffee and toast nearby before heading out.

Met up with Mattis again (he got a later start than me but can walk very quickly) after a few miles and we grabbed a coffee together before setting out again. We walked together until the 7.5 mile mark. We then stopped for lunch (for me) and just a beer for him. My sciatica has been worse today and the climbs are the hardest. This is the last town before the steep climb so I know I needed a break.

I had some really great pulpo for lunch, a beer, and a coffee before setting out. Mattis left first and we agreed to meet up tomorrow if we didn’t make it out tonight. I haven’t seen many pilgrims on this path as promised, and that’s been really nice. This climb will be a little tough but I’ll take my time and enjoy the woods. At least it’s only overcast today and there’s been no rain! It’s supposed to stay that way 🤞

Today my internal soundtrack has been particularly strong. I’ve stuck to my guns about not having headphones in on this walk but that doesn’t mean I don’t often “hear” songs in my head - or sing them out loud when I’m sure I’m on my own :) it is its own kind of meditation, I think.

Ok the climb: hard and lengthy but honestly I thought it would be worse. Totally manageable especially since my sciatica was better after lunch (at least partially if not largely from the ibuprofen I took). The weather was also ideal today, with a nice breeze the whole way up so even with full sun, it was pleasant. I saw only one other pilgrim after lunch and he was a bit behind me. Perfect!

My housing tonight is a lovely property a few km off the Camino. So my host picked me up where the trail intersects with a road and brought me to the property. After a great shower, I checked in, had a glass of wine, and hung out until tasty dinner. I’m still functioning well in my Spanish and my host is learning English so we can both help each other :)

I’m really glad I elected to do the Variante Espiritual. It’s a lovely walk so far and I look forward to what’s to come tomorrow, and then especially the boat ride the following day. And now I’m ready for bed! Hasta mañana, mi familia y mis amigos. 🙏

PS - I got a nice wax stamp for my credencial at my lodging (it’s their silhouette logo). Hopefully I can take good care of it so it doesn’t come loose!

Total walked so far: 129.0 mi (207.6 km)

Route taken: Redondela to Ponteverde

200 kilometers! Another milestone in the books. Ok, now on to my notes:

Got some sad news from home last night, and sadder news late tonight. You truly feel far away and isolated at times like that. Helpless. Though I was tired, I had a hard time falling asleep last night but in the end slept a long time. It will be a little later start as a result but that’s ok. Decent chance of rain this afternoon but so it goes. Looking forward to today’s walk of 13+ miles.

It was great for almost two miles. Then I accidentally pulled my backpack’s sternum strap off the rail it’s normally attached to. It’s not meant to come off and it’s really annoying to put back on - particularly without pliers, which I don’t carry. After 30 min of struggling I gave up, made a janky temp repair, and moved on. Shortly thereafter I found a cafe and decided to do a reset and get my late breakfast. A little Spanish tortilla (kinda like a potato omelette) and cafe con leche and I felt better. On we go!

This was one of those days where I didn’t write much in the way of notes when I stopped. I’m not sure why, but so it goes. Summarizing the rest of the walk is straightforward, and is well served by the photos linked in the Route at the top of this post. Two climbs, a mix of small towns, forest, ending with a roadside walk into the city of Pontevedre. It rained the last 1/3 of the walk but never really hard. My shoes were of course thoroughly wet

I worked hard on being present on this walk. I borrowed a technique from meditation, where you acknowledge intrusive thoughts and just let them pass. Here, instead of refocusing on breath, I was trying to use the sound of my footsteps. Being present (sort of) saved me at one point today as well…

I had just overtaken a slower Spanish walker when I realized I was going a bit too fast for the steep pebbly / sandy road I was on. A slow motion series of events took place, of which I was really aware in the moment: my right foot shot back after slipping, and I leaned forward as a reaction, pitching my center of gravity too. I realized I was falling, and elected to fall on my abdomen and forearms. I was totally fine as a result, barring a few small scrapes. It was strange to not be caught off guard and to have some (but not nearly enough) control over what followed.

