Beginnings: The Journey Over
It's important to start this story by pointing out that Spence, my traveling companion, and I are both retired pilots. So when it came time for us to make our trip to France from Florida, we were on a space-available basis.
We looked at every option on how to get to Paris for weeks prior to our departure date, originally scheduled as April 8. On April 7, storms hit Florida and disrupted all the normal flow of aircraft and passengers. Because of that, there were absolutely no seats out of Tampa that would get us to an international airport in time to begin our trip. So, at about 6:00 p.m. on the 7th we had to make a mad dash to the airport to catch the last flight out to Minneapolis for the night.
On the plus side, we were much better rested to start the long day to get to St. Jean Pied de Port. It turns out we needed that extra rest.
The flight from Minneapolis to Paris was uneventful until we arrived at baggage claim. A malfunction in the cargo hold prevented the luggage from being removed. We waited more than two hours for our bags to finally hit the carousel. The stress levels increased as we watched the clock carving out more and more of our time to make the connection at the Air France terminal, to get our flight to Biarritz.
We finally dashed over to the terminal and checked our bags at the automated kiosk. One of us – I'm not saying who – lost one of the baggage tags, so we needed to find an agent to reprint it. We were just within an hour of the flight departing when the agent told us that our flight had been canceled for lack of aircrew.
The band service that was to take us the last hour would not be operating beyond a certain time that evening, and there was no way we would make that time. About 40 minutes later, their friends rerouted all the displaced passengers onto the flight to Burgundy and arranged for a bus to take us to Biarritz airport. The bus was there when we arrived in Burgundy and we quickly loaded and got on our way. Spence, along with several of the other passengers worked to arrange for a ride for the last hour. Here he is napping on the bus:
The cab that we had set up was waiting for us when we got to Burgundy. We all needed a bathroom break before getting in the car for the last hour. Unfortunately, the bathrooms in the airport were closed. It was not a huge complex. We were directed to some potties outside the terminal. While they may not have been luxurious, they were definitely useful.
This is where my journey almost ended before it began. Four of us were splitting the cost of a cab, approximately $180 (the van service would have been half of that), and we couldn't assemble our group after use of the bathrooms. As I was texting to locate Spence, I stumbled over a low bench and did a front-first fall worthy of Buster Keaton. My hand slammed into the ground and my phone went flying. My phone was fine, but my left palm and thumb were pretty badly abraded, and my left thumb was numb at the tip. My concern was that I had fractured my thumb, but within 40 minutes feeling returned and now it is just about normal. I'm sure there is video surveillance footage of an American looking foolish as he texts and tumbles.
The ride to the St Jean Pied de Port was very circuitous as it transited many valleys alongside a river and a railway. The scenery was idyllic. Two women from Canada, sisters-in-law, split the cab ride with us. They were well behind schedule and were supposed to have commenced the Camino that day. It appears they faced some challenges in their journey as well.
The cab driver was jovial and told us how the biggest mountain in the front window of the cab was called “grizzly mountain.” He told us we should be concerned that there might be a bear attack as we made our journey. I think he was joking. I hope he was joking.
My final opportunity for some type of failure occurred as we climbed the stairs to our hotel room. The top of my hiking shoe caught some exposed molding on the stair and I thought I might have torn the upper side of my brand new shoes. There is a visible scratch but no penetration. That would have been the perfect way to start a walk of over 500 mi.
Spence and I got some solid sleep after a bigger meal than we needed. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
