Getting Old.

[MichelleElynHogan]

I'm celebrating my 70th birthday in September by being on the trail somewhere along the Via Podiensis. Concerned about my knees, not my looks. As for eyesight, I have cataracts, no medical insurance and so I'll be the one bumbling along asking for help with reading small print. And pleased as a gamboling wallaby to be there.

Pretty much there with you, just 5 years younger and getting cataract surgery in a few months.

 

[pelerine]

Can't resist showing off (have done it on some other thread before): did my first camino in 2010 to celebrate my 70th birthday, starting from home on the north coast of Britanny, following the coast round Britanny, down the Atlantic coast, then the Norte to Santiago and on to Fisterra and the Cap de Finisterre. Five months on the road, carrying my tent until I got to Irun from where there were albergues, a total of something like 2300 km. I thought I had done with Santiago, but the fact that I had not dared to do the Primitivo instead of continuing on the Norte bugged(?) me. So I did that two years later (via Hospitales) and now I cannot stop and do one every year as long as I can. I have a list of several caminos I would like to walk (Mozarabe, Olvidado, etc) - it all depends on whether I can keep the stages short enough finding accommodation. So I am aiming at doing my first Frances for my 90th birthday....

Which reminds me - buen camino, Craig!

 

[Craig White]

Plan is to do one every two years God willing

 

[Liz Drew]

I am of a certain age. That certain age where 'getting old' starts to rear its head when it simply was never a conceivable concept before. It has come on aggressively in the last year or so, since my last Camino.

My hair suddenly has a lot of natural highlights.

I've been thinking about, and planning for packing. I trialled a pair of shorts but now my legs have lost their athleticism and have that sort of saggy skin thing going on so I think I'm limited to knee length or lower if I'm to be discrete about my true age.

But most importantly, my vision. I have increasingly needed to use old lady glasses to see the same things I've never had trouble seeing before. Panic set in today when I realized I'd be alone in a foreign country. I certainly don't want to use the pack space for a pair of old lady glasses. But what a horror it would be if I get myself into a pickle simply because I can't read something.

This aging thing is the pits.

At least I get cheap highlights though.

I am 66 in September and have just completed 800kms of the VdlP. I met a woman who is 79 doing the same Camino.

My skin is also losing its elasticity but I still wear shorts - not as short as I once did but still shorts.
I have been visually challenged for years and got by by asking younger people to ‘ read that for me please because I cant’ and they all did.

Get going and have a great time

 

[Stivandrer]

Do not ever mention to someone on the Camino, any camino, that you feel old!
You will be told off instantly;
"what, you old, bah, I´m ...so and so..."
I have learned my lesson.....
Age is what brought you to do this in the first place, mind...
someone half as daft would´ve staid at home...

 

[tomnorth]

Do not ever mention to someone on the Camino, any camino, that you feel old!
You will be told off instantly;
"what, you old, bah, I´m ...so and so..."
I have leaned my lesson.....
Age is what brought you to do this in the first place, mind...
someone half as daft would´ve staid at home...

I love this! I hope to walk ‘til I drop. Let’s see now, you’ve got Camino plans out to 2042. That’d make me 84. Seems doable to me!

 

[trecile]

I love this! I hope to walk ‘til I drop. Let’s see now, you’ve got Camino plans out to 2042. That’d make me 84. Seems doable to me!

I'll be 84 too - and hopefully still walking the Camino

 

[riverbender]

Well, when I became suddenly single at 33 I was self-conscious about dating because I was "too old". I also started dying my "highlights" probably before 30.

I did my first (and likely only) physique competition on my 45th birthday, first Camino at 51. Now I'm training to be a outdoor guide and will be leading groups on long distance thru hikes next year (after I take a group on a coaching intensive on the Camino in 2019! )

Come to find out, I'm too old to be too old. Of course I have to remind failing eyesight and aching joints of this every day! ;-)

 

[MeandIan]

They never tell us our, "Best Before Date," or expiration either. I think we are supposed to learn to take it as it comes.

I started the Camino Frances a second time, just a week ago, feels like longer. I fell down a spiral staircase, not a grand palatial one but a steep one, in a hostel, on my way to the train to Bayonne on May 6. Now, after walking to Manereu, a town just after Puente de la Reina, I have to call it quits, again, for the same reason as last time, IT Band Syndrome. My best has been left out there and the gift the Camino has provided, personally, is my limitations, with this body. It does not depress me. Instead, i feel moved in new directions.

Staying in SdC overnight and will be home in two days.