One thought that frequently got air time today was that I was ending a chapter. I spent most of my walk on the Central Route, after starting on the Litoral, and tomorrow would transition. Next up is a 3-day stint on what’s known as the Variante Espiritual (Spiritual Variant). This link has a great summary.

I’m taking it for a few reasons: primarily, it’s a nice route - often described by pilgrims as their favorite part, I’m ready to walk outaide of these larger cities, and it’s less traveled in also interested in the boat ride at the end which is supposed to be pretty cool. After that I’ve got one more day where I’ll walk into Santiago.

After arriving in Pontevedre, I met up with my Lithuanian friend, Matis. We parted ways eight days prior when he stayed on the coastal path. It was great to see him as well as several others from Casa Fernanda and other points along the Camino. After a quick dinner we had a few beers at two different spots as an early St. Patrick’s Day celebration - on which the two Irish in our group insisted! :)

And so that last bit is why this is posting the next morning as opposed to before bed. While we only had a few beers each, we talked for a while so a later bedtime meant I didn’t have time to write. So it goes! Be well, friends. 🙏

Total walked so far: 115.3 mi (185.6 km)

Route taken: Porriño to Redondela

Slept well last night. Still feeling off but better than yesterday. I’ve decided to walk but to take it slow and ensure I’m feeling well enough to push on. I’ve got a private spot again tonight which will also help in recovery + relaxation. Today’s goal is around 10 miles but does have a little more challenging terrain. Slow and steady wins the race!

Made a pot of coffee, ate a few light sandwiches for breakfast, and watched half a documentary. Slowly packed up my stuff and headed out! I’m feeling positive and the weather looks really great. I know I’ll likely see rain again before I return home, but this is such a wonderful change.

Stopped after 4 miles where I visited a nice little church and got a delicious fresh-squeezed orange juice at a nearby cafe. A nice older gentleman gave me this postcard as a gift and wished me “Buen Camino!” Super cool. Saw the two Spaniards from Casa Fernanda on my way out, which was nice. I would cross paths with them several more times today.  Honestly, I’m feeling really good! Making excellent time and enjoying the peace and quiet, having only a few other pilgrims so far. I’m optimistic about the day given how it’s going so far!

Stopped for a few minutes a bit before 6 miles as all this climbing is tough on my sciatica. Anyhow, I’m a little hungry and I have this cheese sandwich to eat. Resting my leg feels good before I resume climbing. I’m sweating more given this sun, even in shorts. Def need to drink more water today! Seeing more pilgrims now and the cleanliness of their gear makes me think they joined in Tui or Porriño as is common. No judgement here! We all must walk our own Camino (kinda like “hike your own hike”).

The rest of the walk was great and mostly uneventful…unless you count this amazingly friend doggo I met and two screwups (one big, one small) that I made today - and that were quickly righted! The title of this post refers to a common Camino saying. I think it gets a bit maudlin at times the way some use it if I’m being honest, but today the Camino sure came through for me!

#1: I had a really great snack stop after 8 miles. A cafe almost magically appeared in view and I stopped in. Today’s weirdo snack was a with-sugar Coke (I know, right?), a piece of flan, and an espresso. It was perfect! I filled my water and moved on. 2 min later I noticed the wallet zip pocket on my pants was open and empty. I started back up the hill looking everywhere. Suddenly the woman from the cafe appeared, wallet in hand. She ran down the (rather steep) hill to find me. I had left it on the bar when paying. The Camino provides.

#2: At the end of my walk, I checked into my (rather nice!) hostel here in Redondela, unpacked, and realized a second error: when I’d left Porriño this morning, I’d somehow disconnected the (locking) plug adapter portion of my USB charger. That thing is one of my essential items and the only way I can connect to EU power! I learned that the only nearby store that carries them was closed. The hostel host left and searched the other hostel he works at and found some adaptors that had been left behind by guests and gave me one to keep. The Camino provides!

Sure, these are just simple things but I remain grateful that these two situations - one scary and the other just annoying - were quickly rectified. I’ve had other times on this trip where the Camino lent a hand but I’ll leave this idea for now. Certainly, anything that reminds one of the importance of gratitude is only going to be positive.

