Somehow, all this stuff needs to get into my pack. Since this is the fourth go-round, the packing happens pretty automatically, and in little time, I have managed to get practically everything into the pack. I haven't weighed it yet, though... partly because that means I have to weigh myself first.
In short order, everything is organised for next Sunday's departure, including my 'evening clothes,' the fleece, shirt and pants I will wear when I am not in my walking clothes. From previous experience, I know that I have to keep the top of my pack detached if it is to be lightweight enough to put in the overhead bins (since we're not checking anything). In the plastic bag, which sadly I will ditch in Spain (contributing to more plastic bag pollution), I have my pouch which attaches to my pack waist band, my sandals, the battery recharger for the camera and some other heavy items.
My cat knows that I am up to something; hence, her sleeping not quite on top of but close enough to my clothes. I will take her fur with me.
The 0.7% button will go on the outside of my pack once we get settled and stop flying, that is, when we finally land in Pamplona next Monday.
Now it's time to start painting the soles and sides of my feet and my pinky toes with the awful-smelling tincture of benzoin. It's the only way to minimise the assault of blisters. It's not readily visible, but I have a lump smack in the middle of the arch of my left foot; the lump is part of the plantars fascia so it got a good swabbing tonight.
When one walks like this, fifteen miles a day with an extra 40 pounds (25 pounds for the pack, water and pouch, and 15 pounds overweight), one's world shrinks to worrying about one's feet and knees, which take the brunt of the walking.
Why this should be such a big deal for me, I don't know, since most of the world spends its days walking with more weight (I think of all the people I see in El Salvador carrying bundles of sticks on their heads or water jars) than I will. They don't have the luxury of smearing a preventative medicine on their feet, nor do they have the nice boots, wool socks and plasters that I will have to protect my feet (which are pretty roughed up because I like to go barefoot).
Walking as I will, as a pilgrim, will be luxurious compared to how my sisters and brothers walk. But, as I have written downstream, I walk because they walk and perhaps in my walking, I can remember them.
I have no idea how the fund raising is going but I hope folks are hitting that 'Donate to ERD' button :)
