Month: April 2017

The Constant Re-understanding of Myself

On Sunday, Susan and I went to the Main Street Arts Festival in Ft. Worth, it’s an event that we enjoy and always seem to find something that we can’t live without.

This year was a little disappointing because there were not as many artists that appealed to either of us, not their fault that they don’t cater to our tastes exclusively.

We did find 2 pieces that we enjoyed enough to purchase though. The first is a framed piece consisting of hand made and painted paper boxes arranged to look like a kaleidoscope in blues, greens and a little yellow. It’s a vertical piece and it looks great and fits a difficult location.

The second piece is the one that struck me and surprised me a bit and is really the subject of this post.

As we were walking north on Main Street, trying to avoid the masses, I looked over and noticed a very innocuous print of 2 children in school or church clothes walking down a railroad track out in the countryside somewhere.

The Artist is Richard Wilson from Greenville, NC and I’ve included a link to his website in this post.

The 2 children in the picture are African-American which is not uncommon in the world as a whole but, I realized that it is uncommon in our collection.

Neither Susan nor I harbor any active discriminatory feelings, who knows what lurks in the recesses of or psyche though. What I realized was that we see the world around us and Mr. Wilson, who is also African-American was painting and drawing the world in and around Greenville. He told us that the kids depicted are his daughters and the boys are his nephews.

For me, I realized that first, the scene depicted was beautiful in it’s complex simplicity (don’t know any other way to describe it). Second, I think we both realized that we had no art by an African-American artist and none portraying African-American life.

I feel confident that it is not intentional and unfortunately we do not come across many A-A artists…maybe we’re not looking in the right places and maybe we should expand our horizons a bit.

There’s not much that is more universal than 2 children going about their daily routine of walking to church and that simplicity is what drew me immediately to that print.

In his booth, we found several other very striking landscape scenes from around Greenville and we will very likely purchase another of this artists fine work.

I’m going on and on but something in this piece really created an awareness of my own blindness to part of the world that we all live in and I am a bit embarrassed to admit it. You could argue that this is color-blindness and that’s a good thing and maybe it is. Unfortunately, I have a nagging feeling that it’s more like color-unawareness and I don’t know if that’s a good thing. Something to ponder on the Camino.

We love the piece and can’t wait to get it hung. I encourage you to visit his site and if you’re like me, to visit a new awareness.

Not really The Camino, more like my Personal Camino.

The Rookie

Well the grizzled old veterans got to break in our rookie Pilgrim on Saturday. Mr. G aka Paul joined us for his first official training walk. We took it easy on him as we walked the Katy Trail with no backpacks today. As we all did, he was feeling it after our 7.4 mile walk. We’re all used to it but he was feeling it.

Paul’s the one in the snazzy outfit, he’s in for a rude awaking!

In addition to Paul, it looks like his sister may be joining us, Becky, if you’re reading this, get ready! It’s not as hard as we make it seem but, as Paul found out, long distance walking is different than running. It’s part of the journey though.

Rick was not able to join us but he was at REI getting his gear taken care of, I figure they should put a plaque up for us as many of the staff now know us by name.

Rick is excited about having some travelling companions once he hits Madrid which is where he and Paul and possibly Becky will catch up. Always nice to have a travel buddy along.

For 3 of us, we’re 23 days out from the beginning of our adventure. I need to finalize all my technology and get my YouTube address to Zia and Paul. Still looking forward to the live feed with Paul’s class before he heads out, I think the fact that he’s going will only make it more interesting as they all know him.

Bosque County dress rehearsal is coming up in 2 weeks, let the beatings begin!

Camino on my Mind

I’ve been a bit negligent in keeping up with my blog as my travel schedule has increased and things in these last 4 weeks are getting a little compressed with work and personal matters that need to be tended to before I leave in a little over 4 weeks.

I’ve related before that I’m anxious to get started, now, I feel like a kid the night before Christmas, fortunately a busy schedule has helped keep my mind off of the Camino.

We did another loop around White Rock this morning, 9.25 miles +/-. Our pace was a little slower than usual as Rick is walking himself into shape and, as he admits, he’s not going to be the fastest guy there. We all have to find a pace that suits us physically and mentally.

We saw a lot more people training with packs and a several people asked us what we were training for and many were genuinely interested and wanted to know more.

One couple were running by and asked, when we told them, they stopped and came back to walk with us and ask questions. If you’re reading this, sorry we didn’t get your names. I’m Keith and my fellow Pilgrim is Ann. I hope you check back beginning on 5/16 when I head for Spain and I begin the Camino on the 19th. I also hope you get the opportunity to do this or something that catches your imagination.

We also spoke briefly with a young woman who was headed for Peru to walk the Machu Pichu trail which is ironic because Ann and I have discussed that same trail, maybe this is not just a coincidence…

Walking now is like an old habit and I miss it when we don’t go out on Saturday mornings. I think I’m like a walking crack-head, I gots to do it! Probably not the worse habit in the world.