Speaking of gratitude, I’m also happy that there’s a self-serve laundromat across the street, since the dryer at the hostel is busted. This is seemingly a common occurrence as I have found. After yet another “laundry al sinko” yesterday, I’m ready to do a better job with everything I have barring my evening shorts + shirt ensemble. Conveniently, there is also a cafe on either side of the laundromat, so I’m typing this with a beer in view - not such a bad afternoon!

Most importantly, I’m grateful that today was a good one, where I walked strong (I made great time despite taking it easy!), enjoyed solo time with my thoughts - and while I still feel less than 100%, I’m feeling somewhat better today. I’ll certainly take it easy and enjoy relaxing in my room before and after I stroll the area and later find dinner. Tomorrow is my last day on the Central Route before picking it up again after three days on a variant route to which I’m looking forward. But more on that tomorrow! Adiós, mis amigos. Be well 🙏

PS - I’m shocked how well (not great, mind you 😂) I’m doing here with my 1.5 courses (underway in the second though I’m playing hooky right now) of community college Spanish! People are very gracious and indeed I do look things up sometimes before speaking.

Total walked so far: 104.6 mi (168.3 km)

Route taken: Valença to Porriño

Slept ok in the (really great) hostel. There was some snoring and other noises but on the whole I did well. Woke up before my dorm and quietly got ready, then started the coffee and made a nice breakfast for myself. The camaraderie of others is nice but I l’ve found that I really enjoy these solitary times.

After yesterday’s slow going, I’m hopeful to get a better start today! Theres no rush given it’s a ~13 mile day. All my other hostel mates are taking it slow so I’ll be the first one out today. Spain is an hour ahead of Portugal time so I’m keen to get started!

Crossing the foggy bridge was cool, albeit disappointing not being able to see Tui and the cathedral from a distance. Just after crossing I had my first of many “¡Buen Camino!”s (not from fellow pilgrims) of the day. One man even struck up a short conversation and asked where I was from. I got more of them in Tui than elsewhere today, but got at least a few in each town. It feels good. Switching to Spanish after all that Portuguese is welcome but also confusing…

In Tui, the route takes you past a number of churches, among the first of these is the city’s famous cathedral. It was nice to see it at such a quiet time and here I got my first credencial stamp (in Spain it’s a sella and no longer a carimbo as in Portugal) of the day. I now need to be certain to get at least two stamps a day to earn my compostela certificate in Santiago. This is required to demonstrate that you have walked at least the last 100 km (or cycled at least 200 km).

Very soon I started to see the promised hordes of tourists being bussed into the city, starting on their guided tours. I made good time in Tui barring a 5 min break I took to stretch as my sciatica was acting up. Admittedly more things hurt in general today - even my lower back, which has been nicely quiet all along. So it goes!

After a few more miles I saw a sign indicating the trail was closed (likely due to rain which has been heavy here in Galicia as well). So I took the boring road detours and started to wonder when I might find a cafe to take a break and eat something. After 7 miles I found something just a few minutes off my trail and stopped for a snack. A beer really hit the spot as did a toasted sandwich and some cake. I’m enjoying using my Spanish but people in Galicia would seemingly rather speak Galego, which I don’t know 🤷‍♂️

At 8 miles things went to hell 😂 I had been reasonably skillfully navigating a section with lots of flooding and mud. Towards the end, I was trying to reach less perilous footing when one shoe hit really slick mud and I fell. I came so close to faceplanting and at the last moment, slowed my fall by catching myself with my left forearm and leg and my right hand. My watch wanted to send an emergency message to Lorri thinking the shock was a big accident!

And then I laughed, and was surprised that I’d done so. My shoes were muddy, as were my pants, shirt, hat, and hands. I stood up, laughed, and brushed myself off. So it goes! This reaction was so uncharacteristic for me as to be comical. I wasn’t frustrated or mad, as I’d typically be. I sure hope I can bring this attitude home from the Camino! I’m going to remember this incident and try to use is as a reminder!

