Camino Training-From the Backyard!

Will These Little Hills Help Me Get Ready for the Pyrenees?

Ricardo suggested we meet at his house to start our trek up the mountain. After my years in Colorado with the Rocky Mountains, I didn’t take these little hills very seriously. I was looking forward to having this time to get to know him and curious about what his house would be like. I always liked to see how a man lived to know if I wanted to keep seeing him. I learned so much from how it was decorated and the items that conveyed his lifestyle and interests.

I pulled the only walking shoes I had out of the closet, tennis shoes that almost looked brand new, even though they were seven years old. With my sedentary lifestyle, they had hardly been worn, and I didn’t like wearing sporty-looking attire for everyday life. It just wasn’t me.

Rodrigo welcomed me warmly. His house was impressive. Twice as large as my parents, in the adjoining subdivision. I was enchanted by the architecture of Southern France and the inner courtyard. It didn’t look like it was ever used and there was no seating. I couldn’t help but visualize it with hanging flower baskets and large potted plants.

As we walked through the door and down the hall, I noticed two empty bedrooms and a dining room with stacks of boxes on the long dining table. Looking through the wide French doors from the kitchen and family room, I saw a large yard area full of dirt. Nothing planted.

Upstairs, there was a large furnished master bedroom and bath, a large office full of towering stacks of books and file boxes, and another bedroom with some teen-style furniture and high school textbooks. The rooms ringed an atrium area open to the first floor, with a pool table. It all felt empty and abandoned. Never decorated at all. Many questions came up in my mind.

We filled a couple of water bottles and walked out the door to the trailhead behind some homes. The climb was gradual for a ways, but as the trail started up the hillside, I was already wondering how far I would make it. Our conversation drew my attention from my feet and my muscles. There was so much to learn about this man.

Oversharing About His Last Woman and Vietnam

He immediately started talking about his most recent relationship with a French woman, Angélique. We also talked about the Camino and why I wanted to do it, but the conversation kept coming back to this woman, how she drank too much and how unstable she was. He said that he had parted ways with her 6 months earlier. They had been together, on and off for twenty years, but it had finely become intolerable, and he had broken things off. She lived at the beach and had never been to this house.

He also shared more about Vietnam. It had been traumatic to serve as a medic and he mentioned the classic movie MASH. But, he said that what was even traumatic for him was the hostile reception for them when they returned. He was so angry and troubled that he was hospitalized and scheduled for electroshock treatment, like in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” but the Director of Nursing, who had developed a crush on him, rescued him just in time. He said that they married a year later, but after that ended, he had never married again.

Blisters Already??

I started feeling like some blisters were starting to develop on each foot, but in different places, so I turned around to see where we were, wondering if now it was time to turn back, so I could make it home. I was surprised to see how far we had climbed.

I said, “I think we need to turn back. I think I’m getting blisters.”

As we headed down the hill, Ricardo told me about his dental implant practice. Every day of the week, he would get on the freeway, driving for at least an hour to arrive at an office either north of Corona in an LA suburb or to a beach town, or west to Temecula. Sounded like a nightmare of a life to me.

Noticing that I was starting to limp, he said, “Let’s get you some real hiking boots next weekend.” I winced and nodded.

I made it back to my car at his house and drove home wondering what kind of hiking boots I needed and who this strange man was.