P.S. from B

Dear All,

We finally arrived home to Anacortes last night at about 11:30 PM and promptly threw our mochilas on the floor and crawled into bed to sleep after having been on the go for 30 hours from Madrid.

We say thanks to all who have helped us in our journey through their actions, their prayers and words of encouragement. Like in the Oscars, I'm sure we'll miss naming someone but we feel we should try to acknowledge a few folks our there.

Thanks to Bill and Ann Testerman for telling us about their Camino, first in their church presentation then on a few occasions when we met at our house, you lit the fuse in our imaginations that this would be something we'd like to do. Also thanks for all the books and notes you supplied on your lessons learned, it all helped.

Thanks to Steve Miller for talking to us about your experiences on the Camino and especially for loaning Kelli your REI Flash 45 mochila (backpack) AND supplying us with our comprehensive foot care kit, and for loaning your book collection. As you know from the blog, the foot care kit came into play on day two and was used every day to the end of day 34 when we walked into Santiago.

Thanks for Liz and Gene Faulstich for volunteering to be our American Pilgrims on the Camino Seattle Chapter, Camino mentors. The times we met during the monthly coffees in Seattle really helped get us set to go and make this a good experience.

Thanks to John and Weegie Lieberherr for sharing their stories from their 2001 Camino Frances and for giving us loads of email support in response to our various blog posts. Your words of encouragement (ultreia!) and stories of your experiences gave us things to talk about and to be thankful for.

Thanks to all our friends and family who probably were questioning our sanity but jumped in and supported us whole-heartedly once it was clear we were going to do this, and during our actual journey.

Thanks to our church family for getting the word out about our blog and then following us as we trekked through the Camino. Your thoughts, prayers, and comments on the blog were/are greatly appreciated. We knew we were not walking alone in the spiritual context.

Thanks to Jaquie, a Camino friend we met on day one, and to Martha our friend in Anacortes. Jaquie lives in Vancouver, BC and picked us up at the Vancouver airport with balloons, a welcome home perigrinos sign, hugs and food AND then delivered us to Blaine, Washington, where Martha drove us the next 90 miles to get us home. Martha also provided us with hugs, and immediate food needs for breakfast in the morning -- which we needed as we didn't know if there were any "cafe' bars" in town that we could order cafe' con leche y neapolitana de chocolate. 😊

Thanks to Kathi and Jeff, Kelli's sister and brother, for taking time off in your lives to coordinate and schedule week long trips to be here with Mom and Dad, to help them with getting to appointments, and providing friendly family faces after we'd left on our little walk. Muchas Gracias!

Lastly, thanks to Grammy and Ompa (Kelli's parents) for telling us to GO! - six weeks after we helped relocate them from their home city of almost 50 years Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Anacortes. Your words of encouragement were the final thing we needed before we left. THANKS!

Kelli and Brian






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