tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8838251843542914372024-03-13T12:45:16.540-07:00a view from the cobblestonesKevin McKenzie Blogs about his walk from Ireland to RomeKevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.comBlogger152125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-48455948276383701472022-09-30T06:13:00.006-07:002022-09-30T06:31:43.663-07:00I’m Safe… and Home<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /> <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSnF8BszV_mraRblHBHATRcdNiVtP6VCED1bLCpRL70G3Z4DfeiN92P-z743dCNnZCsFsm9goGpImtbifCW4Q6U3FAr1sD296NmPfXA8_kdxPketCe_RgvvXdQaNG9sdOh3wTzYjQiiK-liKiYys7WGLmLXM2NB6FQbO4z5bwqrim0hwa0Pn8pKvA98Q/s4032/CC0F1B14-5716-41EC-99B0-8B2C0659827F.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSnF8BszV_mraRblHBHATRcdNiVtP6VCED1bLCpRL70G3Z4DfeiN92P-z743dCNnZCsFsm9goGpImtbifCW4Q6U3FAr1sD296NmPfXA8_kdxPketCe_RgvvXdQaNG9sdOh3wTzYjQiiK-liKiYys7WGLmLXM2NB6FQbO4z5bwqrim0hwa0Pn8pKvA98Q/s320/CC0F1B14-5716-41EC-99B0-8B2C0659827F.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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text-align: center;"></div><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I’m sitting in an armchair. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Last night I slept in a bed. My own bed.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Yep.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Lisieux was a wonderful little place to visit. I prayed my way through the town, and of course, sampled pastries from all of the little boulangeries and patiserries. (Brioche Feuilletée from Maison Berthelot was the creme de la creme for me)</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">My last day there, I checked out of the place I was staying, put on my pack, and headed off.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Except, something inside me was different.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">All this time, I’ve had a goal to my walking and wandering. At first, it was to recreate Saint Kevin’s original walk from Ireland to Rome. Back in August, when I realized I’d need another three to four months to complete that, I had calculated things out and figured I could make it to Paris by my mid-October return flight date. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">But Paris wasn’t a goal in any way for me.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Lisieux was. As I walked, when people asked me what my route would be through France, I told them all I knew: I would land at Cherbourg in Normandy, walk the coast along the D-Day beaches, and make my way to Lisieux. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Now, walking down the cobblestone streets of Lisieux, something in me wavered. Even more than not having a goal in sight, for a long time I had been feeling like I had learned what I needed to learn and seen what I had needed to see. I was ready to come home. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">So instead of hitting the trail again, I went to one of my favorite places in Lisieux, the crypt of the Basilica of Saint Therese. One of my friends told me that this is where the whole town, including the Carmelite Sisters and Saint Therese’s own sister, sheltered during World War II. I didn’t know that at the time, but I did love one little corner of the crypt—where Saint Therese’s parents are buried. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Their names are Louis and Zelie. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I had loved all the places where Therese had lived and walked, but kneeling there by the tomb of her parents, I wondered if in many ways, they are the greater saints. To create such a family that a Saint Therese is one of your daughters, you must have something very very right. You must be an extraordinary couple.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">And so I prayed there for a while. When I finally stood up to leave, I didn’t pull out my trail map. I looked at the train schedule.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Within twenty minutes I was on a fast train to Paris, slicing through what would have taken me three weeks of walking in about two hours.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I had decided to change my flight, and come home.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Paris is Paris, and I had never been, so I spent two nights there. It was charming. I really loved the Chapel of Saint Chapelle, with all its riot of stained glass. I’ve spent many days in the Sistine Chapel, and I felt like I had now found its sister chapel and couldn’t seem to pull myself away.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">About an hour into the flight back, I looked down, and we were passing over Dublin. It had taken us </span><span style="font-style: italic;">sixty minutes</span><span face="Palatino-Roman"> to cover what had taken me over nine weeks to walk. But I was glad I had walked it—and wouldn’t have it any other way.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I had told my mom of my change of plans, but not my dad. My brother Brian picked me up and everything worked perfectly so that we completely surprised dad. It was great.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">The next day, I did the same thing to my nieces and nephews. I love a good surprise.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">These days I’m helping my dad do a renovation of the back of our house, where a tree fell and did some damage last year.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Phew! I’m finished! I can’t believe it!</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">My pilgrimage did not turn out to be what I had expected.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">First of all, I didn’t make it even half the distance I had hoped. Along the way, I saw others who were regularly walking 20-30 miles a day. But they were also suffering from blisters and ailments of all kinds.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I was doing 10-20 miles a day, and some days less. My method was to stop whenever my body needed a break, or whenever there was something to see or someone to talk with. I took many detours. I usually spent about an hour each day in prayer in some chapel or another.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">But more than that, the distance and completing the pilgrimage weren’t why I had started walking in the first place. I had set out to yes, finish writing my book, but also to work on the book of my life. Perhaps what was the one thread running through the whole eight-hundred-plus miles I walked: the time I spent reflecting on life. Just as my walking was the perfect inspiration for me to finish my book on Saint Kevin, so too it was just what I needed to get a little clarity and understand myself a little better.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I didn’t have any earth-shattering realizations, or decide on any big changes of direction for my life. But some things inside me were allowed to settle. Other things I was finally able to let go of. And I am certain—completely certain—that I am a better person for having gone on this walk. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Perhaps, after having seen my little stretch of Ireland, Wales, England and France, what I’m most glad of is a renewed love for my family and friends, and gratitude for them.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I’m also grateful that this body of mine stuck with it and held together. My knees still work, as do the ankles.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I weighed myself and was surprised to see that I’m eleven pounds heavier than when I started. It’s muscle, of course ;)</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">What have I learned from my time as a pilgrim?</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">- Carry only as much as you need, no more, or you’ll be running yourself into the ground.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">- Never be afraid to ask for help; most everyone will give you water, or directions, and probably even feed you and put you up for a night.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">- There is no such thing as hurry, only missing out on everything you can only see and experience when taking life at a gentle, walking speed.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">- There is always enough for your needs out there; and maybe even enough for your wants; but your wants might just be fear trying to incarnate itself in your life. Working to fulfill your needs, and trusting that everything else will be ok is the better way.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">- Wild boars can be chased away by screaming (oh yeah, I didn’t mention that two of the nights in France, I must have set my hammock up right in the path of some wild boars. They came at odd hours of the night, and my shouting and screaming got them to stay away)</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">- The earth is abundant and generous: I think there was something for me to forage for and eat every single day of my journey.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">- The world needs more benches, and we need to use them more often. Great things happen in the calm and quiet of sitting on a good bench. (heck, I even sat on some pretty crummy benches, and still enjoyed it.)</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">- Traveling isn’t good as a way of life, but it is good for the soul. For one, it opens your mind to new ways of seeing life and all sorts of different things. It can knock you out of your complacency in ways you’d never have thought.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">- Travel doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive. I ended up spending about $10 a day in Ireland, Wales, and England, and then about $15 a day once I was in France, the land of many bakeries.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I am grateful to all the people who made my journey possible and enjoyable, especially those who watched my little golden retriever, Felicity. Thank you Madeline and Mom and Dad!</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Thanks too to all those who took me in along the way: Father Robert in Northern Ireland, Sammy Horner at Kevin’s Cell, Lisa and Stefan in Bangor, Elyssa and Tom in Pen-Y-Cae, The Bloor Family in Llanthony, Patricia and Pete in Monmouth, June and Richard in the Blackmore Vale, Greg and family in Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, Hye and Phil in Cruchy, and Christine and Marion in Luc-Sur-Mer.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I am grateful to all the other good souls I talked with, or shared a meal with, or who helped me along the way.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">So that’s it for now. I thought the cobblestones (my blog is “a view from the cobblestones”) I’d be ending at would be the ones on the road leading up to Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, but they were actually the ones outside the little apartment in Lisieux.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I thought I’d be able to say, “I accomplished what I set out to do,” but actually I can say now that “I accomplished what my soul needed me to.” </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">And that’s so much better.</span></p><div><span face="Palatino-Roman"><br /></span></div>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-61007371600287800262022-09-18T14:45:00.000-07:002022-09-18T14:45:47.395-07:00Splurging in Lisieux<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0j60WWOnvyAAja2cm0c6rGoh4d0njG1oedVSyNxlZMiiT98NYC1LNQLXJHmJ2WniHEuMVEnxYC2YHLOrkRejj7lCBgNL-d4KI3njZW0i137xP8gHbj4F-DHCDD0F_E_Hk3W92c6N2gPP58zq8ki74NxWQxQYgc2UoB-tqovTFGyHpG9w75_smzN9t0Q/s4032/F83ABDFC-B931-48ED-85B9-2B7A95D46153.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0j60WWOnvyAAja2cm0c6rGoh4d0njG1oedVSyNxlZMiiT98NYC1LNQLXJHmJ2WniHEuMVEnxYC2YHLOrkRejj7lCBgNL-d4KI3njZW0i137xP8gHbj4F-DHCDD0F_E_Hk3W92c6N2gPP58zq8ki74NxWQxQYgc2UoB-tqovTFGyHpG9w75_smzN9t0Q/s320/F83ABDFC-B931-48ED-85B9-2B7A95D46153.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2436" data-original-width="1125" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXQs1I3fKIQ9jKZFY0mc_Nc1qhTiVNq6rb9oUHs55f0LqFeZXKAWHUzLLjMpxJN5ZhYoPZPbkGVXYF9VdUNFiWkvDVLuEED2noo_OX4UWW1c99S3G7ehctzRpZpVg9u9SokLK8eA1-hMjtD73ksE30vufDxrc5eb88SY8D0bvWkMRqf4lSTq4JviJ6rQ/s320/0CF114C4-232C-48DF-B053-03DAE7930A7E.png" width="148" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 13px; text-indent: 18px;">Ok, I admit it. I splurged.</span><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 13px; text-indent: 18px;"> </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">For the first time in about sixty days, I broke down and paid for a place to stay.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">That place </span><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">is a little apartment overlooking the town square in Lisieux, France.</span><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Yesterday I hiked about sixteen miles, from near Beaumont-en-Auge to Lisieux. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Lisieux is special to me because of a certain famous citizen here, Saint Therese of the Child Jesus.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">“Not a very manly saint, Kevin!” you might say.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">To which I would reply, “Actually she’s probably one of the coolest saints out there.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Ever since I read her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, Saint Therese found a special place in my heart. I’ve been rereading it these days, and it’s one of those rare books that gets better the more times you read it. In it, she tells the simple story of her life, from when she was a little girl to around the time she passed away at the age of twenty-four.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"> One of the things that really struck me this time was how good of a writer she is. Her descriptions paint vivid pictures that you can almost see yourself.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">What’s more is Therese’s philosophy of life. She called it “the little way of trust and love.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Having walked all the way here from Ireland (minus the ferry crossings), I can say that trust becomes very very important. With each passing day, I was forced to trust more and more. Like I’ve said before, I soon realized that I couldn’t carry enough food for four or five days, the weight would kill me. So I had to trust that when I needed food, there would be food. I had to trust that God and people would take care of me.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">And they did. It meant that I had to embrace being a pilgrim, one who lives completely on trust.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">The magical thing was that, in a way, by trusting like that, some truly marvelous people came into my life, and marvelous things happened, more marvelous than money or planning could have bought. So many good people have put me up or fed me—those I reached out to, and those who found me along the trail. I’ve seen such beauty, be it the sun rising over the ocean as I set out in the morning, or the tunnel-like trail winding along before me. Cows and horses and hawks are my companions, and owls all the night long. Wildflowers whisper hello as I walk by, and the fruit trees toss some of their bounty over fences just when I need a little pick-me-up. Trusting has actually been the best thing for my soul.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">All that to say that me and Saint Therese are besties. Back when I was planning this pilgrimage, I saw that it made sense to pass through Lisieux, and that made me glad. All along the way, when people would ask me what my route would be once I made it to France, I would say, “I’m heading towards Lisieux and then we’ll see.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">So I’m treating my time here like a retreat. I’m taking two days—which might turn into more—to rest and visit the places where Therese lived, and to do some reflecting of my own.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I was going to find some trees last night and hang up my hammock, until I walked into the town square here. Lisieux is not a big city, but it is a city nonetheless, and I realized it might be hard to find some secluded trees. And my feet were done with walking. A quick look on Airbnb showed me that there was nothing for miles around… except a little apartment on the town square going for a song. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">It’s been really nice to have a little place of my own that is not a forest. I’ve been taking extra showers just to feel what a shower feels like. Ahhhhhh.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Today I went to the convent where Therese was a nun, and then to her childhood home. It turns out she had a dog named “Tom”, something I never knew. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">After coming off my heavy research into Saint Kevin, Therese is so different. She died in 1897, so before cars became widespread. But she did take trains around. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Her home used to be in the suburbs of Lisieux, but now it’s in the city. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">The town itself is ancient, and has a really neat old Cathedral, but it’s different from, say, Assisi, which seems almost frozen in time in the 1200’s. Lisieux has kept growing and evolving, and feels very much like a European city. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Not that I’m complaining. Yesterday I was down to a tiny bit of salami, some powdered milk, and a bit of granola. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Here in Lisieux, there are amazing bakeries and pastry shops and grocery stores and… you name it, they have it. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">It is good to be here. So good.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Please let me know if you have anything you’d like me to pray for while I’m here.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">And good night!</span></p>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-91115066007713666472022-09-14T13:53:00.005-07:002022-09-15T04:49:54.916-07:002 months of walking<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgClSIiiKhjew3KRBVvUF0cKYxpI38pcZxUWePYmp1g8uu9Ahp12pOAJRlAektoct3aVYklMlxTjeEQSaMdtB84QRyO87_X8YXMLHxRaf8t4UMktafwnD5-Xq5NVpYx3n9KEaKymAHzoZgXNowfCH5cS5KK72YIOdG8tgwypVQXqUqcfTnXFDSQGJOhtg/s4032/C5E5368A-361F-4D41-ACD8-08A2BAB928F1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgClSIiiKhjew3KRBVvUF0cKYxpI38pcZxUWePYmp1g8uu9Ahp12pOAJRlAektoct3aVYklMlxTjeEQSaMdtB84QRyO87_X8YXMLHxRaf8t4UMktafwnD5-Xq5NVpYx3n9KEaKymAHzoZgXNowfCH5cS5KK72YIOdG8tgwypVQXqUqcfTnXFDSQGJOhtg/s320/C5E5368A-361F-4D41-ACD8-08A2BAB928F1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3-_jS5zl9CRFw2bBt2kFyz97eqgZhMny4XbIVEZU1Bqonrnr_xGY3fS9JGp6sJANimDi4dtmermE5rVLFjLIC1P-XgQm2X47EqGanycwRbxp7PpyBqUSE-QvMizALZJN68HIcd2LFX5mqq91hILXyfvO8iUsxoZLrGc_1zq-nGWwLqZ8I7LSVOTwMig/s320/1C12B226-9A6C-48F0-95F0-3B9BCE37D7A6.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqq4b3TqK-ac1C0qzfN5smSwC0TPBjleY9rzJGoiuHSmSe8z_UcMiBRQgy5mxPxk36m3nio-Av6HVS9okiqgYZfDIVaHNxCD3uKntBIYpYJrYqM2GxLL-AUviE1Ou8m3K75BnRYWOMYs-BSFcKG-ittCp87eGEfmEGV_5xHt7JzxeuqFD97yF4qoSulg/s4032/0D2B0521-A787-45DF-942E-33FD332B06EC.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqq4b3TqK-ac1C0qzfN5smSwC0TPBjleY9rzJGoiuHSmSe8z_UcMiBRQgy5mxPxk36m3nio-Av6HVS9okiqgYZfDIVaHNxCD3uKntBIYpYJrYqM2GxLL-AUviE1Ou8m3K75BnRYWOMYs-BSFcKG-ittCp87eGEfmEGV_5xHt7JzxeuqFD97yF4qoSulg/s320/0D2B0521-A787-45DF-942E-33FD332B06EC.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span face="Palatino-Roman" style="font-size: 13px; text-indent: 18px;">I’ve been hiking for two full months now. Phew!</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">During that time I’ve passed through four countries (Ireland, Wales, England, and France), walked over 600 miles or about 1000 kilometers, and managed to get only one blister. I’ve camped out in the wild 52 nights. I like camping in the wild.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Though last night I was blessed to stay at the house of a very kind woman in Luc-Sur-Mer, and have my first shower in two weeks. Hurray for warm showers!