I am very sorry. I was so looking forward to your journey, because we would’ve been there as well. Hope you start feeling better, physically and spiritually.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

I figure that I'm over the hill now, at least compared to what I used to be able to do. I console myself however by telling myself that I can walk over the hill faster than a lot of people half my age.

And I console myself by getting over the hill, period!

 

[Roamer35]

I am of a certain age. That certain age where 'getting old' starts to rear its head when it simply was never a conceivable concept before. It has come on aggressively in the last year or so, since my last Camino.

My hair suddenly has a lot of natural highlights.

I've been thinking about, and planning for packing. I trialled a pair of shorts but now my legs have lost their athleticism and have that sort of saggy skin thing going on so I think I'm limited to knee length or lower if I'm to be discrete about my true age.

But most importantly, my vision. I have increasingly needed to use old lady glasses to see the same things I've never had trouble seeing before. Panic set in today when I realized I'd be alone in a foreign country. I certainly don't want to use the pack space for a pair of old lady glasses. But what a horror it would be if I get myself into a pickle simply because I can't read something.

This aging thing is the pits.

At least I get cheap highlights though.

Well...tillyjones...if your photo is an accurate indication of your "certain age," I don't think you have much to worry about just yet. I passed the "certain age where 'getting old' starts to rear its head" about twenty years ago, and this is one of the best times of my life. I and deaf (cochlear implant in one ear and hearing aid in the other), wrinkled, have a balding pate, all the dangling parts are sagging and off rapidly declining utility, and my dentist tells me that I will soon need a set of partial chompers. On the upside, I don't have to get up in the morning and go to a job that holds little interest for me. I can spend two hours with the morning paper and three cups of coffee. I can spend the day, reading, walking, visiting or doing what I darn well all please. And...surprise, surprise...I can still walk 15 miles, and the occasional old gal still finds me desirable companionship. (Admittedly their options might be a bit limited). I am 82-years-old but don't feel a day over 80. In the last nine years I have accumulated about 2000 miles of camino walking and am off to Le Puy in
three weeks to walk to SJPdP. Embrace your "certain age." If you are in good health it is a paradise.

 

[Deleted member 56069]

As my 93 year old father likes to say, 'Growing older is not for the timid.'

 

[Baba John]

This thread reminds me of an email "warning" I read a while ago:

"Most of you have read the scare-mail about the person whose kidneys were
stolen while he was passed out. Well, read on. While it was an "urban
legend," this one is not. It's happening every day.
My thighs were stolen from me during the night of August 3rd a few
years ago. It was just that quick. I went to sleep in my body and woke
up with someone else's thighs. The new ones had the texture of cooked
oatmeal. Who would have done such a cruel thing to legs that had been
wholly, if imperfectly, mine for years. Whose thighs were these? What
happened to mine?
I spent the entire summer looking for them. I searched, in vain, at
pools and beaches, anywhere I might find female limbs exposed. I became
obsessed. I had nightmares filled with cellulite and flesh that turns to
bumps in the night. Finally, hurt and angry, I resigned myself to living
out my life in jeans and Sheer Energy pantyhose.
Then, just when my guard was down, the thieves struck again. My butt
was next. I knew it was the same gang because they took pains to match
my new rear end (although badly attached at least three inches lower
than the original) to the thighs they had stuck me with earlier. Now my
rear complimented my legs, lump for lump. Frantic, I prayed that long
skirts would stay in fashion.
It was 2 years ago when I realized my arms had been switched. One
morning while fixing my hair, I watched, horrified but fascinated, as
the flesh of my upper arms swung to and for with the motion of the
hairbrush. This was really getting scary. My body was being replaced,
cleverly and fiendishly, one section at a time.
Age? Age had nothing to do with it. Age was supposed to creep up,
unnoticed something like maturity.
NO, I was being attacked, repeatedly and without warning.
In the end, in deepening despair, I gave up my T-shirts. What could
they do to me next? My eyes began to remind people that they needed a
new pair of Hush Puppies. My poor neck disappeared more quickly than the
Thanksgiving turkey it now reminded me of.
That's why I've decided to tell my story; I can't take on the medical
profession by myself. Women of America, wake up and smell the coffee!
That isn't really "plastic" those surgeons are using.
You know where they're getting those replacement parts, don't you? The
next time you suspect someone has had a face "lifted," look again! Was
it lifted from you?
Are those your eyelids on that movie star? I think I finally may have
found my thighs...and I hope that Cindy Crawford paid a really good
price for them!
This is happening to women in every town every night. Warn all your
friends.
P.S. I feel much better knowing this is happening, I thought I was just
getting old! I must say that last year I thought someone had stolen my
breasts. I was lying in bed and they were gone, as I sprang from my bed
I was relieved to see that they were just hiding in my pajama bottoms.
After reading this, I will keep them hidden in my waistband."[/QUOT


This sounds like the work of the 'star people". Slowly they build droids out of our parts and re-colonize the planet with 'us looking' people who, in reality, have no idea who we are, but are daily clothing themselves out of our collective closets.