The rest of the walk was unremarkable. This is primarily because I unwittingly made a bad choice at this decision point and walked for miles along an industrial park instead of through the woods. It was really lame. Had I read my guidebook I’d have known better! So it goes - I’ll do better tomorrow…

I got settled in at my private lodging (I think I’m fighting off a cold so need a good night’s sleep!), showered, did some laundry, and then bought a few things at the market for meals tomorrow and a snack this evening. I watched most of a documentary on Netflix (first TV of the trip!) and grabbed a quick dinner nearby. There I found Brian the Irishman from the Casa Fernanda contingent. We caught each other up on the rest of the group’s status, watched the barman do a few close magic tricks, and went our separate ways.

Hopefully this cold or whatever it is doesn’t progress! I’m earnestly looking forward to sleep tonight. I’ll just finish my documentary after posting this and get ready for bed. I’m looking forward to walking tomorrow though I may need to allow extra time if I’m not 100%. It’s less mileage but also with some ascent/descent stages. In the worst case, I’ll stay here in boring (granite capital of Europe!) Porriño another day. I have a day of buffer in my existing schedule but using that will have some ripple effects on other plans. Fingers crossed! Mahalo 🙏

PS - I crossed 100 miles today! Seems crazy to me on one hand but on the other, it’s just more walking. It’s what I do now.

Total walked so far: 91.4 mi (147.1km)

Route taken: São Roque to Valença

Today marks the seventh day of my Camino. If I stick to my plan, I will reach Santiago in seven more days. In addition, it’s also true that as of this afternoon, I have now walked a little more than half of the ~170 miles that make up my route. So in that respect I’m halfway there as well! Kinda hard to believe…

Today was an early start with no breakfast until an hour or so into my walk given the location of my housing. Last night’s pilgrim meal was tasty, I went to bed soon after returning, and I slept well. The forecast showed 0% chance of rain but I was skeptical.

Turns out I had good reason to be! Rain started within the first 30 min but thankfully didn’t last. However, the path was frequently very muddy and occasionally flooded. My hopes of dry shoes were quashed within the first hour so it goes…

The cafe where I took breakfast had good coffee but lame baked goods I knew I’d have the chance to rectify that gap later. I was dragging all morning. I just felt slow, my mind wandered a lot, and told myself that this was ok. Besides, I couldn’t check in at the hostel until 3PM why not take a slower day and focus on mindfulness? So I did

My sciatica (that’s the diagnosis of my readers) was acting up this morning. I suspect all the ascent/descent work yesterday took its toll. Thankfully this improved a lot in the afternoon. I suspect it was the nice vegetable soup and cake I had for lunch :) taking my time, eventually everyone from my Casa Fernanda team (except the Spaniards, who I didn’t see today) showed up and passed me. I enjoyed walking alone today but it was good to see all at some point.

While the city around it seemed a bit typical and a shocking change of scenery from the countryside, the walled city of Valença was super cool. I took time to walk around it before dinner with three of the Germans. The four of us grabbed a nice pilgrim meal at an area hotel restaurant. Once again, I opted for the grilled fish. This time, rice pudding was the dessert I selected. Tasty!

Our hostel inside the city walls is great, and a few from our group including a mother and daughter team are staying here too. We were grateful for the chance to get some laundry done, given how nasty some of our clothes got in the mud today!

I’m pretty excited to walk across the bridge to Tui, Spain tomorrow. It definitely feels like an entirely different chapter in my journey. It seems momentous! In addition, I will finally get the chance to try out some of the Spanish language I’ve been learning!

Total walked so far: 79.4 mi (127.8 km)

Route taken: Ponte de Lima to São Roque

Great pilgrim meal last night: fried bacalhau, kale, potatoes, rice, 0.5L vinho verde, and dessert - all for 10€! I’m glad I went with a private room as well. It rained hard all evening so if I have to be cooped up I may as well have my own space.

Today is a harder day, over 12 miles but with a steady climb in the latter part. Depending on what the weather does it could go a lot of different ways. That doesn’t change that I’m excited to get out and walk solo!