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">My regular bathing situation during this time has been my daily dip in the Atlantic Ocean. What inspires me is seeing people in their sixties and seventies every day who calmly walk down to the water and jump in. “If they can do it, then I can too!” I think.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">It has been fascinating walking along the beach. There seem to always be people hunting for something or other. Yesterday it was mussels. Today it was clams. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">There are families building sand castles, or digging holes to China. There are old people and young, groups of students, and other hikers like myself as well. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Today I met a German woman who is riding from Cologne to the Canary Islands. She taught me how to play a great game called Country, City, River. I encouraged her to jump in the ocean.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">The woman who put me up last night is leaving in October for New Zealand to bike around the islands for three months.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">It’s become very clear to me that I underestimated how much time I would need to get to Rome. If I continue walking at the same pace, averaging about ten miles a day, I will only make it to Paris by the time of my return ticket to the US in October.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I suppose I could extend my stay in Europe, and try to make it all the way to Rome. I could also hitchhike or take a train across parts of France and Italy and make it to Rome on time that way.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">But I knew setting out that my plans were going to be flexible. I mean, my feet are really in charge, and they don’t follow any clock or calendar. I’ve found that they do best with frequent breaks and a good massage at the end of each day.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I’ve also found each day so fascinating, from the slowly-changing terrain to the interesting people that I meet. Looking back on my route, I see many places where I could have cut some distance off. I could have just taken a ferry from Ireland straight to France. I could have skipped Normandy altogether as well. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">But I really wanted to see England. It’s been an important part of my life through so many of my favorite authors: Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, John Buchan, James Herriot, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Bill Bryson, Lloyd Alexander, Brian Jacques, PG Wodehouse, Ruth Burrows, Shakespeare and many others. England is also in some way the Alma Mater of my own country. So much of what we love and live comes from what the British gave us. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, and I’m so glad I walked through it.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I also wanted to visit Normandy. Growing up, there was a bluff in my town with a beautiful view that we used to call “Normandy”. I wanted to see the real thing. I also really wanted to see the Dday beaches. Though I haven’t finished passing through Normand yet, I have not been disappointed. I really loved the wilder parts on the Cotentin peninsula. But the seaside towns have their own charm as well, especially for me the town of Luc-Sur-Mer where I spent the night yesterday. They have a park called “Parc de la Baleine” Baleine means whale. Apparently, in the 1800’s, a whale beached itself on the town beach and died. The townsfolk took the skeleton and put it in their park, where it remains to this day. It was pretty shocking to see, it almost felt like walking into an outdoor natural history museum. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">The food in France has not disappointed either. This morning, my host found some croissants that were unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before. They were crunchy and chewy and… I felt like somebody had given me fire for the first time—I want to learn how to make them!!!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">So I’m content, even if I don’t make it to Rome this time. I’m leaning towards heading home like I had planned in mid-October, just from Paris instead of Rome. Then perhaps I can fly back to Paris some day and finish my pilgrimage. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Anyhow, I still have a month left. And I’m looking forward to all that it holds. There have been surprises every day; I’m sure they will continue. That’s what pilgrimages are made of.</span></p><div><span face="Palatino-Roman"><br /></span></div>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-41257724128780944082022-09-10T04:45:00.000-07:002022-09-10T04:45:16.555-07:00Magical day<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjneloIIqYgy6vTl909oz3zWo5LVNJKixeGOWd9XVToMA1QO8bTqzkO34ezLxX255ytFjRMiWJrxumjAcw13ZYam2TAZmEF-rgyTiug5r3EHpMl_4p9RytlePzk9gldw0G57iBctceA1dVss7hCAyn7lGkCxlatDFieG4zp06x-cVqT0YJngO1gCrTPiw/s4032/0CB48B45-523E-479A-8201-E04554A16E9D.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjneloIIqYgy6vTl909oz3zWo5LVNJKixeGOWd9XVToMA1QO8bTqzkO34ezLxX255ytFjRMiWJrxumjAcw13ZYam2TAZmEF-rgyTiug5r3EHpMl_4p9RytlePzk9gldw0G57iBctceA1dVss7hCAyn7lGkCxlatDFieG4zp06x-cVqT0YJngO1gCrTPiw/s320/0CB48B45-523E-479A-8201-E04554A16E9D.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjdC9uwRMxyPUGIHUmRymg9I2IPl-XflvrvEC1iWoQmg-m1NdKDrj7zjRhfwlTr78vg5eroMIl40DijpJBhP4wXj8vbbMgu7c0kfpFnvTrYmG5BBVIo0S6BZfgIZWUdFp9FqcQRxQqc5tl943eTi9vQoNBzomCH1ubN0viBS6Hfay3XWsAV7lFOyx8Vg/s320/F71EACD2-27B2-41D2-821C-887B3B1E722A.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 13px; text-indent: 18px;">I woke up yesterday morning to rain pattering against the tarp over my head. The night before, I had found a little corner of a field where there were a few trees and a nice fallen trunk to sit on and have my dinner.</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">The field itself was lit up last night by the setting sun, with puffy clouds floating by over a backdrop of peach and golden sky.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I slept in, hoping the rain would stop. Breaking camp is so much easier when it’s not raining. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Thankfully, the rain did stop by about 9:30. I rolled out of…my hammock, and was happy to see the sun peek it’s head out soon enough. This meant I could charge my batteries while I had breakfast and packed things up.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Keeping my phone and iPad (which I write these blogs on) charged is tricky, especially on cloudy days. On sunny days, I can spread out my solar panels when I’m stopped and point them at the sun, which charges things quite well. I also have the panels hanging off the back of my pack as I walk, which works ok if they’re pointed in the right direction.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I had a breakfast of day-old baguette, butter, raspberry jam, and honey—pretty yummy!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Then I finished packing things up and set out on my way. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I’m following a French walking path called the “Grand Randonee 223”, though last night I detoured quite a bit to find a place to hang my hammock up.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">The quickest way to get back on the trail would have been to walk along a pretty big road, with cars zipping past at about 50mph. I decided to take a back road that zigzagged a bit, but wouldn’t have the speeding cars.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I’m so glad I did!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">First of all, it was a beautiful, quiet road, with cute houses here and there along the way.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Then, a white golden retriever came running out of a yard and right up to me. Now I miss my little golden retriever, Felicity, very much. I wish I could have brought her with me. So it was a delight just to meet this wonderfully affectionate animal.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Then I saw his owner, a woman carrying a basket of tomatoes, and we said hi. I said “Bon jour” and in like two seconds she asked if I spoke English. And she asked it with a perfect American accent.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">It turns out that she and her husband had lived in Oklahoma for a long time, and she had grown up in LA.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">“Want to join us for lunch?” she asked.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">“A hot meal?” I thought, “in a real house?”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">“Sure!” I answered.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">We walked along. She had been swapping tomatoes with her neighbors, since they all grew different varieties. Good idea that!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Then we walked up to this giant old stone manor house, and walked in a side door. Her husband was in the kitchen cooking… can you take a wild guess?—Ratatouille.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Not just any Ratatouille, it was made with fresh vegetables from their garden. Zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, squash… sheer delicious.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">It was my first real meal in France, and I’ve been here for a week now. I had tried to go to restaurants many times, but I always seemed to walk into town too early or too late. Everything closes down from about 2-5pm.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">It turns out that her husband, the Ratatouille master, had gone to a boarding school like I did when he was young. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Now, I tend to complain a bit about my boarding school days. I was just a boy, far from home, and didn’t get to visit my family much at all. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">But this man had me beat. He had gone off to boarding school at the age of five. At his school, they had school every day until 5pm. They got to visit home three times a year for about ten days at a time.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I wouldn’t wish boarding school on anyone, ever. I don’t believe in it. I believe that children belong with their family, at home. The only case where it remotely makes sense to me is when a child’s home is so messed up and abusive that he or she would be safer away at school. But then there is every possibility that the boarding school will be messed up and abusive as well!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Anyway, listening to his experience gave me some perspective on my own. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">His wife showed me their garden and shared some of her wisdom with me too. One thing that stuck with me was that she said “why would we share with others anything other than joy? Why share bitterness or anger with others? Why spread that?”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">She had certainly shared tremendous joy with me. To meet a scruffy vagabond like myself along the road and spontaneously invite me into her home to share a meal made me feel like I had been placed inside the parable of the Good Samaritan, and I was the beneficiary of the Samaritan’s kindness.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">She filled my bag with apples and grapes and all kinds of fruit and vegetables from their garden, and sent me on my way a happy man. I was almost dancing as I waved goodbye and continued on my way.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Then I came to the town of Isigny-Sur-Mer. Isigny is famous for their butter and cheese and carmels. They also claim to be where Walt Disney’s ancestors (D’Isigny) are from.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I spent some time resting in the church there. Like the other churches I have visited in Normandy, it looked old but also very beat up. Apparently all of the stained glass windows had been blown out during the Dday invasion. But it was still nice to have a quiet place to sit and pray and rest. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Afterwards, I meandered around town, stocked up on baguettes, and bought a delicious chocolate eclaire.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Then I headed out of town and off to the coast. Along the way I found some of the sweetest tasting blackberries I have found this whole time. I also chatted with my mom. She fills me in on news back home and I fill her in on my news. I figure she can pass the word along to the rest of my family. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">The coast here is full of oyster beds. The other day, I found an oyster on the beach and had it for dinner. It tasted like butter almost.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">As always, around 6pm I start looking for a place to hang up my hammock. It’s hard around the coast, since there aren’t as many trees as there are inland. Many days, I’ve had to walk far to find two trees the right distance apart. I’ve wondered if bringing a tent would have been a better idea. But the trees are always there, and I sleep so well in my hammock. And it’s so lightweight.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I did pass one house where I saw some possibly good trees in the side yard, and I was tempted to stop and ask if I could set up my hammock there. But that was about 5pm, and I wanted to keep walking.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Then about 7pm, I came across a WWII German Bunker. It must have housed one of their cannons, and it was pointed out towards the ocean, just south of where the American soldiers landed at Omaha beach on DDay. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"> Most of the bunkers I’ve passed have been completely intact, if filled in with sand or overgrown with brambles. This one, though, was blown open, I’m guessing by an Allied shell. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I’ve only ever hung my hammock from trees so far. But there was all this exposed rebar inside the bunker, and part of the inside was shielded from the wind.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">It took some creativity, but I found two pieces that were not totally rusted through, and got my hammock up. Then I sat down to a delicious dinner. Just outside the bunker there was some Sea Purslane growing. I sautéed it up, along with some parsley the woman had given me from her garden earlier, and put them in some scrambled eggs. I also made a packet of Vermicelli soup, some hot cocoa, and devoured a baguette with the help of my butter, honey, and jam.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">My sister Marianne called and we chatted a good bit. She’s the family expert on France, since she lived in Corsica for a year. She also just got back from Universal Studios. And she turns 30 today! Happy Birthday Marianne!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">After dinner, I climbed up to the top of the bunker to watch the sunset and finish my hot cocoa and my baguette. I had a 360 degree view. The clouds were stunning, and as the sun dipped behind the sea, a full moon appeared from the fields behind me. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">What a beautiful day. What a beautiful evening. It made me jump to my feet. I had to dance. I put my earbuds in, and danced for about an hour on top of the bunker, the wind almost blowing me off, the moon rising up through the clouds, the tide rising high, lapping against the concrete beneath me.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">This morning I woke to a light breeze, climbed out of my bunker, and had some breakfast. Then I walked down the coast, and ran into an Italian woman in a camper van who offered me some coffee. My breakfast was complete! We talked for about an hour, and then I continued on.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">What a wonderful time, wonderful in a special way because of the good people I met, and the beautiful places I’ve found. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">You never know where you’ll end up when you tumble of your hammock in the morning!!!!</span></p>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-13923977661599552002022-09-08T15:40:00.001-07:002022-09-08T15:40:55.875-07:00Rain and rainbows on Utah Beach<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCjZYcn5Wy47ysiOrktIZnQlJGSf5DcIcWXOtGyxFxRXMIun4PZs_eYL_QvnWiPOCla-9BOCcXuGGilhUxLLxeNVegfuXx0SpVRC_9P__vR66topWYJGwWKq-S304O8JX-ZQUwYPRHHc1N31g-5fIJCPQy2Mf647_Dm3H4JNKZYCYDz077vLEKQcQQkA/s4032/1BF91401-80DF-44BE-BCF7-7F869CF16350.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCjZYcn5Wy47ysiOrktIZnQlJGSf5DcIcWXOtGyxFxRXMIun4PZs_eYL_QvnWiPOCla-9BOCcXuGGilhUxLLxeNVegfuXx0SpVRC_9P__vR66topWYJGwWKq-S304O8JX-ZQUwYPRHHc1N31g-5fIJCPQy2Mf647_Dm3H4JNKZYCYDz077vLEKQcQQkA/s320/1BF91401-80DF-44BE-BCF7-7F869CF16350.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbnFdD3PozPcB2d0cAclImzMp92HzJRMdfDkF1JsCVx2bpfN2RdGkTcO7k7KXSA05m3ifjuINJrs14x3SZYqmYS0Ej3WjQ3VCruIzs1ZB1YpA9bnDtcTYB4KwgZgW2KuKx1nQg9l0NMsAzAkXR3ZqEn4TsovfG-sjpOqeyGhN-BGTVASLNIZqq23C_VQ/s4032/F6ECF95A-D7CD-4242-9CDF-5BEC2A6BDA93.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbnFdD3PozPcB2d0cAclImzMp92HzJRMdfDkF1JsCVx2bpfN2RdGkTcO7k7KXSA05m3ifjuINJrs14x3SZYqmYS0Ej3WjQ3VCruIzs1ZB1YpA9bnDtcTYB4KwgZgW2KuKx1nQg9l0NMsAzAkXR3ZqEn4TsovfG-sjpOqeyGhN-BGTVASLNIZqq23C_VQ/s320/F6ECF95A-D7CD-4242-9CDF-5BEC2A6BDA93.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /> <span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 13px; text-indent: 18px;">It’s been raining, quite a bit these days.</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Now the rain wouldn’t be so bad if it were steady, or even just strong. But it’s been all over the place.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Two nights ago I was trying to set up camp when the </span><span style="font-style: italic;">sideways rain</span><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"> came. There was no escaping it. Of course, it was blowing at me together with a hundred mile-per-hour wind. It almost swept my tarp and hammock away.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Yesterday it must have rained about fifteen or twenty separate times. I would take off my pack and put on its rain cover, and pull out my umbrella, and then the rain would stop. Ugh.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">On the bright side, I think I saw maybe fifteen or twenty rainbows. And somehow in the midst of all that rain, I got to see the stars super clearly at night, and the sun rise as a glowing orb straight up out of the sea in the morning.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Yesterday I made it to the first of the D-Day beaches, Utah Beach. I’ve already walked maybe a hundred miles of beach in Normandy, so it wasn’t physically all that different from the other beaches. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">But just knowing what happened there, reading the stories and standing in the actual places, was very moving.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">After Utah beach, I got a little taste of what it might have been like for those troops and paratroopers on D-Day. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I had decided to not follow the trail. It wanted to take me away from the beach and inland on a road. I don’t like roads. They are hard on your feet, and you spend the whole time hoping you won’t be run over by the next car.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">My beach route started out okay. I had this huge, half-a-mile wide beach to myself. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Then it became marsh. Instead of sand, there was a bit of mud. Not bad, I could handle that.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Then, when I should have found a trail, there was a drainage ditch too wide and deep for me to cross.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">So I had to stumble through some brambles… for about a mile. Then I had to climb over a barbed wire fence, and walk through a cow pasture. When the cows saw me, they looked like they had never seen a human being. They started following me en masse.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Finally, I had to lay a plank across another drainage ditch, climb through a hedge, and walk through a construction zone. