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Top Ten Retirement Adventures: No. 2

Reg Spittle 4 Comments

Sue’s words transformed our lives.

It was 2012. We had just watched Martin Sheen’s movie The Way, in which the actor walks the 500-mile Camino de Santiago across Spain to honor his son’s memory. Played by real-life son Emilio Estevez, his son had died in a snowstorm during his first day on the trail. The movie was great, but I was blindsided by Sue’s delayed reaction.

“We should do it.”

I blurted out my response. “What? Walk 500 miles?” My head was spinning. I pictured sleeping and changing clothes in coed dorm rooms, showering in coed bathrooms, and carrying a backpack. My anxiety was in high gear.

“We can’t do that!” I thought my words would settle the issue.

I was wrong. So wrong. For months, Sue was a broken record.

“But what if we can?”

In spring 2013, our Merrell shoes carried us across Spain. My anxieties were quelled the first day when fellow pilgrims quickly became friends and I eventually put my fears where they belonged: in the rearview mirror. We made many newbie errors, but it didn’t matter much.

We have been walking distance trails ever since, building experiences and friendships that have formed powerful memories, leading me to again undertake the unexpected: I wrote my first book. It is Camino Sunrise: Walking With My Shadows. I have heard from readers in 10 countries and continue to feel honored every time someone orders a copy.

I am grateful that Sue never gave up on the Camino. She convinced me to take a huge risk. She showed me sometimes the best things in life come when we tread outside our comfort zone.

I hope I continue to find comfort in being uncomfortable the rest of my life.

Top Ten Retirement Adventures: No. 4

Reg Spittle 2 Comments

If you have walked a distance trek, then you have felt the bittersweet experience of your final steps. I was overwhelmed when I turned the corner from the Tiber River and glimpsed St. Peter’s Basilica, the end of the Way of St. Francis. We had done it! My achy legs and feet cheered the end of our toughest walk yet. Later, my eyes welled up as I folded my trusty trekking poles while Sue and I sat on a step in the square. What now?

Following the steps of revered Saint Francis, Sue and I walked 23 days, 258 miles, 80,000 feet in elevation during spring in 2018. Many days were sunny, three or four were scorching, two left us drenched. It is one of three major Christian pilgrimages, but we saw few fellow trekkers, even none a couple of days as we walked from Tuscany east to the Umbrian mountains, then south and southwest to Rome. No other Americans, until we met an American tourist who snapped our photo at Vatican City.

When we turned the corner from the trail along the Tiber River, St. Peter’s welcomed us from a distance. Inside, guards checked our pilgrim passport and ushered us into an inner chapel where a Catholic official checked our stamps and issued our Testimonium. I may not be an authentic pilgrim, but it was still a magic moment. We kept searching St. Peter’s Square for other trekkers/pilgrims, but there were none.

Italy. Italians. Italian villages. Italian food. Italian scenery. All added charm to the Way of St. Francis, my number four retirement adventure. The trek pitched some good arguments to be number one, but three other adventures were even more noteworthy.

If you want to further explore the Way of St. Francis and three other European trails, check out my second book, Trippin’ Through My 60s: When Adventure Calls, the Trails of Europe Answer. The other three treks: Scotland’s West Highland Way, England’s South West Coast Path, and the Tour du Mont Blanc.