Leaving, Being, Arriving

It's been a wild ride so far, with ups and downs, boredom and quiet excitement, gratitude and Grace. There are so many lessons to be learned and the teachers and opportunities abound.On my my last evening at home I went to a meeting at the Canyon Club and then went for a walk on the beach at Crystal Cove with my friend Sheila. It was a quiet and calm series of moments. The sea was stormy and rough, the tide was reaching with it's foamy fingers, the sun fell beautifully into the sea. There was just enough smog to create a palette of color. A perfect send off. If The trip goes well and I get to Finnisterre, I will see the sun rise from the north western coast of Spain. My hubby John, my youngest Leea and I got up at 4:30 am, left the house at 5:30am and got to the airport about 6am. I am grateful for a husband who loves me so much he is willing to take me to the airport and drop me off for a three month journey with nary a caustic remark, hint of disapproval or any attempt to lay on a guilt trip. He is fully supportive of who I am and what I do. I am trying very hard to emulate him..There was a bit of a line to check my bag with my back pack and then off to security, where once again I set off warning bells. I think since January of this year I'm batting a thousand for frisk and bag searches. Anyway they had the full body scanner at John Wayne (SNA to you frequent flyers) and apparently too many metal spots showed up from metal, probably from the massive amount of zippers on my hiking pants. So, I got the full body complete pat down. At first Leea, who was through security, looking back and laughing her backside off, thought she was giving me a head massage. I didn't even get lunch, never mind dinner. By the time that was over we had just enough time to grab coffee and scones and board the plane. It was an uneventful flight and we had an uncommunicative young male seat mate, so we read. I read my guide book for the Camino, a roughly 500 mile pilgrimage across northern Spain. In the guidebook the pilgrimage is divided into 33 suggested stages. By stage 8 I was exhausted, just reading about it. The movie wasn't nearly so draining. Just have to laugh at myself. If I get the opportunity to do this pilgrimage, I truly wonder how many times the thought will flit through my head, "What was I thinking?"So we arrive in Newark facing a five hour lay over. Luckily I had United Club passes because I filled out a application for one of their credit cards, so we got to go to the special room for the special people called Club United or something. In this Club the special folks get free drinks and food, comfy chairs, computer stations, printers and outlets to charge everything. It did make the five hours a little easier. I felt so special for that period of time. Then we jumped on our plane bound for Madrid. We met our seat mate, a friendly chemical plant inspector from Albuquerque who prefers the aisle seat because of his long legs. This was perfect because Leea was coveting his window seat. So I went cozily in the middle. It is always a long flight. I don't seem to sleep well on planes. I doze off, but then I soon get startled awake by some noise or movement. I watched Safe House with Denzel Washington which was good enough to take my mind off the flight and my increasing excitement about my journey. I continued to read my guidebook and ponder the idea of this adventure.