Buen Camino

Buen Camino: Bedraggled, Bewildered and Amazed Along the Way of St. James is a travel journal, a spiritual quest, and a curmudgeon's self-reflective memoir. As a travel journal, it calls to mind Theroux's The Old Patagonia Express. As a spiritual quest, it strives for the enlightenment of William Least Heat-Moon's Blue Highways. As a memoir, you may recognize similar aches and pains as Bill Bryson's in A Walk in the Woods. The setting is Northern Spain. The goal is to follow the Camino de Santiago, a 799 kilometer trail that begins in Southern France, crosses the Pyrenees, makes a sharp turn just past Pamplona, and takes you due west to the city of Santiago de Compostela. With no guarantee of success, TB McGlone has to rely on the hospitality of the Spanish people, the kindness of total strangers, and at least one angel to help him reach the finish line. Among the many challenges along the way are the self-generated demons he must contend with when there is no one else around to save him. It is a journey of the mind, the soul and one delicate right foot. Fragility and grace combine to show this imposturous pilgrim what is possible, what really matters, when you slow down and see yourself in the present.