Author Archives: bstrangetx

The most frequent response to my telling someone that I am going to walk a 500-mile pilgrimage (other than the raised eyebrows) is, “Why would you want to do that?”  Follow-on questions are about food, weight to carry, places to … Continue reading →

We returned home last week after a month-long journey rich in family, history and family roots. We visited all our children and grandchildren in Houston, Mobile, Jacksonville Beach and Chesterfield (VA). In the spaces between those places, we explored a … Continue reading →

The title for this post is a line in the poem, East Coker, one of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets.  Eliot writes,  “Old men ought to be explorers. Here and there does not matter We must be still and still moving … Continue reading →

  I first heard about El Camino de Santiago in 1977 when I attended a Cursillo Retreat in northern Idaho. (I’m sure some professor mentioned pilgrimages when I was in college, maybe when I was wallowing through Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, … Continue reading →

A wonderful news story in the Irish Times reported that Michael Flannery was on trial for causing a motor vehicle collision while under the influence.  In response to the judge’s question, Mr. Flannery said, “Well, to be sure, your honor, … Continue reading →

True to my wish to control life, I approached my third retirement with a laundry list of things I wanted to do in 2012 and 2013.  This year’s travel includes the Grand Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, Disney World (all done—check … Continue reading →

My last blog ended with the comment, “Next time­, where the pilgrim’s way is leading and the reason for the blog.”  Don’t you just hate being led along?  At the time I wrote it, I intended to describe where the … Continue reading →

While completing one of the college placement tests when I was a high school senior, we were allowed to send our scores to three colleges or universities for free. Since Nevada had one four-year college at the time, I selected … Continue reading →

When I was a senior in high school, living in eastern Nevada, I went deer hunting alone on a late November day in 1961. It was a wet, cloudy day and the first snow of the year was melting. Driving … Continue reading →