Booked a cheap private room for tonight as I’ll likely prefer that if today is a tough one. I also booked a private hostel for tomorrow night - my last in Portugal! - as I want to stay inside the walled city of Valença and there’s a nice looking hostel there. The next morning I’ll walk across the bridge to Tui, Spain.

It’s raining again - so it goes. Put on my poncho once again, and walked down to the old city and had breakfast before heading out. Leaving at 730AM, this was among my earliest starts so far. Walking across the city’s namesake bridge it was evident just how much higher than normal the river was. Little did I know what was in store…

Before long it was obvious that the path was completely under water - so it goes. I climbed up on the rock wall on the left of this picture and carefully bypassed the flooded section without falling off.

I hit another flooded section and followed a detour path but that eventually hit a dead end - so it goes. I took off my shoes and socks, donned my flip-flops (almost lost one and had to comically chase it downriver), and started walking in the (at times knee-deep) river.

A few minutes into my river expedition, I got a message from someone in our Casa Fernanda group. They recommended avoiding the very section I was in and to go around it on the road. A bit late for me, so I waded through the river to the road and made a detour to rejoin the Camino after the flooded section.

The rest of the walk went pretty well - though the climb late in the trip was challenging at times. I rolled my (oft-injured right) ankle towards the end but it didn’t seem too bad - so it goes. Thanks to kind Canadian friends, I shared in a sandwich break at the summit. It was super tasty!

The descent went fine albeit windy, and I finally got out of the on/off again rain. This low cost resedencial housing should work out ok, albeit a little boring. Maybe I should have skipped booking it and pushed on to the albergue in the next town? The hot water here seemed to run out very fast. So it goes - I’ll check with the host when they drop by.

On the whole, I feel good about today. For me, each of these little acceptances of things going off track and dealing with them as they came was healthy progress for me. As family and friends will attest, I’m often pretty bitchy when things don’t go my way - though meds have helped with that. Honestly my mood was good all day - even while wading in the river. It was at that time I thought of titling this post “sometimes you just have to laugh!” I suppose on the Camino you have little choice - barring bailing entirely, of course. You just have to deal with whatever the universe throws at you. The real test will be to bring that positive mindset back home with me. I aim to do just that.

Soon I’ll head to the nearby restaurant for dinner. This is a picture of my neighbors. So far it’s just me here at the house so it may well be a quiet evening. I think I’m ok with that. I haven’t read my book since the train ride to Porto and I’d like to get back to it. Spoke to soon - my fellow Californian is looking for a place to stay. That’s ok too! Maybe I won’t eat dinner alone tonight?

I’m excited that I’ll soon be in Spain! 🇪🇸

Total walked so far: 66.6 mi (107.2 km)

Route taken: Lugar do Cordo to Ponte de Lima

Last night at Casa Fernanda was a lot of fun. Tasty dinner and great conversation with 11 other peregrinhos. Also plenty of vinho, port, and song - supported nicely by one of the German guests who’d brought a guitar along. In all, our mini-UN team: 3 Americans, 2 Spaniards, 2 Canadians, 1 Russian, and 4 Germans - plus our two Portuguese hosts. On the way there are no national borders, only fellow walkers enjoying their time together!

After a hearty breakfast and plenty of strong coffee, we all set out within a few minutes of each other. As a result most of us formed a loose pack throughout the day. Today’s journey is only ~9 miles from Lugar do Cordo to Ponte di Lima. Most of our group from the albergue are doing the same route, so perhaps we will find each other in town.

Barring a brief hailstorm (we also had one at the albergue before breakfast) and some rain on and off, the walk was good. There was a little climbing to do, varying scenery, some good conversation, and then Ponte de Lima came into view. It seems to be a bigger city than I thought! I’m definitely getting very used to walking in the rain. I truly appreciate my poncho :)

It was fun to walk with and encounter people from my time at Fernanda’s today. However, it once again reminded me of the value there is to walking alone. I intend to go solo tomorrow on my journey to Rubiães. Absent conversation and company, I love how meditative walking can be for me. I’m already looking forward to the time spent with only thoughts and the sounds of nature around me.