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Apparently, when the troops landed, the Germans had flooded all of the fields behind the beaches. I can only imagine how frustrating their travel must have been, with the added constant danger of being shot by friend and foe, or stepping on a mine.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">All of it made me even more grateful for their sacrifice. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Coming here, knowing what happened here, can’t help but affect you. At least it’s definitely affecting me. I feel like God is drawing me into a kind of retreat, a time alone with him as I walk these beaches. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I’ve been praying, and reflecting, and listening to a few good books.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I guess one of the big themes has just been that: the sacrifice that these men made. They literally walked into the jaws of death. They did it for their companions, for their families, for those they loved, for their countries.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">War is a horrible horrible thing. But it does reveal some fundamental things about us. It unmasks evil and shows it for what it truly is: small, petty, selfish, and stupid. The French have decided to leave all of the German fortifications in place along the beaches of Normandy. Since landing in Cherbourg, I think I’ve seen hundreds of pillboxes, and fortified gun positions; giant concrete behemoths. Many are blown open, many others are still almost entirely intact. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Nowadays some are covered in graffiti. All of them are reminders of how temporary Hitler’s grasp on Europe was. Back then, Hitler thought he was cementing his grasp over the continent; today they look almost silly, like the little holes that children dig.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Hitler’s grasp over Europe was temporary because of the sacrifice of the Allied soldiers. These were men just like you and me, who had normal lives and sweethearts and homes. The war wasn’t their fault in any way. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">But when they were called upon, they came. And they fought. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">They were warriors, modern knights, not in shining armor, but in Army green. They offered their strength to bring down the great dragon that was National Socialism.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">They are inspiring, in so many ways. Yes, I know there were cowards among them. Apparently some of the paratroopers found a stash of alcohol in a farmhouse the night of D-Day and got drunk.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I’m not talking about those guys. I’m talking about the rest, the vast majority who set aside everything they held dear, and plunged into the attack, ready to give their own lives if that was what was needed.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Something about them really strikes me on a deep level. It brings out tears I didn’t think I had. My own grandfathers fought this same war, though one was bombing U-boats in the Atlantic, and the other was island-hopping in the Pacific. Both of them survived, for which I am very grateful. And both of them carried the weight of the war with them the rest of their lives, each in their own way. My great-grandfather had fought in the First World War, and eventually died from the effects of the poison gas he was subjected to.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I am extremely grateful for what these men teach us. This is who men really are, deep down. We are called to be warriors for those we love. We are called to stand in the breach and fight the forces of evil. We don’t stand by and idly watch. No, we go out there and do battle. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Most of the time, this might not be so clear and so easy to see. Most of the time, we are to use our strength to build, not destroy, and that is a much slower and much less dramatic effort. Fighting a bad guy who isn’t as clearly evil and as clearly defined as a Hitler requires greater care and endurance in some ways. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">In some ways, it might even be more difficult. Forgiving someone who has wronged me sometimes seems like a years’ long war. Carrying on a living relationship with God can be a battle in its own right. Navigating through countless relationships, each with its own mines and pitfalls, sometimes seems like an impossible task. Just having and nurturing good friendships as a man can be a challenge.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">But these men fought the battle. They weren’t perfect, my own parents could tell you that. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">But they did what they could, when it mattered most. For that, I am grateful. Walking on these beaches and in these fields where they fought, it feels like I’m setting foot on very holy ground.</span></p>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-41853717019885162032022-09-04T16:50:00.019-07:002022-09-05T15:33:19.976-07:00First impressions of France and Why I’m Here<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgorGbbBmqPYKYo5rXfLuiV5Y5m1KEeLyztoS3HIFBrTj1Jeiu_HAGDHjhRRZ3out2BNIiHhRsoq16ka7lhDoN-leEUEXkFlY_USBDbGaH2QDlYslYe2syiJBlWpO9ISOten31aYNZGFr9T-qhC-Pt_bd-kR-pfyxmSgktQDxwHY9LfI7KLpiqwGo6kTA/s4032/08A01FAA-6CFD-4984-8CB2-4DC0C60178BF.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgorGbbBmqPYKYo5rXfLuiV5Y5m1KEeLyztoS3HIFBrTj1Jeiu_HAGDHjhRRZ3out2BNIiHhRsoq16ka7lhDoN-leEUEXkFlY_USBDbGaH2QDlYslYe2syiJBlWpO9ISOten31aYNZGFr9T-qhC-Pt_bd-kR-pfyxmSgktQDxwHY9LfI7KLpiqwGo6kTA/s320/08A01FAA-6CFD-4984-8CB2-4DC0C60178BF.jpeg" width="320" /> </a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvuMQCKkwpZbFacFSApKPpNXLm0dhWTV91e5rtCD92gErTMOU_cP3iYs72rr0ELsjSCyu-1pjTanfmHfGkm0_FEgYVKt5sSIwG3v5nl_Y2MPeuP2eFYT6LcP-og9zqyWkXAy1z0CTtRg8HeULleSIfMdGYaSOGvEOUPo-AvnVE4AUW7tftthhWU7k32A/s4032/2D7F6F4E-C677-4BC3-AC9E-3039318C05D9.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBsNV4PVsEpHlYxi7gXZxdb6FjtziTd_oOVGrHBnGN24_04dc6gdFUC_l1MQyWr0bU4ayALwpTaaAUvvq3QeuJo4ypDolYvd0sFd4XY9SOawsfMfOt_Wql61PHDdlLzxDg6g1GdKDU355fdahkGQdzgR7J-VglMNNDMa5a3zyAE4SmtiTPaeLT-ifO6A/s4032/FD9FED06-2342-4E2B-918B-E1487A5866A0.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBsNV4PVsEpHlYxi7gXZxdb6FjtziTd_oOVGrHBnGN24_04dc6gdFUC_l1MQyWr0bU4ayALwpTaaAUvvq3QeuJo4ypDolYvd0sFd4XY9SOawsfMfOt_Wql61PHDdlLzxDg6g1GdKDU355fdahkGQdzgR7J-VglMNNDMa5a3zyAE4SmtiTPaeLT-ifO6A/s320/FD9FED06-2342-4E2B-918B-E1487A5866A0.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><span face="Palatino-Roman" style="font-size: 13px; text-indent: 18px;">I’ve been in France almost four days now. And it’s very different than England, Wales, and Ireland!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Different is good in my book, though. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I’ve been walking along the coast all day, every day. There’s an established path a bit away from the water, but I like to walk along the shoreline just out of reach of the waves. Where I come from, Missouri, we’re about as far from the ocean as is humanly possible, so I’m trying to soak in the sun and waves and all of it while I can.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">And it’s wonderful: clean beaches, crystal-clear water, shore birds of every sort, edible seashore plants like Sea Purslane and Sea Kale. For dinner this evening I made a Sea Purslane, cheese and salami quiche, my own recipe! The other night, I made some yummy bruschetta. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">There are cute little inlets, and fishing villages, and churches, and chateaus—you name it.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">The only problem is… the people speak a different language here. Can you believe it?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">So I’m doing my best to learn it as quick as possible.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I’m fluent in Spanish and Italian, but French is very different. I’ve talked to lots of people here, and understood maybe half of what has been said. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">The French people are definitely artists. Their food is beautiful and tastes just as good as it looks. I love their crepes and baguettes especially. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">You can tell the care they have put into their houses, and gardens, and patios. Along the beach today I found a sculpture garden and then I found a man, Greg, making a giant Yin/Yang sculpture. I helped him find the rocks he needed to finish it. Between my French, and his and his wife and his mother’s English, we managed to have a conversation. They even drove me to a place where there were some trees for me to hang up my hammock.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">After talking with them, I realized I really really really need to to learn French. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">It’s wonderful walking along the seashore, because if you are hot or tired, you can just jump in the water. September is also nice, because the beaches aren’t crowded at all. I went swimming three times today.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Yesterday I went to church in a little town, and, like in England, the parishioners sing every verse of every song. I like that. They also had a beautiful model of a ship hanging from the ceiling. Turns out that’s in gratitude for sailors who escaped a shipwreck. Pretty neat, we don’t have those in Missouri! Though maybe we should hang models of tornados or pictures of floods in our churches.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Another church I visited, in Quettehou, was where King Edward III knighted his son Edward, the black prince, just before starting the Hundred Years’ War. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">A few people have asked why I’m still doing this pilgrimage since I’ve already finished my book on Saint Kevin. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">The short answer is: because I can. I spent the last 26 years of my life in the seminary and the priesthood, and I wasn’t really able to choose where I went or what I did. There’s something wonderful to being able to do that now. And I’ve always wanted to go on some kind of long adventure like this.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Of course, I do still want to finish Saint Kevin’s pilgrimage, even if I have already finished writing his book. And I loved visiting and getting to know Wales and England, two places I had never been. So far it’s been just as fascinating getting to know France. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">And there’s something magical to just having a path before my feet and a pack on my back. As I take my first few steps each day, there’s a wonderful feeling I get. And that feeling doesn’t go away throughout the day, except for when I step on a thorn or run out of water or something!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Some have hazarded that this is my chance to “find myself”. I don’t think it’s quite that in my case, but it most certainly is a chance for me to think and pray and reflect about how I will spend the years ahead of me. Having dedicated so much of my life to the priesthood, I feel like some time to ponder what’s next is of the essence.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I loved being a priest. It’s a charmed life. But in my case, it was also a lonely life. Sure, you have the support and closeness of all the people you serve, and the brotherhood of other priests as well. When they asked me if I wanted to be a priest and live celibately all my life, I said yes and I meant it. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">At the same time, I don’t think I fully understood what I was taking upon myself. How could I have? How could any young man who follows such a calling?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Things came to a head when I simply found that I couldn’t do what I had been doing all those years. I knew something was off, but couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It was the principal of the school I was chaplain at who alerted me to it. “Father Kevin, something’s wrong, you’re not yourself,” she told me one day. She was right. I had been feeling like a truck that is going along just fine, and then it runs into quicksand and almost comes to a screeching halt. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">So I asked for a change, and some time to look into all this. I didn’t have any explanations for people, so I gave none. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">After about nine months of serious personal reflection, and help and advice from many good people, I realized that I simply didn’t want to live life alone. I wanted to share my life with someone. And I always had wanted to do that.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">During my time in the seminary, this had come up many times in conversations with my spiritual director. Back then, the group of priests I belonged to was really just getting started, and the people I went to for counsel were all inexperienced. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">In a normal seminary, the way things should work is this: each seminarian has a spiritual director and another person who is his superior. The superior’s role is to help with everything practical, and to look out for the good of the seminary. That means letting in the men he thinks will make good priests, and keeping out the others. If he thinks a young man should be a priest, he encourages him to continue on in the seminary.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">The spiritual director, on the other hand, is there for the spiritual good of the young man. He isn’t trying to get anyone to stay at the seminary; all he is looking for is the holiness and wholeness of those whom he has the care of. Even if the superior thinks a young man should be a priest, the spiritual director might think otherwise. In that case, he acts as a kind of “devil’s advocate”, encouraging the young man to look elsewhere for his calling in life. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">In the group of priests I belonged to, those two roles were melded into one. My superior was my spiritual director as well. In effect, this meant that the person I went to for honest advice and direction was also tasked with trying to keep me in the seminary. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I did have the qualities needed to become a priest. I believe I was a good priest. I know I helped many, many people.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">But it’s one thing to </span><span style="font-style: italic;">be able</span><span face="Palatino-Roman"> to be a priest, and it’s another to </span><span style="font-style: italic;">thrive being</span><span face="Palatino-Roman"> a priest. I was doing the work of a priest just fine. But I felt that the life of a priest wasn’t going to bring me to holiness and wholeness. Something was missing, something I had long desired—that someone to share my life with, and hopefully raise a family with. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">So I asked for a dispensation from the priesthood. You don’t ever stop being a priest, but you can stop doing what a priest does. You are an “inactive priest” as one priest told me. If you ask, you can also be allowed to marry.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">So that’s where I am. That’s why I’m sitting in a hammock in a thunderstorm in a forest in the French countryside. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I am on an adventure. I am a pilgrim. I am a wild man. </span></p>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-64557996574583109132022-09-02T14:18:00.003-07:002022-09-02T14:18:46.595-07:00Vive la France!<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilOgE5CVTClRM_Hs047apiFykgrs0XUutZgHYFq-hFqWcXMyp-rYlOPWFxWywXGtp5uBF9XAa1vyGh1JzPxnuxSdRhYPEUBLciTtmjJgWrSHbf7cNzI-yzz5Z4pW1IIUMOXHnjcqDXXg945pQJiUH0UBgZm5a570rbZnZZVAh8fB7UkrbY6Dq2_Yu3rA/s3492/B072741F-FD15-4E69-8AAF-21573F88D8FD.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; 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text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Today I crossed the English Channel, and set foot in France. Hallelujah!</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">The last time I came to France was ten years ago, and I was visiting my great aunt, a Visitation Nun in Annecy in Southeastern France. She has passed away since then, God rest her soul!</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">It’s been 500 miles, give or take a few, and 47 days of walking.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">June, the wonderful lady who put me up at her Bed and Breakfast in southern England, had offered to drive me straight to the coast for my ferry. Part of me wanted to take her up on her offer, but I also wanted to see the rest of England. So I walked it.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I’ve walked across all of Wales and down across England.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Walking like this, you see the scenery change little by very little. Plants, birds, wildflowers, trees—many stay the same, but others you only find in certain places, and others start to appear or disappear entirely as you head east and south. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Accents change too. There were some very thick accents in Wales, so thick I really had to strain to understand them. Then I made it all the way to southern England, where the accent was much more gentle. I loved all the accents!</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Buildings changed too. In Wales, it seemed like most of the houses were made of brick and roofed with beautiful Welsh slate. By the time I had made it to the southern coast of Dorset, where I took my ferry from, many of the houses sported beautiful thatched roofs.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Even the stone under my feet changed, from sandy Anglesey Island to the gray slate of the mainland of Wales, to sandstone around the Bristol Channel, to shiny flint in Dorset. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">The hospitality of the people remained unchanged. They were ever gracious and kind, and I had no trouble with anyone, and nothing stolen. Many British people left boxes in front of their houses with their extra produce—squash, Lima beans, and countless apples—free for the taking. Almost every town had transformed their red telephone booth into a lending library, so I never wanted for a good book to read.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">After six months of walking, I even was able to switch my mind from walking on the right side of the road, to walking on the left side. Well done, Kevin! Now you have to make the switch back so you don’t get run over in France.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I certainly </span><span style="font-style: italic;">am </span><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">looking forward to the food in France. There was a little bakery in one of the towns I passed through today, and the bread and pastries I bought were to die for. Their grocery store was amazing too. I’m really looking forward to eating my way through France. (While still keeping that frugal pilgrim spirit of course!)</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">My ferry landed me in Cherbourg, the northern tip of Normandy. I’ll be walking east along the coast of Normandy for the next week or so, along the D-Day beaches. I intend to visit all of them. My two grandfathers fought in the war: one of them was bombing U-boats off the coast of Brazil, while the other was island-hopping in the Pacific. That said, I’ve always wanted to visit these places of such tremendous heroism and sacrifice, so that I won’t take my freedom for granted. I can walk through all these countries because so many made the ultimate sacrifice. I’m so grateful.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">After that I intend to walk through Lisieux, where one of my favorite saints, Therese of Lisieux is from. Then I’ll continue on east, keeping south of Paris before linking up with an ancient pilgrim route, the Via Francigena, in eastern France.