WHERE IN THE WORLD IS ASHLEE?

After returning from New Zealand several months ago, Ashlee has been living at home and working in the family store. She has been a big help to her Mom & Dad as it's hard to do projects when you have to continually wait on customers. (Note in a previous blog entry the nice arrangements she's done).

Now it's time for another adventure.  She's going to spend 5 weeks hiking the St. James Walk in & by the Pyrenees mostly in Spain (I think).

When we left Thatcher we drove her to the airport in Tuscon where she flew to Houston and then to London where she spent one day. She only carried a well stocked back pack (and we forgot to get a picture - sorry). Then she flew to So. France where she took a train down to her starting point.

She'll walk about 10-15 miles a day stopping at the camping places they have all along the route. It should be quite an adventure. She doesn't need to carry food as there are many pilgrim stops she can choose from.

So far she doesn't have a cell phone, but she has sent a couple of emails. She has to pay quite a bit for internet time, so we won't be getting long dialogues. We're hoping she will get some great pictures.

Here's an excerpt from her first email.

"I had planned on changing my 250 to Euros when I landed in France.  Alas the airport was so small that I was not able to change and still have all of it on my person. I am hoping to change it in Pamplona. So far I have spent 28, and 24 euros a day, which I think is about 30ish dollars. Maybe. I haven´t quite figured them out. Hopefully once I reach Pamplona I will be able to change some of the money.  

Well I made it to France all right and have completed my first day of walking.  It was TOUGH, but I did it. 27 Ks and it was pretty steep. Also you will be glad to know that I have a traveling group as well. Michael a retired policeman and a girl my age named Elizabeth, both from Ireland though they dídn´t know each other. They are nice. We have been going a nice pace and hopefully I won´t be too sore tomorrow. It really is quite beautiful here with lots of green hills.  My only complaint is that it was awfully steep on the way down. Apparently it used to be a Roman road. We had a communal meal tonight with other pilgrims and it was really nice. People are very friendly.

Glad things are going well. I hope you don´t like having me gone too much. I have to pay for internet here so I better go before I have to put in some more money. Love you lots and give Remington and PA a hug for me."

Here's some pictures captured from the internet.  There apparently are several different hikes one can take from the very challenging, to quite easy and everything in between.  I believe this is the hike she will be doing.