ItchyFootPrints
Isaiah's Travel and Family Blog
The Journey of the Blog
I started this blog in 2015 when I took an extended road trip across the USA with my faithful dog, El Guapo, who would eagerly go with me anywhere. I continued to write about some of my other global travels, but the real journey is not so much the places you go, but the people who go with you. I met my wife Kim on an international trip to Costa Rica that I organized that same year with the local Asheville organization LEAF. We’ve since made other journeys together, including our honeymoon, in which we brought back a surprise souvenir. Nine months later in 2018, our biggest journey started when our son Walker was born. Lacking the big travels away from home that first inspired this blog, my travel writing went dormant; furthermore, El Guapo grew progressively ill and had to be put down. He overlapped with Walker for 3 months. My focus centered on the role of fatherhood rather than the road. But the name “Walker” was chosen because of our shared experiencing of walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain, and the pace at which we like to experience the world on foot. And as Walker has gotten older and able to travel on his own feet, I have rediscovered in the absorbing eyes of a child, that the most adventurous trek can be a simple stroll around the neighborhood. Fatherhood is my new frontier. Thus I don’t have have to venture to some new or exotic place to have good stories to tell; this blog is newly dedicated to every-day adventures. -Isaiah
Recent Posts
El Camino, Day 5: to Villamayor
Day 5: Mañeru - Villamayor: 17.5 miles Wednesday, September 14, 2016: Departed: 6:40am, Arrived 2:00pm We got up early, again awakened by other rustling pilgrims, feeling awake, and got started walking about 30 minutes before twilight. I have a feeling this may...
El Camino, Day 4: to Mañeru
Day 4: Pamplona - Mañeru: 18 miles Tuesday, September 13, 2016: Departed: 6:20am, Arrived 2:00pm Leading up to our Camino, Kim and I talked with a number of people we knew who had done the Camino. When one of them suggested that we would often be waking...
El Camino, Day 3: Pamplona
Day 3: Larrasoaña - Pamplona: 10 miles Monday, September 12, 2016: Departed: 7:00am, Arrived 10:45am We got up early and were on our way by twilight, taking snacks for breakfast that we had sat aside the night before. We descended mostly in on a downhill...
El Camino Day 2: to Lorrasoaña
Day 2: Roncesvalles – Larrasoaña: 17 miles Sunday, September 11, 2016: Departed: 6:30am, Arrived 2:30pm Kim and I wisely decided to bypass the breakfast assembly line at Albergue Colegiata, and to go ahead and start day 2 of the Camino at 6:30am. Walkable...
El Camino Day 1: to Roncesvalles
Day 1: Saint Jean, Pied du Port - Roncesvalles: 15.6 miles Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016: Left at 7:45am, Arrived at 3:00pm We heard before the trip that this first day crossing the Pyrenees would be the hardest – a long and steep climb from the French side to...
El Camino de Santiago: Beginning to Begin
I don’t recall when I first heard of the historic pilgrimage trail across Spain “El Camino de Santiago” but akin to the way it has grown into the general public’s consciousness through books, movies, and the increasing frequency of people you know talking about it,...