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">From the bottom of my heart, thank you Wales and England for such a wonderful, blest time! Cheers!</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Ps: check out the upgrade to my backpack</span></p></div><br /><p></p>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-58275277383455587592022-09-01T15:20:00.002-07:002022-09-01T15:20:31.891-07:00Serendipity strikes again<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk_npss2IZ9Bd5fKN0jmrTuAkjV6aNpfnNNcIkO0BNziuxVYa-8K7AiwtMkqjrwf4ldTS46pO-s_k5hgytmd4CMWjZD7dJa1Duf6dOYcMTIXOW3_ZJgiIYxUotnhECP1LE62qPwONPXph5uqr8trQ4B1zcDRvucxJSBeIuezWuE6hkOThXGUmUrhh5TA/s4032/6EEA384A-D456-405D-A108-A02E8EEC3863.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUBgpiY1h1zdtejeKbRbQxo_v-YJiz0k6NI0OEg8bLGfgImUILHm8NQ8BOdxTR-Ts12gpDFxSaSrQScBcbyZ0Nu7RazhgebAhiNc4dNZdwj53UhthUl84J0mSLq0QsdoSCv35PcKvMl14wySEXV13OIuMZ74IK6UUjkxIHo6M1K7TPlKdGnaaUY9P09w/s1491/807C8F8E-14AB-4EA4-8C1A-46A94274B360.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1491" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUBgpiY1h1zdtejeKbRbQxo_v-YJiz0k6NI0OEg8bLGfgImUILHm8NQ8BOdxTR-Ts12gpDFxSaSrQScBcbyZ0Nu7RazhgebAhiNc4dNZdwj53UhthUl84J0mSLq0QsdoSCv35PcKvMl14wySEXV13OIuMZ74IK6UUjkxIHo6M1K7TPlKdGnaaUY9P09w/s320/807C8F8E-14AB-4EA4-8C1A-46A94274B360.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 13px; text-indent: 18px;">On a walk like this, you come across all kinds of people, most of whom you will probably never see again in your life. Some say hi, some don’t. For some people I think my long beard and weather-beaten appearance can be a bit scary. Others are more courageous and talk to this scruffy stranger.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">On Sunday evening, my feet were complaining, my legs were achy, my body was sun-scorched and I was hungry. I had only walked that day because I had wanted to get to church in the morning, and now I was looking for a pub to get some dinner in and a place to hang my hammock. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">The last few fields I had passed through following the footpath didn’t have gates, just electric fences that you had to hop over—not a good idea, Farmer Brown!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Then I came to one last field before the town of Marnhull. At the far end, I saw a man and a woman walking their dogs. “What luck!” I thought, “for sure they’ll know where a good pub is.” I had heard about this thing called “Sunday Roast”, a meal they only served on Sundays, and I wanted to try it.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"> For a moment it seemed that the two were hurrying away, trying to avoid me. Then the man turned and asked me where I was going. Neither of them knew anything about the pubs in town, they had only come there to go to church, which had just let out. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">But as luck would have it, the same priest who had celebrated the mass I went to in the morning, had celebrated the mass they had just attended.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Richard was the man’s name. He was shocked to hear that I was walking from Ireland to Rome, and he asked more questions. When I mentioned that I was looking for two trees to hang my hammock from, June, the woman, said that there were two perfect trees in her garden. And she said she would feed me dinner.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Now every evening around 6pm finding two trees is the one concern on my mind. Finding dinner is almost as important. To find two trees like this and to have someone offer me dinner was a godsend, especially considering how tired my body was.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Richard and June were fascinating people. Richard had worked for Christie’s, and was an art expert. We struck it off immediately. I jumped in June’s car with her dogs Molly, a black lab border collie mix and Lotty, a little whipper snapper dog.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Soon we arrived at June’s house, a bed and breakfast called Lawn Cottage in Stour End, Dorset. It was a precious place, with a garden and a great field behind, and a shepherd’s hut (a sort of caravan that serves as an extra guest room). Besides the two dogs, she had four Bantams. The rooster’s name was Boris and he was a fabulous bird.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Richard invited the parish priest over, and soon the four of us we were seated in the back garden having a delicious dinner and lively conversation peppered with all sorts of stories from Richard.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">It turned out that the priest was a Benedictine, who knows several of the Benedictine priests who I know from school back home. Small world!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">That night, June offered me not only the two trees, but, if I wanted, one of the bedrooms in her house. Which I gladly accepted—it had been 12 nights since I had slept on a bed or taken a shower. Never before has a bed felt so good, never before has a shower felt so delicious.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">The next day Richard insisted that I come to see his home, a fabulous place called Inwood House. It is chock-full of beautiful paintings and collections of all sorts: hunting horns, birds’ eggs, friendly society standards, swords, and rifles, to name a few. There’s a tower from which you can see all around for miles, a stables with several horses, and even a water tower that looks like a little castle. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I was fascinated by Richard’s bronze copy of the Laocoon, one of my favorite sculptures of all time, one I visited innumerable times in the Vatican Museums. After having seen the severely damaged original so many times, it was a real treat to see what the original must have looked like when it was first made.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I got to chop wood with Richard’s grandson and meet his daughter and son-in-law and their family and have the best banana bread ever.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">June offered to let me stay a few more days at her B&B, and my body gladly accepted. I was able to rest up, finish editing my book about Saint Kevin, AND I SENT IT TO MY PUBLISHER, HOORAY!!!!!!!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Yesterday, Richard invited me to a fox hunt. He used to be the head of the hunt in the local area, the Blackmore Vale, so he knows everybody. I had never seen such a sight—beautiful horses all decked out, and their riders wearing suitcoats and fancy boots and all. Richard introduced me to more people than I can count. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I had read about fox hunts, and remember there being a scene in </span><span style="font-style: italic;">The Fox and the Hound </span><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">with a fox hunt in it, but to see one in real life was something else. There were riders of all ages, from little girls and boys on ponies to teenagers all the way to older men and women. They gallivanted back and forth over the fields, and at the end, we all had a barbecue.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">At night, June took me to visit a friend of hers who lives in an ancient house with a thatched roof and tremendously thick stone walls. It’s kind of a shocker when you realize that your sitting in a room that is older than my hometown!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Blessed—that’s what these last few days were like with Richard and June. They were like two angels whom I met in that field. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I set out refreshed, ready to trek the last stage before the ferry that will take me to France. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">During my time in Great Britain, I have been so impressed by peoples’ hospitality. So many folks have taken me in and treated me like family. Being far from my own family has been the hardest part of this pilgrimage, but all of these families here have made that so much more bearable by inviting me into theirs.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I think that’s kind of like what heaven will be like—being welcome in every family, and everywhere. </span></p>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-58380863676278858272022-08-26T13:54:00.001-07:002022-08-26T13:55:00.721-07:0040 days in, things have changed<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPlZFsDRREKPHtQUksPgM0RpSueZnyog9HmFcd0vyXBGVHveJgDaxY7vnWJcY9w2AptVnNJOnTIENRVR48huGFCJtwMnlK-jXlZe20QXK9ZgZ1xvtsynKGUehKnDk2c0Al7yfyfdd7TzaAqSVNFRH1KiyT4kV7xjgvyGsY_M3WhFWeMwL6nmDE7zunGg/s4032/FA21DF3E-2007-4DE7-AF0C-1FAA3A8AFE3B.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZQoTM5tbUCsYDTzzvJFPIoW9093N-w5HTEJQ1ei92-mXNNrRiQI3YgyTIF-Ir6QP1k11wKK_W7h_5ZPYFqE1_J5yH5vX5hJa8Z3QM6X6hVjssaUm1QD67j12SvBvX6YpuzWX-z8mLyYI2SoiF1X0pYjxAdx0czzirDs5S1No8nJFGcpqfnHU3987_cQ/s4032/2E827827-A83D-4873-AD38-EC16DCE866A8.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZQoTM5tbUCsYDTzzvJFPIoW9093N-w5HTEJQ1ei92-mXNNrRiQI3YgyTIF-Ir6QP1k11wKK_W7h_5ZPYFqE1_J5yH5vX5hJa8Z3QM6X6hVjssaUm1QD67j12SvBvX6YpuzWX-z8mLyYI2SoiF1X0pYjxAdx0czzirDs5S1No8nJFGcpqfnHU3987_cQ/s320/2E827827-A83D-4873-AD38-EC16DCE866A8.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I’ve been walking for 40 days now. Phew!</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">And a lot has changed about how I do my walking.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">For starters, when you’re carrying everything on your back, you don’t really think twice about throwing away things that you don’t need. Towards the beginning of my trip, I sent home two packages of things that I realized were just extra weight.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">My weight-carefulness has evolved. When I started my trip, I used to fill up all of my water bottles, for a whopping 5.5 liters of water, or 12 pounds. I would also go shopping every three or four days and load up on enough food to get me through all of that time.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Now I only carry 2 liters of water at a time. There’s water to be had everywhere, whether it’s from a stream, or from some kind soul whose door I knock upon. I have yet to be turned away.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">As for food, I kind of feel the same. When I pass by a grocery store, I pick up enough food to last me for the next few meals. I also try to get in more variety, based on what’s freshest.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">My whole body has been so grateful for the weight reduction. Really, it feels like I’m carrying nothing at times, even though my pack probably weighs about 28-30 pounds.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">You also start to have a routine. I have a place for everything, and know where things go. Garbage goes in one pocket, so when I reach a garbage bin, I can drop it in. My munchies are in one hip pocket, while my headlamp and pocket knife and useful things like that are in the other.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">When I started out, I kept losing things because I’d forget them when I left camp. Now when I set up camp, I have a routine I follow, and it’s the same for breaking camp. I haven’t lost anything since… I left my sunglasses behind back on day 14.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I could start a fire, pack my backpack, and set up my hammock now blindfolded. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I’ve also given myself permission to stop at anytime and for any length of time to visit with people, or to visit a church or castle or other interesting place. This gives me a chance to rest and adds so much variety to the journey. Today I stopped and talked with two really fun blokes who even showed me the best swimming hole nearby. I took a delicious dip. Can’t beat that local knowledge!</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">After forty days, I guess the biggest thing I’ve changed is just listening to and being very careful with how I treat my body. On a journey like this, it’s the only transport I have. And more than that, in life, it’s the only body we’ll get! Early on in my journey I felt a pressure to get the miles in and hurry things up. I ended up whacking my head on a branch once, cutting my thumb with my pocket knife, and really tiring my feet out. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Now, though I’m still walking something like ten miles a day, I’m trying to be gentler with this good old body of mine. That could be just going over gates in fields a bit more carefully, or not banging so hard on the pavement with my feet. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">And those feet have been quite happy!</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">PS the map had dots with all of the places I’ve camped</span></p>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-63370717543459170932022-08-26T03:31:00.001-07:002022-08-26T03:31:40.416-07:00Day of deliciousness<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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text-indent: 18px;">Today was delicious.</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Well, to be honest, it didn’t start that way. It started with me realizing in the middle of the night, that it’s a bad idea to camp next to a train tracks. Especially busy ones. Especially by a crossing where they had to use their horns. My ear plugs muffled the sound a bit, but it was a roughish night. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">And when I woke, it was raining and the wind was blowing hard. Not fun packing everything up in the rain.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">But then I had a nice long walk along the Avon and Kennet Canal. There were little boats, and great big house boats, and everything in between. At one point, I got to walk across an aqueduct that carried the canal over the river Avon—pretty neat!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">My walk took me by Iford manor, and I spent a few hours proofreading my book in a tiny little cloister that the old owner cobbled together from bits and pieces of old churches from Italy. It was beautiful and magical, and the perfect place to cool off after a long walk in the sun. Delicious.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I was talking with my sister and her kids on a video call when we stumbled across the ruins of a castle, Furleigh Castle. It was really fun showing them around, looking for the dragon they assumed must live there. While we didn’t find the dragon, we did find the dungeon! </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">As I continued my walk south, I started to come across houses with thatched roofs. Then there were horses, and quail, and swans, and a real working mill.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Finding a camping spot was a bit tricky, but I am nowhere near any train tracks. As I was setting up my hammock, I noticed a giant chicken of the woods mushroom. Dinner!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">But before cooking dinner, I went down to the river Frome, and jumped in. The last time water touched my body was nine days ago. It felt so good!!! It felt delicious. I’m sure when I was a little boy I tried to go nine days without taking a bath or shower, but I’m not going to let that happen again!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">And for good measure, I threw a line in the river afterwards… and caught a little fish, my first!!!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I cooked up some ramen noodles, sautéed the chicken of the woods mushrooms, and baked the fish in the coals, and had a fabulously delicious dinner.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">So that was my delicious day: the coolness of a beautiful little cloister, the cleansing waters of a river, and the yumminess of fresh wild mushrooms and fresh wild fish. None of it was planned, I just started walking. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Delicious!</span></p>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-54814269709511382282022-08-23T13:29:00.004-07:002022-08-23T13:29:25.217-07:00Poetry in the Cotswolds<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZrflm9Frwt5kk352lJmLDeGTjsur0Fo0XR-1oLcim9ClS4q3frY3d1G6OoQH54wkZPcNcE7OeH-gpAcUj3iKmBnm9paQtXo8TAwh0P5c72yNnAyDILnICpsOuxHqT0hnMQ6rT55Fek2BFEokT9-08WHM16C3oku4aDd3ItggLQkn5u_4Kl2IXVr-mhQ/s4032/E252DD8C-FC4B-4E87-8A89-814E3EE89F11.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZrflm9Frwt5kk352lJmLDeGTjsur0Fo0XR-1oLcim9ClS4q3frY3d1G6OoQH54wkZPcNcE7OeH-gpAcUj3iKmBnm9paQtXo8TAwh0P5c72yNnAyDILnICpsOuxHqT0hnMQ6rT55Fek2BFEokT9-08WHM16C3oku4aDd3ItggLQkn5u_4Kl2IXVr-mhQ/s320/E252DD8C-FC4B-4E87-8A89-814E3EE89F11.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzYVDBRx8wM-AUqmihvf2Uza7k9T7jT5ruDMbLRDx1wPpIaU2_c301YTrZtUiWgcEpSVLBNVZ97KiufD5A8d-mDN6wXLGF2En3mEGdxHytUkk7Bn__iLeicXS2i74eK4jWj7fGqqsAsA_6xr1i2xI_5H3UmZurzMN4VuhHLwtcL88K3yIZ0W_dNfEquA/s4032/D70425B3-BCCD-4B36-861D-4BA70DEAF470.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzYVDBRx8wM-AUqmihvf2Uza7k9T7jT5ruDMbLRDx1wPpIaU2_c301YTrZtUiWgcEpSVLBNVZ97KiufD5A8d-mDN6wXLGF2En3mEGdxHytUkk7Bn__iLeicXS2i74eK4jWj7fGqqsAsA_6xr1i2xI_5H3UmZurzMN4VuhHLwtcL88K3yIZ0W_dNfEquA/s320/D70425B3-BCCD-4B36-861D-4BA70DEAF470.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB0XfSsuGD6eX-kuoFnJLsipwEhjPbLC0mCrDpl1Fh3JZXnpGuoOX3n3E4VKmNnTUh9FmErztw02xnek5ldBIxk23inHrmZ_1EVQbh72IhDnzDCXI4mooAOnVdktgZ5AYYe2kjk6Gu_UoyqafIpBclANmtr9wI44zlzkqs3QLoEprF7YAuRMaNIKFJdQ/s4032/6757D75B-6666-4157-9509-10E9D49FCC2D.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB0XfSsuGD6eX-kuoFnJLsipwEhjPbLC0mCrDpl1Fh3JZXnpGuoOX3n3E4VKmNnTUh9FmErztw02xnek5ldBIxk23inHrmZ_1EVQbh72IhDnzDCXI4mooAOnVdktgZ5AYYe2kjk6Gu_UoyqafIpBclANmtr9wI44zlzkqs3QLoEprF7YAuRMaNIKFJdQ/s320/6757D75B-6666-4157-9509-10E9D49FCC2D.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuJ6afbJst0CQEvN_fQcBCh_xAGi4MwkYLP0oXl9GnsdkkgbjqRvEtpUH0bOAn9c_2cYhcaf4hYHSRABOmpddbuP5oCuh4QRUT4Qdp41gcdKBOHVCgeFhf5PC6Wlx6391LxAMBI3jU6EjzliZ-m4mPbmTiRdYBqr0nk33BOuliqwvZk2OEx4h93P0nlw/s4032/6C31866F-CAA2-4EBD-83AC-97AB884ED241.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuJ6afbJst0CQEvN_fQcBCh_xAGi4MwkYLP0oXl9GnsdkkgbjqRvEtpUH0bOAn9c_2cYhcaf4hYHSRABOmpddbuP5oCuh4QRUT4Qdp41gcdKBOHVCgeFhf5PC6Wlx6391LxAMBI3jU6EjzliZ-m4mPbmTiRdYBqr0nk33BOuliqwvZk2OEx4h93P0nlw/s320/6C31866F-CAA2-4EBD-83AC-97AB884ED241.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1HBWpogxrp8i7pNujsgOilF8gGsjY79ZVS92Ej2EEbwru0lKe07IlWqyPvNG2PThCCrlbYdZmaQxl2GbFcsz0T06V8YTo3DsztFMmxQI32Q6U1GutENN1mOgv6d23V8BPWoA2yWGZLjjg-qriYsMWJNe46sO7Q-uNfmXeqUf1MkUjkeRaiHwmEUtCiQ/s4032/947EDC5F-1488-47E7-9345-5C4CE987CD46.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1HBWpogxrp8i7pNujsgOilF8gGsjY79ZVS92Ej2EEbwru0lKe07IlWqyPvNG2PThCCrlbYdZmaQxl2GbFcsz0T06V8YTo3DsztFMmxQI32Q6U1GutENN1mOgv6d23V8BPWoA2yWGZLjjg-qriYsMWJNe46sO7Q-uNfmXeqUf1MkUjkeRaiHwmEUtCiQ/s320/947EDC5F-1488-47E7-9345-5C4CE987CD46.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 13px; text-indent: 18px;">Walking through a forest just now on the Cotswold Way, I came across a spring, and right next to it, a “Message Box”. Inside the message box was a little book that hikers can leave their memories in.</span><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 13px; text-indent: 18px;"> </span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">There was a cute poem inside, about two walkers from Bristol, which inspired me to write my own. Here it is:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">From Glendalough and over hill </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">To Dublin town he came</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And took the ferry o’er the sea </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">To Anglesey the famed.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And walked the Wales Coast Path he did,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Through wind and rain and sun, </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And down the Offa’s Dyke until</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">His feet said they were done.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">So to the gentle hills and vales </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">of England he then turned</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Along the Severn way he went</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And the jubilee trail discerned.