I’m typing this at the laundromat. Tonight, I’m staying in an inexpensive private lodging a 15 walk from the center of the city. Cleaning and drying all my clothes “well” seemed a nice luxury, so here I am. All done, so it’s back to my room now

Thinking a bit before heading out for dinner. At 50, I am of a divided mind on housing choices: albergues are great for a community experience. But it’s nearly impossible to overestimate the value of a good night’s sleep and time spent alone to think. I was awakened a number of times last night by snoring, doors shutting, and the rain. I’m going to sleep a lot better in my private room tonight, and have already enjoyed a great, hot shower. I’m also loving my quiet time. Surely there’s a place for both options! I’m willing to gather more data on this trip but I’m starting to lean towards better housing - though private albergues may strike a happy medium. We’ll see!

Lastly - I’ve enjoyed recording my daily video updates but I’ve decided to end them for now. I’ll continue blogging my journey and all that I learn from here. Thanks for all the support and great feedback on the videos. Take care, everyone. Mahalo. 🙏

Total walked so far: 56.6 mi (91.1 km)

Route taken: Barcelos to Lugar do Cordo

Video update

Camino Portugés Day 4: Barcelos to Lugar do Cordo on the Central Route

Slept well barring a brief and strange 1AM wake up, feeling well rested. Thankfully went back to sleep. Clothes are largely dry using the wonky setup I shared yesterday. Victory! The late night pastry I bought yesterday was a good start. Now I just need a coffee downstairs on my way out! It should be ~12 miles from Barcelos to Lugar do Cordo.

My right thigh is still making itself known. For some time, if I stand a long time (like when teaching a 3-day class) it will get numb. I’ve assumed this is some kind of nerve impingement. I was having some of that, but now I’ll occasionally get a white-hot pain there too. Not ideal! Worth noting for now and will deal with later if it continues.

Feeling good about the weather forecast. Rain should hold off until afternoon. Windy isn’t great but it beats a ton of rain. Today’s ~20 km route should be more varying in terrain but could also mean mud in spots. Fingers crossed! Time to get ready to head out. I’m once again solo as I wanted!

Having lunch after nearly 8 miles so a few notes now... The first 4 hours were largely dry but have had some showers on and off since then. Walking is going well barring the aforementioned leg thing. So it goes. Otherwise I’m in good spirits!

My thoughts today have run the gamut of possibilities. Started with the importance of being present and focused on now. Did some scary but enlightening math that I’ll have to talk through in video form. Details at the bottom here. Also thought a lot about speaking truth even when it’s unpopular. Not about being an ass :) but there are many times I’ve nodded along or changed the subject vs speak honestly. I want to change that. I have the opportunity so to not do so is a choice, and not one I want to make

Opted to buy lunch (and snack) at a mini market today. No bread there so opted for hamburger buns along with some sliced cheese and ham. The grocer didn’t speak English but we managed. I bought extra and made another sandwich for later. I also got a chocolate bar and a much-desired beer. Yep, more meat today. When in Rome? I’m definitely being rather flexatarian on this trip but it feels right so I’m going with it. 🤷‍♂️ time to get back on the trail!

The rest of the walk was uneventful barring on and off rain and wind. It wasn’t too bad though there was one flooded section that supplied a delightful water obstacle I decided to carry my shoes and walk through it. After yesterday I didn’t want to risk wet shoes yet again!

I arrived at the famed Casa Fernanda and was greeted with my choice of wine. Then we had tasty appetizers and more wine. We were then left to chat before dinner, take showers, and get settled. I took advantage of the quiet time to record my video outdoors as well. We will eat soon so this seemed a good time to write before it gets busy again!

if anyone wants the details on the math I discussed in the video:

30 years = 10,950 days ***

(Since college grad)

5 min / day * 10,950 days

= 54,750 min / 60 min per hr

= 912.5 hrs / 24 hrs per day

= 38 days lost

15 min (*3) = 114 days

60 min (*12) = 1 yr 3 months!!!

*** ignore Leap Days for simplicity