Jene will leave for Spain a few weeks before Jim and I will. He'll start his hike along the Camino at the base of the Pyrenees on the Spanish side of those mountains. We'll meet him in Sarria on August 1st about a week's hike from the end point. Some pilgrims begin walking the Camino south out of Paris, hike a good hunk of France, cross the Pyrenees from France and continue across northern Spain. This pilgrimage started in medieval times and the reward was a plenary indulgence. What did the pilgrims do when they got to the end in Santiago? There was no Delta flight back to Paris. All they could do was turn around and start walking again. I'm guessing that pilgrimage could've taken six months to a year back then. On the other hand, the Church was pretty liberal with those plenary indulgences. I'd trade a year of hard travel for a ticket to an eternity of heavenly bliss any day.
Back up for a second to the spelling of Jene Galvin's name. When Jene was finally old enough to ask about that spelling, our Italian-born mother told him that it's the French way to spell his name. Either Mom was stupid and didn't know that Jene isn't the French spelling of any known first name. Or, she figured that Jene would grow up too stupid to know he had a bogus French name. To give herself cover she gave him the middle name of Maurice. I think she simply forced the spelling in order to make sure the three of us had the same initials – JMG. She stuck to her story about the French spelling to the day she died.
There's a sanctioning body of some sort that issues Camino de Santiago passports. Pilgrims get them stamped along the Way. Note that mine shows I'll travel on foot. My alternatives are a bicycle or a horse. 
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