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Then down the Cotswold way he trekked,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">until he found this bench</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">This blessed, lovely, wonderful,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">delicious, friendly, bench.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And here he wrote his story, </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">One that is not over yet</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">For many a mile awaits him still</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Through dry days and through wet</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Across the channel</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And ‘cross France</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And over mountains tall</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Until he walks into Saint Peter’s </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">As the leaves begin to fall. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And what is then</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The next part of this saga that I tell?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">It is the story that you’ll write </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who read my little tale</span></p><div><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Walking through a forest just now on the Cotswold Way, I came across a spring, and right next to it, a “Message Box”. Inside the message box was a little book that hikers can leave their memories in. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">There was a cute poem inside, about two walkers from Bristol, which inspired me to write my own. Here it is:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">From Glendalough and over hill </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">To Dublin town he came</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And took the ferry o’er the sea </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">To Anglesey the famed.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And walked the Wales Coast Path he did,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Through wind and rain and sun, </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And down the Offa’s Dyke until</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">His feet said they were done.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">So to the gentle hills and vales </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">of England he then turned</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Along the Severn way he went</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And the jubilee trail discerned.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Then down the Cotswold way he trekked,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">until he found this bench</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">This blessed, lovely, wonderful,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">delicious, friendly, bench.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And here he wrote his story, </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">One that is not over yet</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">For many a mile awaits him still</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Through dry days and through wet</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Across the channel</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And ‘cross France</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And over mountains tall</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Until he walks into Saint Peter’s </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">As the leaves begin to fall</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And what is then</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The next part of this saga that I tell</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">It is the story that you’ll write </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who read My little tale. </span></p></div>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-28302227142722824222022-08-21T15:10:00.003-07:002022-08-21T15:35:39.993-07:00Into England<p> <span face="Palatino-Roman" style="font-size: 13px; text-indent: 18px;">It’s official. I’ve left Wales and am now in England. This morning I crossed the Bristol Channel and said goodbye to Chepstow, and the Offa’s Dyke trail I finished, and to the Welsh dragon.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I’ve spent a lot of time working on my book these last few days. In fact, I got all the way to the end yesterday and now I’m doing a first revision. I’ve spent lots of time curled up in my hammock, or sitting on benches in parks and churchyards, typing away on my little IPad.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">It was funny last night as I finished, I kind of couldn’t believe it. After four years of researching and writing, the book has only really come together on this pilgrimage, and I finished it in a little forest behind a neighborhood by some train tracks, the most unassuming place ever. I was typing away, and then got to the last bit, and then all of a sudden I was writing the ending. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I credit the easy writing to all the in situ inspiration I’ve had these days and weeks, as well as to the quiet seclusion of a hammock in the woods. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I spent two full days camped out at Tintern Abbey. Yesterday I left there in the middle of a morning storm, and walked down the Wye River Valley to Chepstow. Along the way were some very beautiful scenic views like one called “Eagles’ Nest”, and there was a really neat place where part of the path went through a cave, “Giants’ Cave.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I met a fellow named Andrew at Eagles’ Nest. We ran into each other a few more times and decided to finish the hike together. It was nice to have the company—Andrew, his dog Kody, and me. Afterwards we got a bite to eat at Chepstow Castle. he was a fascinating fellow, and had an awesome accent!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I had originally planned to go through Bristol, but this morning at the last minute I changed my plan and headed around it to the north. I’m taking the Jubilee Way through south Gloucestershire, and then the Cotswolds’ Way to Bath. So far it’s been much easier walking than Wales, which I don’t mind at all.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">If I keep going at the same rate, I’ll end up at the coast in a week, taking a ferry to Normandy. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">People have continued their kindness. Andrew bought me lunch. The priest at the church I went to yesterday was giving out chocolates after mass. Someone had a box of extra apples, free for the taking, from their orchard, sitting out in front of their house. Whenever I’ve run out of water, I knock on a door and people are glad to help. Even the blackberry bushes have been quite generous and their berries sweet these last few days.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">So, though my body is usually aching by the time I sit down to cook my dinner, it’s still a delight every time I set out in the morning, not knowing what the day will bring. And at the end of the day, as I hunt for a place to put up my hammock, it can be nerve-wracking not knowing where I’ll end up, but it’s fun to hunt for the perfect trees.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Tonight I lucked out with a spot near to a few nice benches overlooking a churchyard, and a church with a bathroom inside. What luxurious accommodations!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Honestly, bathrooms have been so rare that if I come across one, sometimes I will go inside even if I don’t need to use it, just to be able to wash my hands and feel the cold water on them and the grime washing away. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Ah, the things like sinks I’ll be grateful for when I return home, and knowing where my bed will be! What I most miss in the evenings is just a chair to sit on as I eat my dinner. Often I’m sitting on a little cushion pad on the ground, when my body would love a chair. I’ve stopped eating breakfasts in the morning at my camp; I’ll pack up and stop at the first bench or better yet picnic table I come across.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">As I finish my trek each day and set down my backpack, my body seems to rejoice at the weight that it’s no longer carrying. It’s like it’s saying, “without all that weight, I can go a few more miles now!” Any hike without a 30 pound pack from now on will be a real treat.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I’ll also be grateful for hair clippers and trimmers. My beard feels like an unruly bush, and it’s only going to get worse. Even still, it is kind of neat to see it grow out longer than ever before.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">As someone who’s “roughing it”, I encourage you to be grateful for the amenities you are enjoying right now! </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4xo-KsPPtwJJCAPlP3GJ9Ot_Y8wJwh5GKInoMllC2eXxhb6aOMyiVhtQzNcZuWJF46KBUR3aBnZyDbw3F4xXg7deekeUn9cOK322QYoGV-HL8aVU3S4FYakUTkekQYukyDUMf1ImEmW8lKOb-3UHLHDlpGAnrqEiZ4UEctxzR5HP51Tn8t-6JsnrHNg/s4032/C79CA3B8-DE5A-454F-8646-65E187B3029E.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4xo-KsPPtwJJCAPlP3GJ9Ot_Y8wJwh5GKInoMllC2eXxhb6aOMyiVhtQzNcZuWJF46KBUR3aBnZyDbw3F4xXg7deekeUn9cOK322QYoGV-HL8aVU3S4FYakUTkekQYukyDUMf1ImEmW8lKOb-3UHLHDlpGAnrqEiZ4UEctxzR5HP51Tn8t-6JsnrHNg/s320/C79CA3B8-DE5A-454F-8646-65E187B3029E.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Yesterday I had connected with a kind couple in the town of Monmouth who had offered to put me up in their home for the night. I had picked the perfect night to ask, since it started raining at about 7pm. Nothing better than a sound roof over your head on a rainy night.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Only at 7pm, I had already walked 10 miles and was still another 10 miles away from their house. And sopping wet.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I had gotten off the path I’d been taking through the hills, and hit a road, intent upon hitchhiking the rest of the way. It had looked like a big road on my map. But by the time it was 8pm, I had walked two miles in the rain, and had only seen one car going in my direction. I had barely been able to get my thumb out, and the car had continued on its merry way.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">So I kept going. I was ready to hike another 3 or 4 hours, I just felt bad for the people who were putting me up that night.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">(Side note: at this point, I stumbled across the coolest water fountain. It had a spigot for people to get water from, a trough for horses to drink from, and even a lower basin meant just for dogs. It also looked beautiful and had a sign in Welsh that read, “Free Water for All”. How cool is that!?!)</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Then I heard the sound of another car coming from behind me. I whipped out my thumb, and the car whizzed by… and then slowed down. Alan waved me into his car and off we went. He was a beekeeper with over 20 hives spread out across Wales, and he had just come from a beekeepers’ meeting. He was on his way to check out some beekeeping equipment for sale, and yes, he would be happy to drive a few miles out of his way to drop me off where I needed to go. In the back of his car he had a demonstration hive which he could take to schools and scout groups to show youngsters how beekeeping works. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Alan and I had a wonderful conversation, he told me about his bees and local history (including the recording studio we passed where Queen recorded Bohemian Rhapsody) I told him about my friend Alex who keeps, and then he managed to drop me off right in the driveway of the place I would be staying.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Patricia and Pete were waiting up for me, worried for my safety. They told me that if I would have asked, they would have come and gotten me. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Patricia is American, and she met Pete, a Brit, in Greece. Pete cooked the most delicious shepherd’s pie for me, and I fear that between dinner and breakfast the next morning I might have eaten them out of house and home. It didn’t help that their food was so delicious.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">After dinner they told me I could use their bath or shower. “Bath?” I said, “I haven’t had a bath in ages.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">In fact, about a week ago my mom had recommended that I take a hot bath with some bath salts to ease my aching muscles. “Sure mom,” I had said. “Lots of Bath salts arrived here and plenty of baths,” I laughed. Now I think moms are clairvoyant. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">That bath at Patricia and Pete’s—it was like my body ate it up. I guess you don’t appreciate a bath until your muscles are sore and your body is tired like I was that day. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I was able to wash my clothes in their washing machine—a rare treat—and charge up all my batteries.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Patricia cooked me a delicious breakfast and then Pete walked with me along the first mile of my trek that day, from their house and through the quaint little river town of Monmouth. Pete knew everyone and everything, and so it was slow-going, but delightful going. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I wanted to hug him as he headed off.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I walked along the river Wye all day and made it to Tintern Abbey, the picturesque ruins of a Cistercian Abbey along the banks of the river. I am camped out here right now, and I’ve decided to stay a few days to write, write, write my book on Saint Kevin. It’s coming along nicely. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Alan and Patricia and Pete were the soul of hospitality for me. Pete even repaired my broken umbrella and hiking pole. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Today a friend I met the very first hour of my journey sent me a donation to buy myself “a pizza or two”. It came right in the nick of time, for the rain started up again this evening, and I was able to hunker down in a pub, work on my book, and enjoy a delicious pint and steak pie and chips, instead of try to make a fire and eat in the rain.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">It’s been exactly one month today since I started walking. 330 miles. I’ve camped out 27 of those 31 nights. I just went through my expenses, and by camping and restocking at Aldi and Lidl I’ve been able to survive off of $13 a day. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Except the truth is that I’ve been surviving especially off of the kindness and generosity of others. Others like the gentleman who gave me a bottle of water when I had run out the other day. Others like my sister Madeline, and my parents, who are kindly watching my dog. Others like Alan the beekeeper/Good Samaritan, or Patricia and Pete the kind kind hosts, or Sammy and Kylie who paid for my dinner tonight. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I am so humbled and grateful and happy.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">If you’d like to send a donation for fish and chips, or a cup of coffee, or a pizza, I’m brobigmac on Venmo or brobigmac@gmail.com on PayPal. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Many blessings upon you!!!!</span></p><div><span face="Palatino-Roman"><br /></span></div>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-48489509872142050902022-08-16T06:02:00.002-07:002022-08-16T06:02:57.628-07:00Finding Family<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMdlJuVVDA0xr5xiPu1Ed5-g3xK-7Oqn7bL2eyifAQslBkfqgcDhHBX4JC5M07VNbbWCAI6KcV4WwvoZtOcH_qy-Rhn8YStstY4cjYnyQOhOXkiZ_ovPAbKmeCKY2VhGWjRKs8jLwMv6Ju9SWoghcy48aJCXMmLn_CEcqYZ-0uWE-qrLt1wROB3oe_aA/s4032/6E416989-93D2-42BB-9B6E-FCC70C7532B8.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMdlJuVVDA0xr5xiPu1Ed5-g3xK-7Oqn7bL2eyifAQslBkfqgcDhHBX4JC5M07VNbbWCAI6KcV4WwvoZtOcH_qy-Rhn8YStstY4cjYnyQOhOXkiZ_ovPAbKmeCKY2VhGWjRKs8jLwMv6Ju9SWoghcy48aJCXMmLn_CEcqYZ-0uWE-qrLt1wROB3oe_aA/s320/6E416989-93D2-42BB-9B6E-FCC70C7532B8.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOmk6irKVVqP2c2afwVpoy31otrpx29Kg3bbTqtQKQXlYVeGvuj0gAWJjqyHuqxnLbrqbnf7TD0b38Xar956UA9pkGeX5uebVqAZ_YcJzHyXdUBf27F5J93xnqN9kSa1aPzkC-wZISzP8-WPCfPaQoy0Dr5O9WXPSrVLEljtnIib1I9r_Pld0d4T1ZsQ/s4032/21640983-966C-4441-8C09-865E225F5CC1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOmk6irKVVqP2c2afwVpoy31otrpx29Kg3bbTqtQKQXlYVeGvuj0gAWJjqyHuqxnLbrqbnf7TD0b38Xar956UA9pkGeX5uebVqAZ_YcJzHyXdUBf27F5J93xnqN9kSa1aPzkC-wZISzP8-WPCfPaQoy0Dr5O9WXPSrVLEljtnIib1I9r_Pld0d4T1ZsQ/s320/21640983-966C-4441-8C09-865E225F5CC1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdTwOfLlYVuIRpd4hcWdTGpPLErkdyIQpZb8IkrAyIJGvk2rq5XwbSWNN34DA2Rnz76vffjEsBruKRSG6jAFZ35FITEEPRH5QFZ-JZx_MpEW3RxdZCa_KDQsj9WXZ2tsh326_gZbaDv3utvgavNVcwIaaDGMyVy_c5zPRzQjnvRzN1GM7sUp7NFQ5oiQ/s4032/DA570E71-761D-457F-9432-31887D145708.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdTwOfLlYVuIRpd4hcWdTGpPLErkdyIQpZb8IkrAyIJGvk2rq5XwbSWNN34DA2Rnz76vffjEsBruKRSG6jAFZ35FITEEPRH5QFZ-JZx_MpEW3RxdZCa_KDQsj9WXZ2tsh326_gZbaDv3utvgavNVcwIaaDGMyVy_c5zPRzQjnvRzN1GM7sUp7NFQ5oiQ/s320/DA570E71-761D-457F-9432-31887D145708.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />I saw an apparition… and followed it.<p></p><p>It all started as I was hiking along Haterall Ridge, a part of the black mountains that goes on for what seems like forever. The sun had been blazing down on me all day, and there seemed to be no end to the ridge. The last tree had been literally ten miles back, and when I found a concrete marker, I gratefully sat in its shade for an hour.</p><p>In fact, I think the sun was getting to me and I was starting to feel a bit loopy.</p><p>That was when I stopped and looked down into the valley on my right. I had seen on the map that there were supposed to be some ruins of an abbey down there.</p><p>“Yeah, ruins,” I thought, “like the last ones that turned out to be three stones and an information plaque.”</p><p>By now the clouds had come out, and as I gazed down into that valley, the sunlight burst through the clouds and shined down upon the ruins of… a very large abbey. It looked beautiful. And I pulled out my monocular to get a closer look.</p><p>My plans had been to continue along the Offa’s Dyke Path that I had been on, so I debated a while. The abbey looked like the kind of place Saint Kevin would have loved. And I was ready to get off this ridge. And it might be a good place to write in.</p><p>I turned back and headed down into the valley.</p><p>As soon as I got off the ridge and into the trees that marked the start of the valley, everything felt different, a difference like I’ve always felt when I go to visit Saint Kevin’s valley in Glendalough, Ireland, or like you feel when you go to Assisi. It felt holy and like there was a goodness covering the valley.</p><p>The ruins are charming, and fun to poke around.</p><p>I continued down the valley to check out the little river and see if I could find a spot to swim.</p><p>On the way down I saw a family sitting on a lawn together, talking. </p><p>The river was nice but I couldn’t find a good swimming hole.</p><p>As I headed back up, one of the grandkids in the family was kicking a soccer ball with his grandfather. I asked if I could join in.</p><p>He gladly gave me his place, and I kicked the ball with the lad and then his cousin a good long time.</p><p>Eventually one of the sons offered me a beer, then they gave me a delicious dinner of pulled pork sandwiches and coleslaw, along with another beer. </p><p>After chugging along that ridge all day in that sweltering sunlight, joining the Bloor family (that’s their name) felt like stepping out of the Sahara into an oasis. Yes, after days of camp food, the real dinner they served me was amazing. </p><p>But it was more than that. These were good, fun people, and they reminded me of my family very much. Grandma and Grandpa are about my parents’ age, then they had two sons and two daughters and all their families. We ate and talked, and I even got to show the grandkids how to roast a marshmallow the proper way, till it was golden brown.