Paul Gongora (Mr. G) is on board, hope he can find the time to do a little more of Spain in general while he’s there. Him wearing the same clothes day after day is going to be funny to watch. You have to know him to fully appreciate that statement.

A bit sore but I’ll be fine in the AM, after our walk (and a shower), I rewarded myself with a Jalapeno Egg Burger from Eureka…a beer too.

Hidden Gem

Sitting smack dab in the middle of Texas is Colorado Bend State Park, truly a hidden gem. If you enjoy the beauty of the Hill Country, this park is a must.

Ann and I started our day Saturday morning in the early morning light and with a hint of the rain to come later in the day.

The Gorman Falls trail, which started out on a gentle downhill slope quickly turned very steep as we neared the little valley which hid the falls. From a distance we could hear the falls as it invited us to continue our descent.

What we found at the bottom was a small but beautiful falls created by the water from Gorman Springs somewhere up above finding it’s way to the Colorado River, further below. We spent 20 minutes admiring this treasure.

Gorman Falls

Unfortunately, if you go downhill, sooner or later you have to climb out…and climb we did. We wanted to see the source of the water falling over Gorman Falls so we headed up to Gorman Springs and the trail that took us to the source of the spring itself.

Hidden in a little canyon, deep in the woods was a stunning and primitive area which existed in its own microclimate. While the day was relatively cool, even on the hottest of days, this little Eden would be shaded and probably 10-15 degrees cooler that the surrounding area. The running water was soothing and the vegetation was multiple shade of green in the light that filtered through the dense canopy. I was amazed by the huge ferns growing in their natural terrarium.

The spring emerges from the base of the limestone walls and the water is crystal clear and probably 70 degrees. Swimming is not allowed to protect this special place and the Guadalupe Perch who make it their home. I bet a hundred years ago it was a special place.

Ann at Gorman Springs

As we had only done about a mile and a half at this point, we had to abandon our hidden treasure and get started if we wanted to get in some serious miles. Once again we started climbing back up towards the park entrance where we headed west on the north rim of the Tinaja Trail which is listed as Very Challenging.

Well, looks are deceiving. As we followed the north rim, this beautiful trail overlooks the valley below which hides the spring, creek and falls that we’d just visited. For about a mile, the going was easy and the trail was gentle on our feet.

When we arrived at the Tinaja (bowl), we enjoyed our Camino picnic and some stunning scenery. As we finished up, we were joined by 3 generations of a family from Michigan and we shared notes on what was to come as they had entered from the south. Good news for them, not so much for us as the challenging part was about to begin.

The south rim enjoyed the same vistas but they came at a price as the Very Challenging part had begun. Far more up and down with tricky footing. It seemed like there was more up than down but that may just be me and the down was probably harder anyway. I must give credit to our training regimen and preparation for the Camino. While it was strenuous and we did huff and puff a bit, we both agreed that we enjoyed the challenge.

The Tinaja Trail was a tough 2.8 miles when it intersected the Cedar Chopper Loop which we took for a short distance to reach the Old Gorman Road trail which was about a mile of easy walking. Along this trail, there were 2 areas marked that showed what appeared to be entrances to recently exposed caves.

Earlier we’d agreed to meet Susan at 1:00 unless she heard from us by noon. I managed to get a signal and call to tell her to make it 1:30 as we were about 2 hour away from our rendezvous point.

Because we’d already done the Gorman Falls trail, we decided to take the park road back to our meeting place. Apparently, like every other road or trail, this one too went up hill. Every time we reached the top, there was another hill to climb, probably like the first day from SJPP to Roncesvalles. Around every corner, there was another stretch and another bend in the road. This went on for about a mile and a half.

Now, before you start saying it was only 1.5 miles, my pack started out at 22 lbs. and we had spent the day on far tougher terrain than we will generally see in Spain. All in all we did a little over 10 miles, the last part in the rain. It really was a confidence builder.

If you think I was enthused by Colorado Bend, you would not be mistaken. Inspired may be a better word, this area is incredible. I’m sorry that Leighton, Renee and Rick missed it. L&R came in late Saturday and missed it on Sunday because the skies opened up on us during the early morning. We have though started planning a revisit in the Fall.

We may have recruited a new Pilgrim, Mr. G or Paul Gongora in the adult world. Paul and I met a the school that I volunteer at, he’s a teacher there (shout out to Ben Milam Elem.) By the way Mr. G, everyone in the front office thinks you should go, just saying.

Six weeks out, one more training walk down at the ranch in Bosque County, everyone should be there for that as some of us leave the next week. Achy old bones are holding up, boots are broken in and everyone seems to be smiling. How bad can that be?