David’s Camino Preparation

It is a hard thing to describe preparation for this adventure!
First to think about was the physical, I had plans to go to our cabin in Colorado every other weekend and do mountain hiking, but as always seems to happen, life interfered and this summer didn’t allow those trips, so I did road work around home in the heat of the Texas Panhandle. This was great physical exercise and hopefully good preparation for the walk.

But next, comes the more important preparation, the mental part, this was the toughest part. First I had to deal with myself and the guilt feeling of taking time that was solely devoted to “me”. I have never really done that and it took a long time to justify to myself that it was acceptable to take time for myself and remove me from my normal life, my normal responsibilities and my normal relationships. Secondly, the aspect of staying away from work for up to six weeks was totally unfathomable, but I have great partners and all of them fully support this sabbatical, so that makes the being away from work a little easier. Will the office survive without me, of course, but we all think we are indispensable. Lastly, but of more importance to the mental was leaving family. What would my wife do without me for that long, what about the grandchildren or what about my kids. I know, my kids are not kids, they are grown young ladies, but we always think they still need dad. Truth is, my wife will be fine, my girls don’t need me that close and the grandchildren, well, that is a different story, that will be hard. Hello Skype..

My last preparations were the aspects of what I would take and what I needed done while away. For What I needed done, I am just dumping tasks on my partners, sorry guys. For what I would take, I must say that has been fun and frustrating. I wanted to be comfortable, but cut weight, I may be failing at both, but has been a blast trying to “balance the load”

These are the Colorado mountains I love to spend time in:

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