</p><p>I miss my family very much. We have brunch together every Sunday, and often see each other during the week. It is always good to be together. </p><p>And somehow I was drawn down into this beautiful valley and was blest to spend time with this beautiful family. They adopted me yesterday, and I spent a good bit of time with them today as well. They showed me where the best swimming hole is, and we played some more soccer. After dinner, we played a game called questions. Each family wrote down 5-10 questions about anything, and everybody else tried to answer as best they could.</p><p>Questions ranged from “What’s my favorite food?” To “What are the six words with ‘monger’ in them?” To “What was the name of the Sith Lord who made the rule of two?” To “What are the names of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?”</p><p>It was hilarious, and I hope to bring the game back home to my family.</p><p>Sometimes we think that people who live on the other side of the world from us are different, or that they wouldn’t understand us. We imagine all kinds of imaginary barriers exist between us. But they’re not, they’re normal. And we have way more in common than we might think.</p><p>Two nights back I sat eating fish and chips on the banks of the River Wye with a man from Pakistan who had moved to London. He was a good kind man.</p><p>This family was a good good loving family. Their children were normal children. (The first night, when one of the moms told her daughter that it was time for her to go to bed, the girl dutifully informed her mommy that it was not time to go to bed since they hadn’t roasted marshmallows yet. Needless to say, she got to roast her marshmallows.)</p><p>And I am glad for it. I’m glad to take this journey and meet all these good people. It gives you hope. And, I think, keeps you grounded.</p><p>Blessed heat and blessed sunlight, that sent me down into the Llanthony Valley! And many blessings on the Bloor family!!!!</p>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-87508593789700436392022-08-11T15:19:00.000-07:002022-08-11T15:19:22.069-07:00259 miles in<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Xe71lXMpNDYc2rBEH6QTuLpjPSLwtaUUB7yh6RS8bqK8RtTTmYRsR9tOQsIy6ewKEBR6DaBslaCdXN2m3-Gf5aL0SSssHm4ddTk85l9D1fQ18VFv-T73R6WpvBmyoER67OfNumW3OjqjwzUV4lHk3Vw9axT7oKwvay5THHcGtqtnnfYCPHmFuE5pBg/s4032/1EA3D435-43EC-446A-AB40-4B078EB981CA.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Xe71lXMpNDYc2rBEH6QTuLpjPSLwtaUUB7yh6RS8bqK8RtTTmYRsR9tOQsIy6ewKEBR6DaBslaCdXN2m3-Gf5aL0SSssHm4ddTk85l9D1fQ18VFv-T73R6WpvBmyoER67OfNumW3OjqjwzUV4lHk3Vw9axT7oKwvay5THHcGtqtnnfYCPHmFuE5pBg/s320/1EA3D435-43EC-446A-AB40-4B078EB981CA.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKYtkdVz-n9cS5nzONougvG-GtNpPeAmP1lOCrBbnTr81lZru2Xo5WPhvQAewxXp4tJ5FspZYmilfUgSpJ8fScfv4jpUEohcY2X8UgC8DWsQxDw0Oq3I82xcHN-oCQArWLqGaMZUXAiB8GWWIkNkuCh8Cdp7BlDTlFsZi_DI8CDnk61S2VMYOwQKUhBg/s4032/941A70F8-8172-4E9C-AE7C-11ED4DB4D56E.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKYtkdVz-n9cS5nzONougvG-GtNpPeAmP1lOCrBbnTr81lZru2Xo5WPhvQAewxXp4tJ5FspZYmilfUgSpJ8fScfv4jpUEohcY2X8UgC8DWsQxDw0Oq3I82xcHN-oCQArWLqGaMZUXAiB8GWWIkNkuCh8Cdp7BlDTlFsZi_DI8CDnk61S2VMYOwQKUhBg/s320/941A70F8-8172-4E9C-AE7C-11ED4DB4D56E.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF6Thuh3ruvuVtTv5aY4f_lhchZGCdZjFwKYzn4k9ThBCHWoOSxHQXpChTHqwNecJANhIleLxb3Vu9ltvJEhLp2smaB4uxGVtqT_RM_rL4LmQB-lWuSBojNGp82xD2WVVl8r3vn5oVUmCWIZOJPhi9Dc4yOjzeDZgdsRvuOWgANGDEwnas6wn3P7V-xw/s2433/AC7BC606-AE45-4D2A-AABE-B480AD8750B6.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1012" data-original-width="2433" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF6Thuh3ruvuVtTv5aY4f_lhchZGCdZjFwKYzn4k9ThBCHWoOSxHQXpChTHqwNecJANhIleLxb3Vu9ltvJEhLp2smaB4uxGVtqT_RM_rL4LmQB-lWuSBojNGp82xD2WVVl8r3vn5oVUmCWIZOJPhi9Dc4yOjzeDZgdsRvuOWgANGDEwnas6wn3P7V-xw/s320/AC7BC606-AE45-4D2A-AABE-B480AD8750B6.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVBGVbBM2Av9RFypcrQCofIK3AhiqhoQdcLPUD0Dh0h9DA-Gar-vuG0nYzF3axr1-JwNSCoR8iRv72ae_1vGMHSgIhNow9lvKOidKJ_FgkO_wqeG8DU2AC2gdz0ceU1jrHgM-SE3GCmWv50ORJZBZ83KvkUjWYRKXIwGkpxMbTfUO9XONCfH2seX1FPQ/s4032/E0E041EF-2665-4661-A2A6-D35273757F95.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVBGVbBM2Av9RFypcrQCofIK3AhiqhoQdcLPUD0Dh0h9DA-Gar-vuG0nYzF3axr1-JwNSCoR8iRv72ae_1vGMHSgIhNow9lvKOidKJ_FgkO_wqeG8DU2AC2gdz0ceU1jrHgM-SE3GCmWv50ORJZBZ83KvkUjWYRKXIwGkpxMbTfUO9XONCfH2seX1FPQ/s320/E0E041EF-2665-4661-A2A6-D35273757F95.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje6OtQEhAeAh_7OMRbastQos0L642BvvqExpQidmGcZO5taWars4JXTOENFv5_qOVP9mnxQfrEKfR12rg1nR4I3xcLAdJPZ0GfQvn9L0Ko4dgIev_sfIvZlWHJTev7m6y64tzZ98Mk8ee9J5Y9E9AObJ7cNXLbdfuMon-wJ4h4HGHZW9kpxtfjqduULg/s2385/FC2BA6D3-77CA-48E2-BA68-A9B4ED963A21.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1019" data-original-width="2385" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje6OtQEhAeAh_7OMRbastQos0L642BvvqExpQidmGcZO5taWars4JXTOENFv5_qOVP9mnxQfrEKfR12rg1nR4I3xcLAdJPZ0GfQvn9L0Ko4dgIev_sfIvZlWHJTev7m6y64tzZ98Mk8ee9J5Y9E9AObJ7cNXLbdfuMon-wJ4h4HGHZW9kpxtfjqduULg/s320/FC2BA6D3-77CA-48E2-BA68-A9B4ED963A21.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 13px; text-indent: 18px;">Phew!</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I’ve done about 259 miles in 23 days of hiking, plus 3 days off. Here are some maps to show how far I’ve gotten, and the route I’m hoping to take to Rome. I’m near Kington now. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">These last few days I’ve found my rhythm in writing my book on Saint Kevin. I’ve had so many experiences on this walk that I’m incorporating into the book in one way or another. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">What I’m doing now is writing whenever I can and then when I need some inspiration, I hike some more. I’ll stop wherever looks good and write. In the mornings, I’ll write for 2 or 3 hours, and get a late start.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">And I feel that August 31 deadline creeping up!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">My highlight today was jumping in the river Ugg for a swim. You heard it, that’s right, the river Ugg! It was delightfully cool. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I also found some more edible mushrooms, this time ones called Shaggy Inkcaps. They were delicious together with some lemon and coriander couscous.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">In fact, I’m thinking of writing my own cookbook to accompany my Saint Kevin book. Tonight I fried up my own tortilla chips and had what I call “poor man’s Thai”, a combination of sweet and sour noodles with some Indian snack mix. Magnifique!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I’m still probably two weeks out from France, but I’m trying to brush up on my French and get my French maps and route in order. After a month of the British Isles, I’m sure France will be different. I’m looking forward to the differences, especially the food!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Many blessings on you and yours!</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"><br /></span></div>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-8485555432126483672022-08-10T04:55:00.001-07:002022-08-10T05:17:43.113-07:00Slices of heaven<p>Today was a hard day. </p><p>It started with getting woken up by a pack of dogs.</p><p>Yup, they wouldn’t leave me alone or let me sleep. Some sadistic person had gotten up at the ungodly hour of 8am and taken their five dogs—or their neighbor’s and their friend’s, and their mailman’s dogs—on a walk, right by where I was sleeping, all of them off leash.</p><p>So I got up a bit earlier than my usual. Hey, “Early to bed, early to rise, keeps a man healthy, wealthy, and wise,” said somebody, maybe Benjamin Franklin?</p><p>Anyway, I was none too happy to break camp so early, but eventually the dogs left and I was on my way.</p><p>Enter problema numero dos: I had no water. I had accidentally kicked over my precious pot of hot cocoa last night, which meant I had to use up all of my water reserves to save the day—I mean night.</p><p>Thankfully, my trek started with a lot of downhill, and it looked like there were several water sources on the way down.</p><p>None of which panned out. All dry, “the lot of ’em”.</p><p>Then I ran into a couple who had just finished taking their beautiful yellow lab, Jimmy, for a walk. Jimmy was the best-trained dog I had ever seen. Translation: unlike my dog, when you threw a ball for Jimmy, he would bring it back and place it directly into your hand. This is fetch heaven as far as I’m concerned, and I am dead set on training my dog to do the same as soon as I’m back home.</p><p>Anyway, these wonderful folks did have half a bottle of water which they shared with me. I didn’t think much of it, but that half a bottle would get me through the next four hours of walking in the sun. I didn’t find water until the town of Montgomery about six miles away.</p><p>Much of today’s walk was in the blazing sun. Not St Louis blazing sun, where you can fry eggs on the driveway, but still quite warm. Add to that some of the steepest inclines I’ve ever hiked, and I was, as they say here, knackered.</p><p>Towards the end of the day, I was walking down a hill so steep I could barely keep my balance… when everything changed and I found heaven.</p><p>First of all there was the giant puffball. If you know your mushrooms, you know that the giant puffball is prized for its deliciousness above all others, with maybe the exception of the morel. Slice the puffball into half inch patties, and it tastes heavenly. Someone had left a rather large part of a puffball by the gate at the bottom of the valley I had just entered. An inveterate forager, I carefully scooped it up to use for my dinner.</p><p>Then there was the graveyard which I spied between the trees on my left. A graveyard meant a church, and a church meant the possibility of a place to sit.</p><p>I entered the graveyard, and sure enough there was a nice bench for sitting on, which I did. Then I thought, “maybe the church is open.” Most churches aren’t here, though they sometimes are during the day. But it was already 7pm or so.</p><p>Anyway, I approached the beautiful little stone church, tried the door, and it opened. Inside was about 10 degrees cooler than outside. Not only that, the whole interior smelled like flowers (someone had put some fresh violets inside) and the sunlight was streaming through the very beautiful stained glass windows of the church.</p><p>I stopped and prayed, and read all of the quirky little bits of history about the church, like how the stone (which is still there) in front of the podium used to be used as a measure for bags of wheat, and how Freddy the Red Welsh Setter was too shy this year to participate with the other animals in the blessing of the pets.</p><p>It was the kind of cozy church that made you just want to stay and wander around and pray and sit, and even sing.</p><p>When I finally did head outside, I heard the sound of water. The streams in the last two valleys I had passed through were all dried up, so I had just assumed that this one would be too. But not at all. It was still flowing, and with a little help from my water purifier, I had as much delicious cool water as I could have ever wanted.</p><p>Later this evening I made my dinner. I only had a bit of olive oil, which you need to cook the giant puffball. But I was able to fry maybe 12 little slices. I added a little salt, and honestly, I think I had the best meal in the whole world at that point. You can’t cultivate puffballs. They just seem to spontaneously grow in totally random places. You have to be lucky enough to stumble across one. </p><p>They taste like… kind of like… well, the taste depends on how you season it. It’s more the texture that’s magical. It’s kind of like the finest mozzarella di Bufala that you can get in Italy, if you’ve ever had that. But not quite. It’s much smoother. It’s more like a marshmallow texture, but much softer and without being sticky. It melts in your mouth faster than chocolate or marshmallow, almost like a bit of hot buttered pancake covered in syrup. Really, you must try some.</p><p>These were the slices of heaven at the end of my long and trying day. I’m grateful to the people who left me the puffball. I’m also grateful to the people who built this little church and keep it clean and open to the public. I’m grateful to the people who kept me going by sharing their half bottle of water with me. And I’m grateful to the inventor of puffballs, and mountain streams, the Father of Good Samaritans, the One we worship in our churches. </p><p>Who ever said getting woken up by a pack of dogs was that bad after all?</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNqOZw7ZB8hTcOXYs2CWnZhVdtsFEXT2ePGHvrW-uL1UanCgyzghtJpFKuj8rlBOnJWMXkBx4OGbvIZ4kZ0GrUfo3mgG2BKyjOLmRGLMT752NVCTwBcq6rXzlOLN4KWC7pNscVo04MHZLxBV1aZDsZ06z8Nd59l7yvfBjXBUf_BNtYr5qa-6tnAd8qQQ/s4032/F68A93A2-7EA0-46CC-BEC8-FEC85E046E20.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNqOZw7ZB8hTcOXYs2CWnZhVdtsFEXT2ePGHvrW-uL1UanCgyzghtJpFKuj8rlBOnJWMXkBx4OGbvIZ4kZ0GrUfo3mgG2BKyjOLmRGLMT752NVCTwBcq6rXzlOLN4KWC7pNscVo04MHZLxBV1aZDsZ06z8Nd59l7yvfBjXBUf_BNtYr5qa-6tnAd8qQQ/s320/F68A93A2-7EA0-46CC-BEC8-FEC85E046E20.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUa-TllMVYckWCFVcrjxyEdqC0XggumlUDaoBLWUFKCGn3_jzo2m4PAWFMRcjaX6pbk6-MD5_EvFI_movCaWQ6tKAOxPnTOWupAarT-IF2tJ_AmJqYgmsy9jVWmd-4jhJ5-F8wQCalWrBEPrpTLqHpfgPxiATcrnx1mFXF0Y-hOJrum4KsSq6Qar6vkQ/s4032/4EBD6669-2B53-421F-9F9E-1A2799BF4562.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUa-TllMVYckWCFVcrjxyEdqC0XggumlUDaoBLWUFKCGn3_jzo2m4PAWFMRcjaX6pbk6-MD5_EvFI_movCaWQ6tKAOxPnTOWupAarT-IF2tJ_AmJqYgmsy9jVWmd-4jhJ5-F8wQCalWrBEPrpTLqHpfgPxiATcrnx1mFXF0Y-hOJrum4KsSq6Qar6vkQ/s320/4EBD6669-2B53-421F-9F9E-1A2799BF4562.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig93jQkXQussxFXGAOpaV7Xv8FkaFHlcXukjxkUtDKPgUT96zcGsX4Dz83nihGBC3rEbS7Ebedd-fF7UqLVCpDGoS6qco9bT6NWTtQNYo-MOHpQ7sy8JSV8h_yLROUoF4Q_C-QMCwwbg6c_Q3sclcZLX8Z8PTZMTrqqPQ74g0ET4RxgAfPIHhgXhiHnA/s4032/C01BEC7B-D4EA-4502-AF33-EDBAD6E34CA7.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig93jQkXQussxFXGAOpaV7Xv8FkaFHlcXukjxkUtDKPgUT96zcGsX4Dz83nihGBC3rEbS7Ebedd-fF7UqLVCpDGoS6qco9bT6NWTtQNYo-MOHpQ7sy8JSV8h_yLROUoF4Q_C-QMCwwbg6c_Q3sclcZLX8Z8PTZMTrqqPQ74g0ET4RxgAfPIHhgXhiHnA/s320/C01BEC7B-D4EA-4502-AF33-EDBAD6E34CA7.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo3IIZnkuQsuEtzX4v1Lq9e87Q-zm3hKhBTc_lOh31zs2bhbmNHH83klZJxtyXsDhd6ReqCgJcCRnZ-ahJ5x6he5G-b4EWith2_1zKLyEV8uQbOrcDUVIIyrdexf3XnH4z8etqZx5WCsmtQDcSCDTPW_7_bAmichoxaFyYr9txM5POIgIvpmTMVT0WHw/s4032/D945B689-C1B8-42DF-944E-8C5798F3CD83.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo3IIZnkuQsuEtzX4v1Lq9e87Q-zm3hKhBTc_lOh31zs2bhbmNHH83klZJxtyXsDhd6ReqCgJcCRnZ-ahJ5x6he5G-b4EWith2_1zKLyEV8uQbOrcDUVIIyrdexf3XnH4z8etqZx5WCsmtQDcSCDTPW_7_bAmichoxaFyYr9txM5POIgIvpmTMVT0WHw/s320/D945B689-C1B8-42DF-944E-8C5798F3CD83.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />When you’ve been hiking for 10 miles with a thirty-pound pack on your back, the thing you’re hoping most to see is a good bench—somewhere to sit. <p></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">In general I have found that there are plenty of benches over here. Sometimes I have had to be creative and use a tree root or a boulder, but the English like their benches. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">There was the one today that was made from a massive slab of wood and had a little ditty inscribed on it: “There was a crooked man, and he went a crooked mile, he found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">There have been artistic benches carved with designs, there have been fallen trees carved into benches. Many have inscriptions, some are in the most beautiful of places.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I’m so grateful—especially my feet are grateful—for each and every one.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Then there are the beasts. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">When I camp out at night, I use a hammock, so I’m always among trees. There is almost always some crazy bird that squawks like crazy in the middle of the night. Or the owls hooting back and forth at each other from opposite ends of the forest. During the day I love to watch the kites, a sort of hawk, star though the air. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">There are the sheep and cows and horses that are my constant companions as I walk. Today I was climbing a hill and walking through a field full of sheep. The view from that hill was breathtaking, it was the kind of view that almost makes you cry. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">But I wonder if those sheep noticed. I did see one sheep lie down and gaze across the valley, and I hope he was enjoying the view just like I was. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">When it’s hot, the animals are usually lying down, often in the shade. Good example that!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I took a dip—a blessed dip—in the River Severn today. It had been a hot day of hiking and I was sweating all over. The river was cool and inviting. I stood for a while up to my waist in the water just enjoying it. That was when the minnows appeared.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">A bunch of tiny ones swam up to my waist level. Then many much bigger ones huddled around my feet. They started nibbling at my feet. I felt like one of those wildebeests with a bird sitting on its back in the Serengeti in some kind of symbiotic relationship. I guess the minnows were nibbling at the dry skin on my toes. Anyway, it was fun.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">My relationship with bigger fish has still been—alas!—non-existent.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I’ve met many swans and ducks along the way. Ducks are my dad’s favorite creature. He calls them the king of beasts. I kind of agree, I mean, which other animal can fly, swim, dive, and walk on land, not to mention be so adorable?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I’ve been happy with the tiniest of beasts—the little insects. In Ireland they pretty much ate me alive. Over here they have been on their best behavior. I’ve only gotten bitten a few times on my ankles. That’s bliss!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I’m to the town of Kingswood, almost halfway through the Offa’s Dyke trail. Hopefully I’ll meet many more beasts of all kinds, and find abundant benches!!!!</span></p>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-20663567817777885812022-08-06T16:29:00.006-07:002022-08-06T16:42:56.445-07:00Essentials: $4 IKEA Stove<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg60XT39UmNQIad3oisBCBhAEkTP8Fjat2kJQDX5KAdxdX5Kpei1OomWGdJK_3EAVwhU1zQJjUKAxAWoor3sQWxcDs6rQNHkz_yjJzg6b7A5CcufYxQL1E3yoHxS4NY7zEyB19KkS1dvL3s2bRU1JF9Or90HWCgIsOdDtMr7AHJ2zQFwCVH2Ew5_nRDbA/s4032/4E03AC8E-500B-421C-BFD7-8EEBB53BF7AE.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg60XT39UmNQIad3oisBCBhAEkTP8Fjat2kJQDX5KAdxdX5Kpei1OomWGdJK_3EAVwhU1zQJjUKAxAWoor3sQWxcDs6rQNHkz_yjJzg6b7A5CcufYxQL1E3yoHxS4NY7zEyB19KkS1dvL3s2bRU1JF9Or90HWCgIsOdDtMr7AHJ2zQFwCVH2Ew5_nRDbA/s320/4E03AC8E-500B-421C-BFD7-8EEBB53BF7AE.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIWNpkdDh1wht-L6rif4hLIQ6TcLoiU-CUTMTO61ahtRQ2xHS2g-ynebBgViXWdp8AxsxX_ZfVW_1mYcaKXOMkIQsnwYLQC5mEG5_oDtykhQM06HfN1SbXLBdFWVRd6GNf0AQsG9mH4vRQ_RGEWe_wA581lhkSIRcHGXOLee3xus7QNzwWrl_yQU1JTQ/s4032/C02F7A2A-E0C6-4E26-909E-DDC1F595890B.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIWNpkdDh1wht-L6rif4hLIQ6TcLoiU-CUTMTO61ahtRQ2xHS2g-ynebBgViXWdp8AxsxX_ZfVW_1mYcaKXOMkIQsnwYLQC5mEG5_oDtykhQM06HfN1SbXLBdFWVRd6GNf0AQsG9mH4vRQ_RGEWe_wA581lhkSIRcHGXOLee3xus7QNzwWrl_yQU1JTQ/s320/C02F7A2A-E0C6-4E26-909E-DDC1F595890B.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnAlL2v1UuEO5qH-fepivreAcBBtgdoy12u3dWRgcMtoWj-HsK-bDRscqAKZ7GjWuSKZhGr5mkns3gfAs4SA3JEAIeVE5YvDvxMfPjZx5gK1F3RpmwQ3zga08CNpV72jmyCKeBVEZLEXXsKVet3942XiJ8F9aTSw0ir2NRfTLz9mpXNXmd-Albt4TMFQ/s4032/C826BF3D-54AD-41BB-BB04-C0B387EA1246.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnAlL2v1UuEO5qH-fepivreAcBBtgdoy12u3dWRgcMtoWj-HsK-bDRscqAKZ7GjWuSKZhGr5mkns3gfAs4SA3JEAIeVE5YvDvxMfPjZx5gK1F3RpmwQ3zga08CNpV72jmyCKeBVEZLEXXsKVet3942XiJ8F9aTSw0ir2NRfTLz9mpXNXmd-Albt4TMFQ/s320/C826BF3D-54AD-41BB-BB04-C0B387EA1246.