Training Day

This morning I went for a walk, and I somehow ended up walking a Camino day as a pilgrim in my own town. I don’t know when exactly I made the decision, but I found that sometimes it’s worthwhile to be a pilgrim in your own hometown.

My original plan, such as it was, was to go up and down the hill a couple of times, maybe around the park twice, and then if I was feeling froggy, perhaps to the waterfront for lunch.

And that’s more or less what I did, adding minor diversions from the path as I went.

On my virtual Camino, I started the day by leaving the little village of Cluis.

Francine was very much with me and in my thoughts, and I even wrote her a bit of a doggerel sonnet as I walked.

After about 6 km, mostly up and down the hill, I headed to Corina Bakery for second breakfast. On my virtual Camino, this brought me roughly to the café in the village of Hallé.

After I left the bakery, I toodled around Wright Park a bit before heading for the waterfront. I rested a moment at Chinese Reconciliation Park, and as I did so, my clock struck noon.

I was slightly more than 13 km into my walk, so I decided to head down the waterfront as far as the site of the old Dickman Mill before heading back to grab lunch at the Spar. This place is a Tacoma institution, and Francine and I planned many an adventure here.

At this point, it was about 12:30 in the afternoon, and I was 15.5 km into my day. On my virtual Camino, this brought me to the village of Gargilesse. While it’s not a particularly large or important village, Gargilesse is notable on the Via Lemovicensis as the place where the long Northern and Southern variants of the route converge.

When Francine and I were walking our virtual Camino on this route, we took the North variant, and we got as far as Gargilesse. On my solo virtual Camino, I took the South variant. And now here I was, caught up with myself and Francine.

You Found All our Secret Ways

We walked, and you found all the secret ways
The hidden ways that wind unseen throughout
The grid that binds commuters to their days,
And forward forged when I paused in my doubt.
We stumbled forward rain or sun or haze
And together we explored every route.

What glorious adventures had we then!
As laughing we emerged to our surprise
At some forgotten monument or glen
That figured once in counsels of the wise
But now our secret, till we reached for pen
To spin the tale, our only real prize.

But Autumn comes, swept with dying leaves,
And I’m not the explorer, but he who grieves.

I spent a long lunch working on Camino planning. I discovered to my surprise that progress on my spreadsheet and progress on my virtual Camino were almost entirely in sync today.

I finally made it back to Pistachio House just before 3 PM, with 18 km under my belt. It seemed appropriate, as in my experience, most gîtes open their doors about then to let the pilgrims in.

A very short Camino day, but a nice kickoff to the next phase of training.

I ended my virtual Camino day in the village of Cuzion.