My daughter Josie taking her first plane flight – cool as a cucumber.

Sitting in a chair in the sky, I am sweating the details. I have spent several hours over the last couple of days arranging all the parts that will get us to our starting steps in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France.

Long story short, between now and SJPP there is a page-long description of flights, trains, cars, and hot air balloons to get both groups to the starting gate. It was not easy to get this all to go. There was a moment of desperation on Friday when I was confident that we were going to have to change our plans and start from Pamplona.

It was the last link in the chain that was causing us trouble. Trains were full leading us to miss the daily bus from Pamplona to SJPP. Then we tried the San Fermin shuttle service that many pilgrims use, but we were outside of the 5 day window to book via the web. We tried calling but my son’s broken Spanish was enough for them to give up and tell us to email them. I sent that email 2 days ago. I’m still waiting on a reply.

Lord, let enough things go wrong to make our trip exciting and memorable, but not enough to ruin our experience.

Early this morning as we were booking a hotel in SJPP, I saw there was an option for shuttle service for up to 6 people. Bingo!!

Once we get to the actual Camino, I full well know that everything is going to chill to the max. Upcoming is the challenge, but after will be completely calm. Time for prayer, reflection, and conversation. But as many times in life, I need to struggle through to get to the paradise at the end.