The other day a friend was bemoaning the years and their 'expressions' in her mirror. I leaned over to her, put my hand gently on her left knee and told her "Don't worry, it won't be long now."

Sooo... pilGrims...
One foot in front of the other, and keep on walking.

 

[Sailor]

. . . and work at the Perimeter Institute with some of the greatest minds in Astrophysics . . .

I like it, and I like it a lot! And hopefully one day you will get to work with someone like my heroes from related fields, Doctor Carl Sagan (RIP) and Doctor Michio Kaku. Miss Michelle, buena suerte with your studies, with El Camino Irlandes, and with El Camino Ingles. Get well, then back to training, y no pares de caminar.

p.s. We now return to your regularly scheduled programming with "Getting Old."

 

[Albertagirl]

I began my first camino with no thought that the fact of my increasing age could be of significance to it. I did take two minor related actions: I stopped colouring my hair ahead of time, with the thought that it might look pretty ridiculous when I arrived in Santiago. And I planned for necessary medications and footcare. Both actions worked out well. But I soon discovered that I was the only one on the camino who did not consider my age of any significance to my capacity to walk a pilgrim route. I got really sick of others asking me "How old are you?" as if it were any of their business or of any importance. I don't answer any more. If you see me on a pilgrim route, just say "Buen camino" and ask me how my day is going.

 

[Pandy51]

I am of a certain age. That certain age where 'getting old' starts to rear its head when it simply was never a conceivable concept before. It has come on aggressively in the last year or so, since my last Camino.

My hair suddenly has a lot of natural highlights.

I've been thinking about, and planning for packing. I trialled a pair of shorts but now my legs have lost their athleticism and have that sort of saggy skin thing going on so I think I'm limited to knee length or lower if I'm to be discrete about my true age.

But most importantly, my vision. I have increasingly needed to use old lady glasses to see the same things I've never had trouble seeing before. Panic set in today when I realized I'd be alone in a foreign country. I certainly don't want to use the pack space for a pair of old lady glasses. But what a horror it would be if I get myself into a pickle simply because I can't read something.

This aging thing is the pits.

At least I get cheap highlights though.

I am of a certain age. That certain age where 'getting old' starts to rear its head when it simply was never a conceivable concept before. It has come on aggressively in the last year or so, since my last Camino.

My hair suddenly has a lot of natural highlights.

I've been thinking about, and planning for packing. I trialled a pair of shorts but now my legs have lost their athleticism and have that sort of saggy skin thing going on so I think I'm limited to knee length or lower if I'm to be discrete about my true age.

But most importantly, my vision. I have increasingly needed to use old lady glasses to see the same things I've never had trouble seeing before. Panic set in today when I realized I'd be alone in a foreign country. I certainly don't want to use the pack space for a pair of old lady glasses. But what a horror it would be if I get myself into a pickle simply because I can't read something.

This aging thing is the pits.

At least I get cheap highlights though.

I have to admit, in planning my first Camino at age 67 with my BFF who will turn 66 on the Camino, that I feel only gratitude that my aging body will carry me along with all of it's earned jiggling cellulite and hardening corneas! HOORAY for aging bodies that allow us this life!!!!

 

[GRR]

The only thing around here that I see getting old is questions about how to carry hiking poles on airplanes.

 

[GettingThere]

I began my first camino with no thought that the fact of my increasing age could be of significance to it. I did take two minor related actions: I stopped colouring my hair ahead of time, with the thought that it might look pretty ridiculous when I arrived in Santiago. And I planned for necessary medications and footcare. Both actions worked out well. But I soon discovered that I was the only one on the camino who did not consider my age of any significance to my capacity to walk a pilgrim route. I got really sick of others asking me "How old are you?" as if it were any of their business or of any importance. I don't answer any more. If you see me on a pilgrim route, just say "Buen camino" and ask me how my day is going.

I totally get this, @Albertagirl - on our first Camino my mother was constantly asked her age, by people she had never spoken to before (as in "Hola! How old are you?") It seemed very strange to us - possibly a cultural thing but I've always been taught it's rude to ask someone how old they are, especially when you don't even know them! Some people were bizarrely persistent too, when she declined to tell them. She sometimes used an old saying of her grandmother's: "I'm as old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth!" - some here will recognise the saying, but it doesn't translate too well for speakers of other languages! As many of the people who asked were Spanish men, I eventually developed the theory that it was because they hardly ever see a Spanish woman with white hair! On our second walk she gave in and started telling some people who asked, but the gasps and reverent "Wow" noises got a little "old" after a while.