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <span face="Palatino-Roman" style="font-size: 13px; text-indent: 18px;">I’m on the trail again, this time near the cute little town of Oswestry. Oswestry is big enough to have several grocery stores, many churches, and some beautiful parks and quaint little shops and houses. Some of them look and are ancient, almost tumble-down ancient.</span><p></p><p><span face="Palatino-Roman" style="font-size: 13px; text-indent: 18px;">I was walking down the street and out of town this evening when I walked by the Oswestry School, founded 1407. 1407!!!! Wow.</span><span face="Palatino-Roman" style="font-size: 13px; text-indent: 18px;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">And they were playing cricket today. Right ho!</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman"> I sent a box of extra things home today. When you’re carrying everything on your back, your feet and your back keep you honest. They don’t let you carry anything that’s not absolutely necessary. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">There are a few simple things that far outweigh their cost and weight in my opinion: my stove, my solar panels, and my headlamp.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Headlamps provide all the light you could ever need. Mine weighs as much as one AA battery but lasts about 20 hours. If moths are attracted to its light, I can switch it to red light and the moths go away. It makes setting up camp after dark—or finding a camp after dark—a cinch. Don’t leave home without it!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Solar panels are a bit pricey, and heavy, but in our modern battery-filled world, they can be a lifesaver. When my headlamp runs out, 2 hours in the sun gives it back its twenty hours of light. My solar panel also charges my phone, my iPad, my drone, and my watch. If it’s a sunny enough day I’ll hang the panel from my backpack so things can charge as I walk along. But the best charging comes while I’m eating my meals and I can point the solar panel directly at the sun. If I do it right, it covers all of my battery charging needs.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Now the star of the show, one that I was very skeptical about initially, is my stove. At home I have a really nice little gas camping stove that nests inside a little set of pots. But I was worried I’d have trouble finding replacement gas canisters over here, so I went with a simpler system: a $4 Ikea kitchen spoon holder. No joke. It weighs nothing, functions exactly like a Solo Stove, and I never run out of fuel. At first, I had to master starting fires with it, but now it’s second nature. Today, for instance, I crumpled up a few receipts from my grocery run, filled the rest of the space with small and then larger sticks, lit the paper on fire, and boom!- we had a fire.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">There’s something really consoling about sitting by a real fire. If I need to cook a dish longer, no worries, there is an endless supply of twigs in this world. It’s not quite as clean as a gas stove, but neither am I carrying around a pressurized canister of explosive propane wherever I go.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I have many other little gadgets that make my trek possible, but these three are special.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Hope you have a blessed Sunday tomorrow!</span></p>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-29463748533357969132022-08-05T14:35:00.005-07:002022-08-05T14:37:08.460-07:00Chirk Castle<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga-KBH9W6rWpOEjX5QTcGKk9dRhKJA5SjCXD2jc8KmphXaF6kxUcXaDjnU8-jSf9y3FfY4eE1ktQbmlZ0uchQHdcs-imklUMIqSg8c6O_X2f6YZN4mMcjZoeVJ-VlY7doPHwPY3NUp6jsbE6FkTEh8b4VOdZU0ZUeKqK4diIO-XNCUlxr7I7PYK2lcDg/s4032/BFAFA520-6CEB-4F1B-8CDE-70205C6B400C.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga-KBH9W6rWpOEjX5QTcGKk9dRhKJA5SjCXD2jc8KmphXaF6kxUcXaDjnU8-jSf9y3FfY4eE1ktQbmlZ0uchQHdcs-imklUMIqSg8c6O_X2f6YZN4mMcjZoeVJ-VlY7doPHwPY3NUp6jsbE6FkTEh8b4VOdZU0ZUeKqK4diIO-XNCUlxr7I7PYK2lcDg/s320/BFAFA520-6CEB-4F1B-8CDE-70205C6B400C.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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text-indent: 18px;">I’m living the good life, in a castle. Well, not quite, but I have been camped out near Chirk Castle, a beautiful castle with even more beautiful grounds.</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">And I took today off to rest and read and write.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Yesterday I walked across the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, the highest canal bridge in the world. It’s pretty breathtaking. And I just love all of the cute little canal boats that glide up and down the canals, they remind me of Toad in the Wind in the Willows, one of my favorite literary characters of all time.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">As I was walking through the field yesterday, I spied a castle in the distance. My route didn’t take me by it, but I needed to use the restroom and refill my water, so I thought maybe the castle would be a nice detour. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">And it was. It’s a real castle with a dungeon and then another dungeon underneath that one. Spiral staircases, knights in shining armor—you name it.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">But what I love more than the castle itself are the castle grounds. they are beautiful gardens and forests filled with flowers and cute little structures and statues and courtyards and pools, and one of the grandest views across the countryside. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">So I decided to stay here to rest. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Today I read and wrote about Saint Kevin. As I’ve walked, I’ve thought my way through much of his story, but I find when I write that I need a refresher on my source material so I don’t forget anything essential.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I might spend tomorrow here too, if the writing goes well. You can’t beat a castle for ambience!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">My sister Monica had her second baby, Anthony, today. That makes grandchild number 13 for our family, what a day!</span></p>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-58237980492039753842022-08-03T15:17:00.001-07:002022-08-03T15:17:20.442-07:00My feet cry mercy!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM1eC-j_Un2H3iGZeRPFXksHbpIap_ShAYGbeJ-abkoZbuFVk8dYnkROagD6bGitdS1jAD8zT9n638Zx9APPT46a865T8GSlvjt8Z8gFxO3LXWrwBGRSgo3ppBZkT_gl9bRWHKMTLmi6MP0z3KEIuiFyc-gI4sIzTtAC27QVGwzVLt11kh0Gpi0DEk4Q/s4032/78C0C2BB-F062-4D8B-99E7-E40C6D3B1D86.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM1eC-j_Un2H3iGZeRPFXksHbpIap_ShAYGbeJ-abkoZbuFVk8dYnkROagD6bGitdS1jAD8zT9n638Zx9APPT46a865T8GSlvjt8Z8gFxO3LXWrwBGRSgo3ppBZkT_gl9bRWHKMTLmi6MP0z3KEIuiFyc-gI4sIzTtAC27QVGwzVLt11kh0Gpi0DEk4Q/s320/78C0C2BB-F062-4D8B-99E7-E40C6D3B1D86.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ep00Dr7hwIwwoQ34iLkL4N_AUFmJI8JSw-1yltXBBQzwTBaJQhOQsxP-A2YHzmGkRnVYyRPDihX247db6kjupCJRTMaCMaALQjUMbEhKKCrzX8Q3plVoNzlVqQlQRzBA-I5NpB6GzwXMFNfAhguB0-xyQ37dqpjJF0Z8WmAfkAA4ktm5OOr7tz_ASg/s4032/F1052D3D-AAEE-410E-A7CB-7D8CDB0BCB1C.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ep00Dr7hwIwwoQ34iLkL4N_AUFmJI8JSw-1yltXBBQzwTBaJQhOQsxP-A2YHzmGkRnVYyRPDihX247db6kjupCJRTMaCMaALQjUMbEhKKCrzX8Q3plVoNzlVqQlQRzBA-I5NpB6GzwXMFNfAhguB0-xyQ37dqpjJF0Z8WmAfkAA4ktm5OOr7tz_ASg/s320/F1052D3D-AAEE-410E-A7CB-7D8CDB0BCB1C.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /> <span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 13px; text-indent: 18px;">I really did it this time. Or should I say, the hills and byways of Wales did it to me. To my feet!</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">They are fed up.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">You see, yesterday my hydration bladder sprung a leak. I like having water easily available, and though I could have survived without it, I headed into a town to look for a replacement. Which I found, just that my feet also found the section of the store where they had hiking boots.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I’ve been trying to go super-light, so I have been wearing trail running shoes, and sandals at times. While the weight savings are nice, this has proven impossible, I think because I am carrying so much weight on my back. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">And so my feet rebelled. All day today and yesterday, whenever I saw a bench, they made their way to it and waited till I sat down and gave them a break. Needless to say, this made for slow going.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">They also demanded foot massages.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">The new boots have made them very happy. Now I’m thinking of taking tomorrow off from hiking so that they will be renewed in every way.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I spent last night with Elyssa and Tom, a couple I found through some networking. They were super kind, and having a real bed was a delight.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I guess that after a week or so of sleeping in the wild, the things I appreciate most about a home are</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">- a real bed to sleep in</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">- a real roof to keep the rain off</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">- a guaranteed dry room so all my things will be dry come morning</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">- an electrical outlet to charge my things so I don’t have to complete rely on my solar panels</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">- a shower to clean the grille off my body</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">- a washer to clean the grime of my clothes</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">- and it’s fascinating getting to know my hosts!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">There had been one thing I lost early on in my pilgrimage and I sorely missed: my rosary. I had brought a brown wooden one, which must have blended in perfectly with the ground at some point. And I love praying the rosary and sometimes the chaplet of divine mercy as I walk.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">The other day at church I asked around if there was anywhere I could get a rosary, and the people told me the closest place was 50 miles in the opposite direction.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">So I had been using a piece of fisherman’s net that I found on the beach and tied knots in, but I even managed to lose that a few days ago. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I was walking down one of the most remote and wild bits of trail yesterday—one particularly covered in sheep and what sheep leave behind—when I saw what looked like a Mardi Gras necklace hanging from a sapling. I thought to myself, “could that be a rosary?” Then I thought, “of course not, it’s just a necklace, don’t waste your time.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">But I stop for almost everything, so I stopped to check out the necklace, which was actually a light blue rosary draped over that little tree. I took it as a gift from some other pilgrim. And I’m not going to lose it!!!!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">That was my little morning miracle.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I also came across more bilberries yesterday, though some mountain bikers I met tell me that here they are called “winberries”. They are delicious, and apparently I’m only tasting the early batch; by the end of August they’ll be the size of grapes.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I had lunch today at some of the most picturesque castle ruins I have ever seen, Castel Dinas Bran.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">My trek also took me alongside a working canal. Apparently there are hundreds of miles of canals in the UK. Once used for transporting coal, now they are mostly used by people to move around by houseboat. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">What I love about the canal is that it has a level footpath… crucial word is “level”! If I could take a canal footpath the rest of my time through England, I would!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Blessings on you, I’m heading to sleep!</span></p>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-90867966128139491412022-08-02T06:33:00.003-07:002022-08-02T06:39:42.535-07:00What I’ve learned<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOa0_TRSObRqyH4OI70UhxZOHUQdPTv05mRZ4fbWNelSAkcAI7CGiOMN4_M3ZVCeJtq83F_GUXE4AFJ_PTHmOjtA7BLu8iUviuiffUqXTx18g3uYvrw1jeOmELSMDD-quPBkoSPF9aSnrDNsrwNFGITEkGuXfZsUvv3py7G3XrlJ7V7cRNG591p_7CHQ/s4032/C484E0D0-A7ED-47C4-B6B8-00615CCEEE1D.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOa0_TRSObRqyH4OI70UhxZOHUQdPTv05mRZ4fbWNelSAkcAI7CGiOMN4_M3ZVCeJtq83F_GUXE4AFJ_PTHmOjtA7BLu8iUviuiffUqXTx18g3uYvrw1jeOmELSMDD-quPBkoSPF9aSnrDNsrwNFGITEkGuXfZsUvv3py7G3XrlJ7V7cRNG591p_7CHQ/s320/C484E0D0-A7ED-47C4-B6B8-00615CCEEE1D.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTUxNqu-w63agb9FYUvPP_sFggkwwAkzf3iyxTzpbibg4Nr1kOeHaSwpqK9tAMe6oZBtHYstnGPumJXJDr9Bs5L8PvLvBwPIm9zKiIm7jh8kMaCB4M18Y_PUIwyX3LWOGH5O219kzuU3bhFUhdSchsNDrERWvK0YCQYsvfMHmPXCaLrIwXTN4fzDoXZA/s4032/A609667A-2E51-4733-B9A7-2C94136F2008.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTUxNqu-w63agb9FYUvPP_sFggkwwAkzf3iyxTzpbibg4Nr1kOeHaSwpqK9tAMe6oZBtHYstnGPumJXJDr9Bs5L8PvLvBwPIm9zKiIm7jh8kMaCB4M18Y_PUIwyX3LWOGH5O219kzuU3bhFUhdSchsNDrERWvK0YCQYsvfMHmPXCaLrIwXTN4fzDoXZA/s320/A609667A-2E51-4733-B9A7-2C94136F2008.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXRkhoJOFZNayver9LMjaaAekUx-rZHkNkuJK2e2Ya7gl79cFcoJqdV5YeXqPm0heUWSIJcgltreN0cHvaM43v_ddLqmkuWovvBxniTTGuLfN_h0xbULM9uU8CFwJo-3_v1Y_Wq7fqx73hkLJJPq1Yf14r8Lg5hmUEQDUzHpizpTSCuJN1UlrCYKeJIQ/s4032/069B2651-C56F-4F1F-9C43-CBF0620380F1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXRkhoJOFZNayver9LMjaaAekUx-rZHkNkuJK2e2Ya7gl79cFcoJqdV5YeXqPm0heUWSIJcgltreN0cHvaM43v_ddLqmkuWovvBxniTTGuLfN_h0xbULM9uU8CFwJo-3_v1Y_Wq7fqx73hkLJJPq1Yf14r8Lg5hmUEQDUzHpizpTSCuJN1UlrCYKeJIQ/s320/069B2651-C56F-4F1F-9C43-CBF0620380F1.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyuGB8zv4gBOyd1FNU2NUJRcR5sxBffBoJySpoYaWnSAquNpX24g-DRteYZxfHWblv1MJoQn6j0zuD7JWUNDH2zeLoe-ODS-Kn99fs0eh9U7Rzw23aUKjiGmnhLSm-_Ap0zpHZm4VOjuYu5-xJ5hr-HjL_fJMQcT1Wvi64XgBnQmZHyRJ2Tftt8qaPHw/s4032/7F8532C3-F537-4E4A-A781-C93F6DDDEBBB.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyuGB8zv4gBOyd1FNU2NUJRcR5sxBffBoJySpoYaWnSAquNpX24g-DRteYZxfHWblv1MJoQn6j0zuD7JWUNDH2zeLoe-ODS-Kn99fs0eh9U7Rzw23aUKjiGmnhLSm-_Ap0zpHZm4VOjuYu5-xJ5hr-HjL_fJMQcT1Wvi64XgBnQmZHyRJ2Tftt8qaPHw/s320/7F8532C3-F537-4E4A-A781-C93F6DDDEBBB.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidZBfM44n3EMISyL92TeirM_IJyAj1WefmKMS_bGvsgPEMAkaMc7_fYQ0eUgM4WkioQhWjwx6rllq8M6FXD_lCmzenh2YJf1Gepqure610f59uCWB_6obPGHyep8e67vLBIK6QzY_dU-gRck7R105kVnZrCN5dYKdKQgVgVY7zt7U8owl_rP8i-ZsZZg/s4032/5BA00536-B455-4982-9DF0-C920A2230649.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidZBfM44n3EMISyL92TeirM_IJyAj1WefmKMS_bGvsgPEMAkaMc7_fYQ0eUgM4WkioQhWjwx6rllq8M6FXD_lCmzenh2YJf1Gepqure610f59uCWB_6obPGHyep8e67vLBIK6QzY_dU-gRck7R105kVnZrCN5dYKdKQgVgVY7zt7U8owl_rP8i-ZsZZg/s320/5BA00536-B455-4982-9DF0-C920A2230649.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">It’s been two weeks since I started my pilgrimage! I’ve walked something like 144 miles, through two countries, and across the sea. (well, my plan to walk across the water didn’t pan out…) And I’m still alive!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Today was a beautiful but strenuous walk up and down about ten different hills, leading up to Moel Famau, the tallest at 1818 feet. Its top is crowned by the “Jubilee Tower” in honor of the 50 years of the reign of “Mad King George”, who I think was the King George at the time of the American Revolution. His tower had partially collapsed, but still offered some beautiful views.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">I think I’m getting into the stride of things. There sure has been a lot to learn:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">- I can get by on 3 liters of water a day, no need to carry 6</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">- Stopping and unpacking it is immensely easy to lose things, so I must be very careful to check when I’m packing up. So far I lost my charging cables, my tent stakes, my sunglasses, and one gaiter. They’re all things I can replace, thankfully.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">- It’s ok to lay down my pack and take a break when I find a nice spot. My body needs the rest, and my soul needs the views.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">- People are always willing to help. I ran into some people today who had a beautiful German shepherd. I asked them if they had seen any water sources, which they hadn’t, but they insisted on giving me a whole liter of their own water. So kind!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">- Jump in any body of water you come across, it might be your only chance to rinse off for days!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">- Sheep invariably run away when you walk by them, horses sometimes are interested in you, and cows almost always follow behind inquisitively.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">- Keep your eyes out for wild edible food: there have been blackberries every single day of my trek here in Wales, and today I came across an immense amount of the same berries I had found back in Ireland, bilberries. They’re so good!!!!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">- There are tons of gates to walk through here. That said, each region has their own style of gates, and I love the local gates here in Denbighshire, they have a special sliding door for letting your dog through.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">- Europe has walking trails everywhere! Literally! I am only walking one of many trails. I probably cross over thirty other trails each day, most of them walking trails, but some equestrian trails or bike trails. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14.3px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">That’s it for now folks. Hope you have a blessed day!</span><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">!</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"><br /></span></div>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-81809490041864822022022-07-31T14:27:00.002-07:002022-07-31T14:35:10.401-07:00Offa’s Dyke<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmOwpGVgsHYaNR3MeQnNpVv7AftwRItxQO0CjTHUlMX3M1X4gc4T3tYy09eBVK1LwuPp6xyVhnEGqoFkL_7Z3LXj4ABUivs1Q2jo3XsDk5VSewJWNPSfbB5aU56I8sgJWOfqdreA1ZlA-iTooagYhLoF_MSpcjqbcCYx_hb3EdpG8YuuS8lAREuXP-zQ/s4032/6EA3A191-D4D1-471A-BCC9-9FFFC8CF99B4.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmOwpGVgsHYaNR3MeQnNpVv7AftwRItxQO0CjTHUlMX3M1X4gc4T3tYy09eBVK1LwuPp6xyVhnEGqoFkL_7Z3LXj4ABUivs1Q2jo3XsDk5VSewJWNPSfbB5aU56I8sgJWOfqdreA1ZlA-iTooagYhLoF_MSpcjqbcCYx_hb3EdpG8YuuS8lAREuXP-zQ/s320/6EA3A191-D4D1-471A-BCC9-9FFFC8CF99B4.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqcP7SAdcS9BszxGrhzKS5fTaQbxyRYLqfDw27lBJiwSCtk_RzzK-Bi6QlrPlrwgIkVIBQ8-URsZy5KlKZffU5f8ZASpqCF6qPepeD-OQUIH6u55z4dfdpoRSPZHi8f3xQF7FhvJ-C4XKJDtRaX_HEOQurCvnM_xGE-wXigUJKwV660fLivJnj0vN4Lg/s4032/9C1AE524-0353-4037-870C-8E5D58CD9DF8.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqcP7SAdcS9BszxGrhzKS5fTaQbxyRYLqfDw27lBJiwSCtk_RzzK-Bi6QlrPlrwgIkVIBQ8-URsZy5KlKZffU5f8ZASpqCF6qPepeD-OQUIH6u55z4dfdpoRSPZHi8f3xQF7FhvJ-C4XKJDtRaX_HEOQurCvnM_xGE-wXigUJKwV660fLivJnj0vN4Lg/s320/9C1AE524-0353-4037-870C-8E5D58CD9DF8.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF_8QwNvDDPy1UQQzw35POBgq1M2BBjDFNe8mJBe9PP94A_1Z4QafImNJzlKyDYrYwPzAEbO_8AW6I6A_DIUXG2LwaxngxjWjgnho5i2JqVAnhcOJjhyCl6SZtsbVfWiHZXwFzgklMXGJiok9YX0L3TM7iXF_pzNK--mSBSTDZXrJreiKIAI-UqSeLlg/s4032/5145FB05-9F88-4331-A78C-4CB1AC9D594C.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF_8QwNvDDPy1UQQzw35POBgq1M2BBjDFNe8mJBe9PP94A_1Z4QafImNJzlKyDYrYwPzAEbO_8AW6I6A_DIUXG2LwaxngxjWjgnho5i2JqVAnhcOJjhyCl6SZtsbVfWiHZXwFzgklMXGJiok9YX0L3TM7iXF_pzNK--mSBSTDZXrJreiKIAI-UqSeLlg/s320/5145FB05-9F88-4331-A78C-4CB1AC9D594C.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7kBRWMMzJow_dlqIIx816DOd8mM_YseYlZ3Yf_UP0XjT0O5DW-H1v1XMbPHn95SBuyXojemiHwwIxv4bxcyKBdFG17L8bW74fCvfTi6cZfm5eGR4ykkVjAkiJ7L3eATy_3PHC0MH_lh9fmRClxR_bSc3T71i7zREVaXuRYLrpv_bVxpmxoANLGCAjhg/s4032/797686EF-5CD0-4670-81AB-42E584FB480D.