Sep
20
2009
Jackie O’ Soul Searcher Blog Entry
Hey Everyone,
Thanks for all the messages and comments on my blog and on the photos´on FB. I truly appreciate them all. It makes me feel closer to home.
After I left you last time, I was in Puenta La Reina. A large town or small city. I was staying in an Albergue that didn´t really have any charm to it. It was in the basement of a hotel. I found out later that there were 2 more there. One was an ancient one in the middle of the city and one was a brand new “chain” albergue just on the other side. I would have preferred to stay in the ancient one of course.
As it turned out, it was good to stay where I was because I ended up meeting a nice young man, Brendon, from LA. So had dinner with him and chatted a bit and then went to bed. Nothing too exciting here.
Next morning it was raining pretty hard. It made the city seem dismal and walking along the main street felt like I was in an old movie. It was damp and chilly but I was quite happy that it was raining. My nose was SO burnt, it was good to be out of the sun for a day or 2. I had my poncho on and tried to keep my arms inside the poncho so they would stay dry. But using my sticks made it a bit difficult to do it. I finally got the hang of it, tho. As I walked out of the city on a path that went along a red pepper farm, my pants were getting more and more wet and even tho I was covered from the knees up, the wet was creeping up my legs so I decided to remove the bottoms of my pants and walk in my shorts. The poncho was sticking to my legs, but at least the top part of my shorts were staying dry.
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Sep
18
2009
Wild Daisy Soul Searcher Blog Entry
I should have known. All along this trip, I’ve been the one who’s been quite comfortable driving the uphills, enjoying a nice, slow, comfortable pace. Miss Daisy is no spring chicken so she doesn’t exactly race up the hills. However, she has enjoyed flying down the other side, happy that her efforts are finished as I’m hanging on, sometimes with white knuckles, trying to manage her excitement down the mountain pass.
I should have known that she’d take to bungee-jumping like a sugar-deprived kid in a candy store. She couldn’t get enough of it. While she took well to completing the hot dog stunt, I think it just wasn’t “out there” enough for her. (On a side note, I’ve been heating the leftover hot dogs on her engine while driving these past few days and it’s worked quite well. I only have 523 hot dogs left to finish off…)
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The divas of daytime gone wild, daisy-style
Sep
17
2009
Wild Daisy Soul Searcher Blog Entry
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then tonight’s blog post will be the equivalent of roughly 11,000 words. But why can’t a picture be worth a thousand dollars??!! Then just one picture would have paid for that little air conditioner mishap I had back in Winnipeg….and one picture would buy a few rounds of DQ Blizzards for me and my co-campers at the RV Park……just a suggestion for whoever is in charge of these things.
I’ve spent the past 3 days in the village of Pemberton which lies in the Pemberton Valley, about 30 kms north of Whistler, on Highway 99. I was last here 20 years ago for an outdoor wilderness course and didn’t recall much of the area except that it seemed “remote” at the time.
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30 kms to the south, life starts to pick up pace in Whistler and beyond. Here, the pace of life is still quiet and the roads less travelled.
Sep
17
2009
Jackie O’ Soul Searcher Blog Entry
…and I´m singin´my hobblin´song….I´m just hobblin´along…
Helllloooo!
First I´d like to thank everyone for the healing energy! I felt it all!
So, after I wrote the last time, I went for a little walk around the Albergue and found a couple of nice Irish girls, Betty and Linda. Both from Dublin. They were cousins. Betty has done the Camino many times and knows the author of the book that most people carry to do the Camino. She talks non-stop with that famous Irsh accent (eighteen and tirty four). They were a lot of fun. We were joined by a Canadian couple from Thunder Bay, Iris and Rob. Nice too…everyone is on the Camino, it seems. Anyway, we sat around a table outside all night drinking wine and chatting. At one point, this lovely girl from Sweden sat with us. Eleena…she is 13 years old and a HEALER!! She did some healing on my shin and it started to feel better right away. She was amazing both with her healing work and her attitude about life. I loved her! This girl is going to go far in this world! Then I did some healing on her back for her. It was a wonderful exchange. She has no formal training…she just started doing it on her own and very powerful. I´m sure she´s one of the very first Crystal children.
That night I went to bed and could feel all the healing energy that everyone was sending. I felt tingling all over my body all night. So thanks so much again!
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Sep
15
2009
Wild Daisy Soul Searcher Blog Entry
Do you remember that Sesame Street song? The one that went like this…
“Oh, who are the people in your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
Say, who are the people in your neighborhood?
The people that you meet each day”
(and then the characters sang about the fireman, the policeman, the soccer mom, etc) and the song finishes off
“Well, they’re the people that you meet
When you’re walking down the street
They’re the people that you meet each day”
Well, I met some interesting folks in the past few days who appeared in my “neighbourhoods” of Williams Lake and Quesnel BC over the weekend and today I’d like to feature a few of these “everyday folks” who helped create some very special memories.