 

[Bumpa]

I am of a certain age. That certain age where 'getting old' starts to rear its head when it simply was never a conceivable concept before. It has come on aggressively in the last year or so, since my last Camino.

My hair suddenly has a lot of natural highlights.

I've been thinking about, and planning for packing. I trialled a pair of shorts but now my legs have lost their athleticism and have that sort of saggy skin thing going on so I think I'm limited to knee length or lower if I'm to be discrete about my true age.

But most importantly, my vision. I have increasingly needed to use old lady glasses to see the same things I've never had trouble seeing before. Panic set in today when I realized I'd be alone in a foreign country. I certainly don't want to use the pack space for a pair of old lady glasses. But what a horror it would be if I get myself into a pickle simply because I can't read something.

This aging thing is the pits.

At least I get cheap highlights though.

But the alternative is worse

 

[Terri B]

We have to start thinking of age in video game terms. I'm not 60 years old - I've made it to Level 60!

Hi Trecile, what a fantastic way of looking at age. I'm a few levels behind you and plan to return to the Camino a number of times. Keep on playing!!

 

[Rosemary314]

I am of a certain age. That certain age where 'getting old' starts to rear its head when it simply was never a conceivable concept before. It has come on aggressively in the last year or so, since my last Camino.

My hair suddenly has a lot of natural highlights.

I've been thinking about, and planning for packing. I trialled a pair of shorts but now my legs have lost their athleticism and have that sort of saggy skin thing going on so I think I'm limited to knee length or lower if I'm to be discrete about my true age.

But most importantly, my vision. I have increasingly needed to use old lady glasses to see the same things I've never had trouble seeing before. Panic set in today when I realized I'd be alone in a foreign country. I certainly don't want to use the pack space for a pair of old lady glasses. But what a horror it would be if I get myself into a pickle simply because I can't read something.

This aging thing is the pits.

At least I get cheap highlights though.

 

[FLEUR]

Walking slowly on from Puente la Reina I met a young Isreali couple, they were on their honeymoon on the CF. I mentioned that I was 65 year old grandmother of five (or maybe 4 ) at the time. The lovely young girl told me she was full of admiration and that I was her inspiration! According to her all the older ladies in Israel are just sitting and waiting for their children to produce the grandchildren. Very proud to feel that I was an inspiration!

 

[Liam Ryan]

Looking forward to bumping into some of you wonderfully daft people next week when we resume in Burgos on Wednesday morning. Am I nervous? Not about the walking but a little about what the Camino has in store for me. Or rather really hoping that I am open to receive.

 

[Stivandrer]

@Liam:
are you of a certain age too, or of no certain age ??

 

[sojourners]

Aging is NOT the pits. Consider the alternative. If I'm still breathing in a couple of months I'll be 75, and am totally thrilled to be alive and to have reached an age I never thought I would see. I've jumped out of airplanes while in flight, climbed mountains, sailed six of the seven seas, been shot at, and been the object of considerable violence over the years, had many broken bones, including severe spinal fractures. The tropical diseases I've survived looks like a list from the CDC. I have more miles on me than years and most days I feel every mile. Never, not once, have I ever thought being alive was the pits. I greet each day as an adventure and revel in life. Some advice from a guy who's been around the block, and the world, a few times: Do not be discrete about your age. Flaunt it. Let go of the notion that aging is the pits and experience each moment for the wonderful, terrible, gift that it is.

That advice is for the ladies too. My wife, to whom I've been married 43 years, and who I'm still in love with, is silver haired, looks like a women with three children and many grandchildren, has earned every line in her face, has a transcendent smile and is utterly beautiful.

 

[Suzanne S.]

Hallelujah, @sojourners! You said it!

 

[peregrina2000]

As my 93 year old father likes to say, 'Growing older is not for the timid.'

And my mother always used to say: “I figure if I wake up some morning and nothing hurts, I’m dead.”

I started walking Caminos to celebrate my 50th and to show that I was not going to drift off quietly into old age oblivion. I figure I may have come close to my camino halfway point this year since I’m now 68, but that gives me 18 more!

 

[Suzanne S.]

@peregrina2000! Here's to 18 more!

