Remember those butterflies I talked about a few months ago? Well, today they are careening off the walls of my stomach and I’m practically floating a few inches above the ground – my body feels like electricity is pinging throughout all my nerves. Can you tell I’m excited?!

Yeah, my last post ended with ‘next stop, Madrid’; but that’s a long ass haul from Seattle! So as this is posted, I’m on a flight to Washington D.C. where I will spend a night before we take off for Madrid tomorrow evening. Dulles to Madrid is an overnight flight as most all flights to Europe from the east coast are; and we’ll hit the ground running once we land there. So the overnight in DC will give my body a little break. Cindy is flying in from Atlanta and we’re meeting at the airport. We’ll have time for dinner, a (hopefully!) good night’s rest at a nearby hotel and then much anticipation waiting for our flight to Spain.

It feels weird to be traveling in my hiking clothes and knowing that when I get to Spain, one of the first things I’ll have to do is wash my clothes! 😀 Something I’ll have to get used to doing everyday after we are done walking. And realizing that I’ll be relying on only the things in my backpack for a month and a half.  But we’re not going into the wilderness – there are many small towns and several larger ones where we can purchase most anything we need. Although, I won’t want to add to the weight in my pack, so the goal is to make do! 

I’ve dreamed about going on this adventure for years; and for the past 6-8 months have studied, researched, (tried to) learn a language and imagined what it will be like. But as I am about to begin – and because as we know life doesn’t always happen the way you want or imagine – I’ve decided to not have any expectations of how this walk will pan out. I hope to be able to take it all day by day – even hour by hour. My new mantra… “Let it go“.

For real this time… next stop, Madrid!