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Estelle
Sep
15
2009
Jackie O’ Soul Searcher Blog Entry
I´m not really sure what day this is or how many days I´ve been on the Camino, but I´ll try to get it all in here since I started. It has been amazing in many ways!
Camino Day 1
Ken and I joined together in St. Jean Pied de Port and started out a little later than everyone else. We headed down to the post office to see if we could send stuff ahead as my pack was very heavy. Ken needed to send some post cards. It turned out that it would have been very expensive to send from there, so I carried everything.
After the post office, we headed out of town and started the journey. We walked along a country road and went up and up and up. It was a very steep climb but the view was spectacular! As we climbed, we saw beautiful fields, farms, cows, sheep and as you looked back you could see the towns we were leaving behind. I have to say Thank you to Suzie for the walking sticks! I have thanked you many times the past few days! They are life savers! Anyway, we walked along, all the while picking superb blackberries that grew along the side of the road, until at one point, we came across a small road that went off to the side. It was more of a grassy path, but you could see that maybe trucks took it once in a while. We took that road (followed an older man who took it) and things just got steeper, but it was nice and soft to walk on. We also had to avoid the sheep manure as we walked. At another point, we saw a path going straight up so Ken decided we should take it. It brought us thru brambles and I got my arm scratched up, but it led us to the initial paved road that we had started out on. We figured out later that by taking those 2 short cuts, we saved about an hour to get to the first stopping point.
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Sep
10
2009
Wild Daisy Soul Searcher Blog Entry
As I’ve travelled, I’ve noticed the subtle and sometimes not-so subtle nuances of a place that either lifts my energy and spirit, or it does not. It has become more and more acutely apparent during this trip of the relationship between our selves, our environment and our surroundings. And, of the importance of being in harmony with all of those elements. Thankfully, my heart tells me when I am and when I am not.
I arrived in Penticton 2 nights ago, intending to stay over for 3 nights. By mid-afternoon after my first day there I decided to leave. I just didn’t like the “feel” or vibe of the town, it just didn’t resonate with me. I wasn’t comfortable and found it difficult to work there. I don’t need to know the reason, I just need to accept the wisdom of my heart.
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The divas of daytime tv aboard Miss Daisy
Sep
10
2009
Jackie O’ Soul Searcher Blog Entry
Hi Everyone,
Unfortunately, I can,t post any pics with this blog, but rest assured, I will as soon as I can.
I had a completley amazing time in bordeaux, thanx to my CS host Katia. She met me at the tram station when I got into town which was quite late at night. We brought my pack to her flat which is right in the middle of the old city and near the river, the opera, the shopping and the restaurants. We went for a midnight stroll and saw beautiful bordeaux at night…I was in awe! The next day,after going to the market to get some fresh fruit, we had a nice breakfast (late) and I went exploring on my own. Lots of fun; then KATIA joined me a little later and showed me some of the old churches and historic architecture. They have a couple of bldgs that held the court of Louis the XIV, Le Roi de Soleil.
Next day we spent the day at the ocean playing in the surf and laying on the beach topless! (thanks for the underwear, Karen, I can also use them as bathing bottoms!); Pretty amazing feeling…ha ha ha; I did the first 2 Munay Ki rites for her on the beach. It was pretty special. After we got back, we went out and had a very good dinner and then walked around town again. I got some really good pics and wish I could post them now.
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Sep
8
2009
Wild Daisy Soul Searcher Blog Entry
The past few days have provided some much needed rest as I ponder next steps and a busy itinerary in the coming weeks. I’ve heard from a few readers who were concerned I’d gotten lost in Miss Daisy or perhaps overdosed on salsa. No, no, no worries there. I am currently in the Okanagan Valley, in Penticton. Like many of you, I needed a long weekend. It also gave me some time to get in touch even a bit more with the message my heart has been trying to send me.
Before I left Ottawa, I met with a fellow RVer who spends the winters in California with her husband. We joked together as I told her of my plans to travel out west and she said, “Heather, when you get to Vancouver, just turn left and head to California!”
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One of the many fruit stands in the Okanagan
Sep
6
2009
Jackie O’ Soul Searcher Blog Entry
…and I’m only in Paris!
A street in the neighbourhood
It’s day 3 in Paris already and getting ready to hit the road again. So far it has been great. I landed here at 7am on Sept: 4, grabbed my bp, got on an airport bus, got off at the Opèra, got on the Metro to la Gare de l’Est, Quickly got on a hop on-hop off city tour bus and went to see all the sites in the city. Of course I forgot my camera in my bp which I had stored at the Gare.
I didn’t get off the bus much except to pee, grab a sandwhich and go up the Eiffel tower. The day was raining on and off and of course when I got on the lift to go up the tower, it started to downpour really hard so i only went up to the 3rd floor…which was high enough for me; After that, i pretty much just rode around on the bus napping when I could until it was time to meet my couch surfing hosts Marlene and Tilk. This is where I discovered the coloured tp. Hers is pink!
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