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7kBRWMMzJow_dlqIIx816DOd8mM_YseYlZ3Yf_UP0XjT0O5DW-H1v1XMbPHn95SBuyXojemiHwwIxv4bxcyKBdFG17L8bW74fCvfTi6cZfm5eGR4ykkVjAkiJ7L3eATy_3PHC0MH_lh9fmRClxR_bSc3T71i7zREVaXuRYLrpv_bVxpmxoANLGCAjhg/s320/797686EF-5CD0-4670-81AB-42E584FB480D.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiANyAT1fO4IbiIOO3hEXB266xoYq6gr7GOWw2fkpk0YenfulROqjj5NnB5XFHiqUGY3OZJkWeioT4gHe9-5mMw5CSYM2xLa_p7_IYhn5_MI7pj7JzzdhvanoD5x7H0cs6cVYbuC3LggLq1IuwrMsOOOFkzy9FonKNEVJQyyl0IOz4pJTJcVmVUHi0ZRg/s3088/C65D64C6-C19C-4551-B51C-B789856D79F0.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="2316" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiANyAT1fO4IbiIOO3hEXB266xoYq6gr7GOWw2fkpk0YenfulROqjj5NnB5XFHiqUGY3OZJkWeioT4gHe9-5mMw5CSYM2xLa_p7_IYhn5_MI7pj7JzzdhvanoD5x7H0cs6cVYbuC3LggLq1IuwrMsOOOFkzy9FonKNEVJQyyl0IOz4pJTJcVmVUHi0ZRg/s320/C65D64C6-C19C-4551-B51C-B789856D79F0.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /> <span face="Palatino-Roman" style="font-size: 13px; text-indent: 18px;">I’ve left the coast and headed up into the hills. I’m following Offa’s Dyke Path, a trail that winds along the border between Wales and England. Offa was the 8th century king of Mercia, and he built a giant earthenwork dyke as a border for his kingdom.</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Already, I’m doing more climbing than any day these past two weeks. Some of the views have been tremendous, with the sea to the north and beautiful rolling farmland to east, west, and south.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Right now I’m in the town of Bodfari.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">This morning I went to church at St Ilytud’s parish in Rhuddlan. Afterwords, they served tea and biscuits and I got to chat with the parishioners. Kind of like “donut Sunday” back home in St Louis!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">After mass I visited Dyserth, where Saint Kevin built a church. The church there today is much more recent. What I wanted to see was why Kevin would build a church there. You see, Glendalough, where I started my pilgrimage and where Kevin built his monastery, is one of the most ethereally beautiful and majestic places on the planet, in my humble opinion. Then there was that little church on the tidal island off the coast of Anglesey Island that was so pretty that Kevin founded. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">And there in Dyserth, I found the same fingerprint that the other two places had: tremendous beauty. Just to the right of the church was a narrow, hundred-foot waterfall that plunged into a deep pool. Green green moss grew all down its length. It roared and filled the air with cool mist. It was just the kind of place Kevin would have loved.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I’m enjoying getting to know Kevin by visiting the places he loved, as well as by feeling what it was like to do a pilgrimage like he did to Rome. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">How does that feel? Sore feet! Achy joints! Thorns and lots of them!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">But also delicious blackberries. Beautiful, heart-filling vistas. Cool clear springs. Sunshine and shining sunsets. Kind people of all types and ages.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Doug, the man who sat in front of me in church this morning, promised that he would pray for me every day of my pilgrimage. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">A little girl who I met while climbing up behind Saint Kevin’s waterfall really liked my sandals, and’s said she thought I looked like prince Harry. Her little brother said he wanted to do a pilgrimage like me one day.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I reached out to someone else looking for a place to stay, and they offered to give me their own bed in two night’s time.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Kevin most certainly experienced the same. There were probably less roads and less fences in his day, but the world was much the same, and so were people.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">And that’s a good thing!</span></p><div><span face="Palatino-Roman"><br /></span></div>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-21114323943113174212022-07-30T15:58:00.002-07:002022-07-30T16:16:47.378-07:00Learning my limits<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJVYUc8ju9C1j1jYQ4aHAqlIZMtOP4J0nYbazYUmBbkKjaImlc-04YsFxY5lLx5efHAPsS4NGa_f34soK0wIbEnxMIQkDA6zXsYZ3zLMZ9zlxGUVr_zrHsKHPtZBBYaj2iRjv4V3CPTbtrqiA91_xbwxHTDfPuZKPHS829hlpxv5bQ1o84bW-uINlsaQ/s4032/027E4CEF-BF60-4307-AE16-870866935868.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJVYUc8ju9C1j1jYQ4aHAqlIZMtOP4J0nYbazYUmBbkKjaImlc-04YsFxY5lLx5efHAPsS4NGa_f34soK0wIbEnxMIQkDA6zXsYZ3zLMZ9zlxGUVr_zrHsKHPtZBBYaj2iRjv4V3CPTbtrqiA91_xbwxHTDfPuZKPHS829hlpxv5bQ1o84bW-uINlsaQ/s320/027E4CEF-BF60-4307-AE16-870866935868.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpTo859KjoW0lKeUc2-YX4QTA7mqz6610fpG0bippu6C73hQiIbyhNj7qMJGnPbslN6EL_-MVMNztRRJBXrUiMihCkf5i7W_sKk-W5Xx7qKrxccj8xDFO3ONEkEts-_OL6i3kqAWhfcLK0no4g90hB0YpjFaHZED5hxc3YtXD0WIM7ehccUSxTh-hGvQ/s1600/86A1AAFF-3E1F-40DA-833F-5A443D0ACB36.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="747" data-original-width="1600" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpTo859KjoW0lKeUc2-YX4QTA7mqz6610fpG0bippu6C73hQiIbyhNj7qMJGnPbslN6EL_-MVMNztRRJBXrUiMihCkf5i7W_sKk-W5Xx7qKrxccj8xDFO3ONEkEts-_OL6i3kqAWhfcLK0no4g90hB0YpjFaHZED5hxc3YtXD0WIM7ehccUSxTh-hGvQ/s320/86A1AAFF-3E1F-40DA-833F-5A443D0ACB36.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4aUFUfVOE6tAXIRSP_k1oFLeBDInTyjMY81TfqW9YVDYtcVNRU4X3EbnUYeUOHp0vK2w0MFRUEPPv95JRNpE04Dozvjgd_R3uG3_cERsdxcUPF2IfiR6yioSVHUH8pDqNFMJyz4bhruzQfJLhsBiur9TJv2KaJAW9w5Zg6GF8wnI1ahbmun8pIg4Rmg/s4032/536F5163-E120-4D98-8D4D-810EA3BDB210.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4aUFUfVOE6tAXIRSP_k1oFLeBDInTyjMY81TfqW9YVDYtcVNRU4X3EbnUYeUOHp0vK2w0MFRUEPPv95JRNpE04Dozvjgd_R3uG3_cERsdxcUPF2IfiR6yioSVHUH8pDqNFMJyz4bhruzQfJLhsBiur9TJv2KaJAW9w5Zg6GF8wnI1ahbmun8pIg4Rmg/s320/536F5163-E120-4D98-8D4D-810EA3BDB210.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJN_5ovhv-ZC6jOdMKfwJh2zcu_2RYOSP_YiTBqk-Sd8WBiiATb91gxCsPjrTP16GG6MqsxW3Hg-tRF-4FcKpSLJTE2jplBrxD1Smm7Tmfxn2Km5QoDSdRnsEk-msCP1cOIpNBIW6gB-4wUhpDrcWYxKdpPIMTnxNve4ixLeQvRwlNQVC3Fwuvp3g8_Q/s4032/CFC9B758-5091-4E78-8ABC-7AEAC6A14F7E.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJN_5ovhv-ZC6jOdMKfwJh2zcu_2RYOSP_YiTBqk-Sd8WBiiATb91gxCsPjrTP16GG6MqsxW3Hg-tRF-4FcKpSLJTE2jplBrxD1Smm7Tmfxn2Km5QoDSdRnsEk-msCP1cOIpNBIW6gB-4wUhpDrcWYxKdpPIMTnxNve4ixLeQvRwlNQVC3Fwuvp3g8_Q/s320/CFC9B758-5091-4E78-8ABC-7AEAC6A14F7E.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjapbB15ytfl4hCCdVHsPOPsfmeHp7frZQOlIwie3YjW5sje52MMO2z09F2QMrBoWKvYw_u_jaVNraCnhKm-r_vy8ozGsRe8tlje9VWFC2G087fA_mXbHUv5ByXncRKrH5Ax9luUIJclMwsaF8hF9pEYMYVouFmyZ9dQuWmfoYi9Kg5Y6fxrdy59q4gYg/s4000/E25BDED6-2096-491A-91D8-9E777BB34689.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2250" data-original-width="4000" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjapbB15ytfl4hCCdVHsPOPsfmeHp7frZQOlIwie3YjW5sje52MMO2z09F2QMrBoWKvYw_u_jaVNraCnhKm-r_vy8ozGsRe8tlje9VWFC2G087fA_mXbHUv5ByXncRKrH5Ax9luUIJclMwsaF8hF9pEYMYVouFmyZ9dQuWmfoYi9Kg5Y6fxrdy59q4gYg/s320/E25BDED6-2096-491A-91D8-9E777BB34689.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <span face="Palatino-Roman" style="font-size: 13px; text-indent: 18px;">I am lying in my hammock sipping on a small bottle of Rosé. I just finished a dinner of teriyaki chicken over noodles, cooked by yours truly in my little pot over an open fire.</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I walked over twenty miles today, mostly along the beach that makes up the northern coast of Wales. Though not nearly as wild as Anglesey Island, it still is a place of great beauty. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I’m tired. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Four days ago I connected with some folks, Lisa and Stefan, in Bangor, </span><span face="Palatino-Roman"> </span><span face="Palatino-Roman">a beautiful little university town overlooking the sea</span><span face="Palatino-Roman">. They put me up for a night in their sea shanty, a charming house with a view of the harbor. That first night they asked if I would like to stay two nights, and my feet did the talking. I stayed two nights. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">They treated me like family, cooking delicious meals for me and sharing their wisdom about life and travel. One night we went out to eat with some friends of theirs. We were seven people, from five countries, and it was a delightful evening.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">It was hard to leave them, but I headed north after two nights. Lisa had suggested I go south down the Llyn peninsula, a wild and beautiful walk down a ragged coast.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I was very tempted to follow her suggestion, and I will some day. But there are no trees along that coast, and my hammock wouldn’t have worked. I headed north. Part of me still wishes I would have followed her advice. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I’ve mostly walked along the coast, on sandy beaches and seaside walking paths. I also crossed some mountains heading into the town of Conwy. Conwy is home to Britain’s smallest house. North of Conwy is Britain’s smallest church, the chapel of St Trillo. I spent some time in prayer there.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">These last few nights have been hard, it’s been hard to find a place to camp.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Honestly, there’ve been moments when I’ve thought of giving up and heading home. But I’m still going to keep walking. I’m learning a lot about my limits, about what matters, and about Saint Kevin’s journey.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">I have a few rules I’ve been following: </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">1) Unlimited calories- this body needs all the nourishment it can get</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">2) Unlimited sleep- this body needs all the rest it can get</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">3) My feet are in charge. If they say it’s quitting time, it’s quitting time!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">Anyway, hopefully I’ll be able to post more regular updates. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span face="Palatino-Roman">In the meantime, blessings on you my friends!</span></p><div><span face="Palatino-Roman"><br /></span></div>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-32506836392619619712022-07-25T15:52:00.001-07:002022-07-25T15:52:31.149-07:00St Dwynwyn’s Enchanted Island<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuOM7LluScylFkYan7ACVsbcQOWmF_xe4wFDG0gDqWjuscZMC-I4sqh0E9K3PKgJ8J_83xFYuiCLMrbzRhf0_9fQiGWJRuWgje6HTZZXNt8ZArLbeLlJYdajF5ndRXzS5qBn8bBuklRX9clfLAwvF2w_tU1GnTaDnhNCDli6pGg1igg-yAlEAhqqj5Lw/s4032/4F498E1E-16A0-4B63-A7B2-8D8551C053AF.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuOM7LluScylFkYan7ACVsbcQOWmF_xe4wFDG0gDqWjuscZMC-I4sqh0E9K3PKgJ8J_83xFYuiCLMrbzRhf0_9fQiGWJRuWgje6HTZZXNt8ZArLbeLlJYdajF5ndRXzS5qBn8bBuklRX9clfLAwvF2w_tU1GnTaDnhNCDli6pGg1igg-yAlEAhqqj5Lw/s320/4F498E1E-16A0-4B63-A7B2-8D8551C053AF.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwZc6rB4WFPp089oY5AW9yrJX7UV2Asm1W98MsLo8DZPBaGLrRuq44B90nmfhFcbXzCdbv268Ambck_pbP_Ce7ppJxbmL3ThMAGAULfFR3f7v64EHIrzR-bkQhrQaFoC-Vs25xwJ2lywNU4X-UIVv-GAwOvkRrVhIVFoHRqNwo694lq0BYDMnkGym6Vg/s320/AE35E3C4-1672-4967-8673-766F4647D424.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy-nk2gvELHmdozR7738dHIWyMAGayHGom9Pf_odWlIVTb877hwcD1iICJ4j6Hdy6ANt0CzCgTOnXAIXFa1XZPVjKVi1zDw-92kd0kYW4Yn-Z3m_RZ09WXGtZWsyw6NwEVK_wk0mF1yazPfrYpO3AusQFme2UxsH8HnWf48cv3CUkOXLOJq-8wDzZtyg/s4032/C38220BE-5166-4F17-9662-EA043F9870F1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy-nk2gvELHmdozR7738dHIWyMAGayHGom9Pf_odWlIVTb877hwcD1iICJ4j6Hdy6ANt0CzCgTOnXAIXFa1XZPVjKVi1zDw-92kd0kYW4Yn-Z3m_RZ09WXGtZWsyw6NwEVK_wk0mF1yazPfrYpO3AusQFme2UxsH8HnWf48cv3CUkOXLOJq-8wDzZtyg/s320/C38220BE-5166-4F17-9662-EA043F9870F1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPNX_pFZQ-4Oyn-_jxNigjZyhSuP4eP2DKeqh-HWB_SPOJf1w4QLmhTxPZ30XTcUMhdlkqM0Bv4nsLhF5QYHN7AYBe3WdG7axnHaqhMXfx3k61HdziRlj76sMw9V7C2bBZUUvp4x3RL7c2o6MGNLKzhwrN_U2IEuLsWOUDpsDpEpx263VfAt59Ou7mvw/s4032/D58133BE-5F5E-49D2-ADBF-5B8A9D3FDA8F.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPNX_pFZQ-4Oyn-_jxNigjZyhSuP4eP2DKeqh-HWB_SPOJf1w4QLmhTxPZ30XTcUMhdlkqM0Bv4nsLhF5QYHN7AYBe3WdG7axnHaqhMXfx3k61HdziRlj76sMw9V7C2bBZUUvp4x3RL7c2o6MGNLKzhwrN_U2IEuLsWOUDpsDpEpx263VfAt59Ou7mvw/s320/D58133BE-5F5E-49D2-ADBF-5B8A9D3FDA8F.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggCDoihDdUoyrS81tACcyTDjOZeKjSsFiagQnHwEGkA4-A3hQkkiTQJMleeR16kGPZxCU9NsOQ4Ln-XslNr06zxenZm9cX7RLNSj64odh7Qnobyi8w8NUaO8dP7ktOD-3xDwzGqRGS39gfRaA7waaVbA7bRAiWxQ0vfwEmCo9GwJUZE-IagmiG4wuPUA/s4032/F16909BC-DE7C-4DFA-AD7A-BF0B59D95E94.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggCDoihDdUoyrS81tACcyTDjOZeKjSsFiagQnHwEGkA4-A3hQkkiTQJMleeR16kGPZxCU9NsOQ4Ln-XslNr06zxenZm9cX7RLNSj64odh7Qnobyi8w8NUaO8dP7ktOD-3xDwzGqRGS39gfRaA7waaVbA7bRAiWxQ0vfwEmCo9GwJUZE-IagmiG4wuPUA/s320/F16909BC-DE7C-4DFA-AD7A-BF0B59D95E94.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /> <span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 13px; text-indent: 18px;">I didn’t get too far today—8 miles—because I was enchanted by an enchanted island. I spent four hours there. Yes, Ynys Landdywn—the island of the church of Saint Dwynwyn.</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Legend has it that she was the most beautiful of the twenty-five daughters of the king of Wales. When the king promised her in marriage to a young man whom she did not love, she ran away to a forest, where she met an angel who granted her three wishes:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">1) That her sweetheart, who was frozen in a block of ice, be freed.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">2) That she be able to help all true lovers</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">3) That she be allowed to never marry</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">The angel granted her all three wishes, and Dwynwyn went to her island to be a nun. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">The island is pretty neat. Like Saint Cwyfan’s island yesterday, it is a tidal island that is only accessible at low tide. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">There are wild horses and ponies on the island. There is also a lighthouse.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">What is most enchanting about the island is the church of Saint Dwynwyn. It’s just ruins, and reminded me of the ruins of churches in Ireland. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">But it’s a big church—as big as the biggest in Ireland, and history says that it was one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in Wales. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">It’s in a beautiful spot in the middle of the island. There are four steps of what must have been a cute little round tower attached to the church.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">People have made a little shrine in one of the nooks of the church, and even Kevin made his way there!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">Saint Dwynwyn is the Welsh equivalent of Saint Valentine, and her feast day is January 25. There has been a movement in recent years to celebrate Saint Dwynwyn’s day instead of Saint Valentine’s Day.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">The island has a special feel to it, like Saint Dwynwyn’s influence is still at work. I love that about a place—I’ve felt it in several, like Glendalough where Saint Kevin is from, or Knock where the Blessed Mother appeared, or Guadalupe, where she also appeared. Holy people make the places they touched holy. You can feel it in a the home of a happy family.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">May Saint Dwynwyn bless all of us, for we are all lovers!</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"><br /></span></div>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883825184354291437.post-65204931855759695112022-07-25T10:12:00.005-07:002022-07-25T10:12:58.236-07:00Saint Cwyfan- the Welsh Kevin<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBfe88rDrefjIvWAaknh_YvROZuREi9c1ZONJ4PvptNTRZfinA4blUzBrMSqTO0WWFi2TapzqU9JWwIrU_qxCQsq9MLEp4hWYj3vZGGDvnI0ard0qmzCg3b3iUk-FBPXfq_r3GFkjJj6jGqebzlpOBu6Av0slq9HI72axMYY7vXJXX7nYjMYDs_khBwA/s4032/4F5CE2F3-D5E9-4B7C-95AB-3CC308D32871.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBfe88rDrefjIvWAaknh_YvROZuREi9c1ZONJ4PvptNTRZfinA4blUzBrMSqTO0WWFi2TapzqU9JWwIrU_qxCQsq9MLEp4hWYj3vZGGDvnI0ard0qmzCg3b3iUk-FBPXfq_r3GFkjJj6jGqebzlpOBu6Av0slq9HI72axMYY7vXJXX7nYjMYDs_khBwA/s320/4F5CE2F3-D5E9-4B7C-95AB-3CC308D32871.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> Saint Kevin is guiding me, I really feel it.<p></p><p>Today I was walking a long the southern coast of Anglesey Island, 100-foot sea cliffs beneath me, a wild sea swirling and smashing itself below. I hadn’t checked my map for a while, when two women appeared from around the corner and asked me for help. </p><p>They had gotten lost a bit and couldn’t seem to find their way to a little church they wanted to see.</p><p>Together we realized that we had all gotten off the path, so we headed back towards it. One of the ladies was 75, and she was afraid of cows. But we had to pass through a field with cows to get back on the path. So I bravely led the way.</p><p>When we finally got to the church, the church of Saint Cwyfan, I was in awe. It was set on a tiny tidal island in the middle of a bay. All white, with a slate roof, it shone in the midday sun. And there was a wedding going on inside. My two friends wanted to visit it because they had been to a wedding there before.</p><p>So we all ate lunch outside while the wedding went on inside. </p><p>Eventually I said goodbye and continued on down the coast. </p><p>Then later in the day I saw a sign for another church, Saint Cadwaladr’s. There was a lady inside cleaning the church. She gave me the grand tour, showing me ancient stained glass windows and even more ancient inscriptions and gargoyles. I told her about my quest, and she asked if I had been to Saint Kevin’s church. I told her of course, I had been to saint Kevin’s Church in Ireland. She said, no, the one down the coast. In Welsh, Kevin is Cwyfan.</p><p>My jaw almost hit me in the knee. </p><p>When I planned this pilgrimage, I used guesswork to make a route I thought Kevin might have possibly taken. Even the experts on Saint Kevin that I talked to had no idea which route he would have chosen.</p><p>And yet there I had been, almost certainly on the exact route Kevin took. The bay where his church is located is called “Porth Cwyfan” or “Kevin’s Gate”. I take that as meaning the place Kevin landed on his way from Ireland to Rome. </p><p>And it’s certainly like Kevin to choose the most fantastic of places to build his churches. </p><p>I did 17 miles today, and my feet are sore.</p><p>Yesterday I did 12 miles. Yesterday was a bit harder because it started to rain. I’d been blessed with no rain, so it was quite a shocker.</p><p>But I got some fish and chips and holed up to let the storm pass away.</p><p>Highlights these days are too many to write about, so here’s a list:</p><p>- cute little pet cemetery complete with headstones</p><p>- giant snails crawling along the path in the same direction as me</p><p>- cushiony sod just like Ireland</p><p>- lots of blackberries</p><p>- a super long and wide beach just like in Chariots of Fire</p><p>- amazing British people out at the beach when it’s raining sideways and the wind is blowing a million miles an hour</p><p>- forty or fifty kite surfers in the middle of that same storm</p><p>- walking close by a house where Prince William and Princess Kate lived at the beginning of their marriage</p><p>- finding giant crabs in an estuary</p><p><br /></p><p>Yep, lots to see and remember. And I’m grateful for Saint Kevin’s guidance.</p><p>Tomorrow I have to decide whether I head North or South. The Northern way would be longer but have less elevation change. The southern route is shorter but has lots of mountains. Which way would Kevin have gone?</p><p>Say a prayer I can figure it out!</p>Kevin McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13390113486160875965noreply@blogger.com0