“No one grows old by living, only by losing interest in living.” I left this quote along the trail to inspire others this week. Yet as I walked on through the week I realized that this was really the theme of my Camino week 4. I met an American man who was 80 years old [...]

After a lovely break in Carrion de los Condes and getting treated to a scrumptious steak dinner from a retired doctor from Canada, things could only go downhill from there – and they did. Fast forward to me puking in a albergue toilet to begin week 3 of my Camino de Santiago journey . I [...]

Most of this week I felt like a cartoon character – the one with the big cloud over my head with rain pouring down just on me. However, instead of one cloud following me wherever I went along the Camino, there were multiple clouds all lined up and circling like planes at O’Hare airport trying [...]

Here’s a little secret, I’m not where you think I am. Do you think I’m in Naples? Surprise, I’m not. In fact, I’ve been to 4 countries since I was in Naples and I’m currently in Pamplona, Spain. It’s impossible to travel at this pace (6 countries in 7 weeks) and be able to keep [...]

The most frequent question I get asked is “What’s next?” followed by “How are you making enough money to continue traveling?”. I’ll tackle the latter at a different time. Both of these questions cause me anxiety, but it is a given that I will be asked them by 90% of the people I meet. The [...]

I stand looking out over the jagged landscape; toppled-over trees without bark and a silver sheen provide a contrast against the dark petrified sea of lava. Occasionally I see a tuft of green sprouting up as if it was trying to reach to the sun. I imagine these scarce green leaves sprouting out of the [...]

I constantly get questions about my travels and I do make an attempt to answer them all back. However when someone asks a question that I think others would really benefit from hearing the answer, I like to share them for my entire Ottsworld audience (my mom + 20 other people) I had a recent [...]

I’m a mountain person more than a beach person. I like to spend a little time at the beach, but lying there or participating in water sports hold my attention for only so long. My preferred beach time is about 1 ½ hours and then I’m done and long for a change of scenery. So [...]