 

[Former member 49149]

Aging is NOT the pits. Consider the alternative. If I'm still breathing in a couple of months I'll be 75, and am totally thrilled to be alive and to have reached an age I never thought I would see. I've jumped out of airplanes while in flight, climbed mountains, sailed six of the seven seas, been shot at, and been the object of considerable violence over the years, had many broken bones, including severe spinal fractures. The tropical diseases I've survived looks like a list from the CDC. I have more miles on me than years and most days I feel every mile. Never, not once, have I ever thought being alive was the pits. I greet each day as an adventure and revel in life. Some advice from a guy who's been around the block, and the world, a few times: Do not be discrete about your age. Flaunt it. Let go of the notion that aging is the pits and experience each moment for the wonderful, terrible, gift that it is.

That advice is for the ladies too. My wife, to whom I've been married 43 years, and who I'm still in love with, is silver haired, looks like a women with three children and many grandchildren, has earned every line in her face, has a transcendent smile and is utterly beautiful.

like is not good enough for this. Sir, I salute you!

 

[sojourners]

like is not good enough for this. Sir, I salute you!

Thank you.

 

[Deleted member 12253]

I am of a certain age. That certain age where 'getting old' starts to rear its head when it simply was never a conceivable concept before. It has come on aggressively in the last year or so, since my last Camino.

My hair suddenly has a lot of natural highlights.

I've been thinking about, and planning for packing. I trialled a pair of shorts but now my legs have lost their athleticism and have that sort of saggy skin thing going on so I think I'm limited to knee length or lower if I'm to be discrete about my true age.

But most importantly, my vision. I have increasingly needed to use old lady glasses to see the same things I've never had trouble seeing before. Panic set in today when I realized I'd be alone in a foreign country. I certainly don't want to use the pack space for a pair of old lady glasses. But what a horror it would be if I get myself into a pickle simply because I can't read something.

This aging thing is the pits.

At least I get cheap highlights though.

Free travel very handy

 

[Johnlewis47]

It's more or less just a matter of mentally adjusting to the abrupt arrival of 'old age' and the changes it brings.

Curious what is old age, I’m looking at a particular age now, also with my free highlights, but curious if it’s old age

 

[sicada123]

I am of a certain age. That certain age where 'getting old' starts to rear its head when it simply was never a conceivable concept before. It has come on aggressively in the last year or so, since my last Camino.

My hair suddenly has a lot of natural highlights.

I've been thinking about, and planning for packing. I trialled a pair of shorts but now my legs have lost their athleticism and have that sort of saggy skin thing going on so I think I'm limited to knee length or lower if I'm to be discrete about my true age.

But most importantly, my vision. I have increasingly needed to use old lady glasses to see the same things I've never had trouble seeing before. Panic set in today when I realized I'd be alone in a foreign country. I certainly don't want to use the pack space for a pair of old lady glasses. But what a horror it would be if I get myself into a pickle simply because I can't read something.

This aging thing is the pits.

At least I get cheap highlights though.

Hi tillyjones

I don't want to make light of your situation regarding "age" and in particular, glasses! However, this will be your third Comino so you have already dealt with and overcome a number of major issues. Did you avoid "blisters?"

I completed my first Comino 2016 including glasses (reading glasses) I coped well enough. I am booked in to my second Comino starting Irun September 2018 (Comino Del Niorte). Mindful of the situation and the cost of spectacles, I too am going with the CliC option.

I guess I am well ahead of you tilly in terms of age but I guess like you I will take strength from my first experience from SJPD to Santiago. I was north of 70 then and I am sure that I will take inspiration from those I meet along the Way.

Buen Comino

sicada123

 

[Juspassinthru]

For all of us of a “certain” age, more power to us! For those who are not yet, this is what you have to look forward to.

 

[Devereaux]

Love this thread! I step foot onto the Camino at SJPP in Sept at 73. So looking forward to the journey....in shorts Now...I just need to practice! Just learned that running and walking are VERY different...ouch! Muscle change doesn't happen quickly at this age; unless, of course, we're talking about belly atrophy!

 

[Juspassinthru]

Curious what is old age, I’m looking at a particular age now, also with my free highlights, but curious if it’s old age

Old age is a state of mind. If you think you’re young or you think you’re old, either way, you’re probably right.

 

[tomnorth]

Ah, a certain age, where you care less about appearance and more about personality and character. Being on the downside of 65, and doing my first Camino in a few days, I marvel at the fact I am healthy enough to walk with relative ease and aleve. To be retired and have the time to myself, with my children, grandchildren and a few great grands as well. Sitting in the airport about six hours early and people watch is a joy and helps pass the time. I have a few extra pounds that I plan on leaving in Spain and hope my children will recognize me on my return. I'll wear shorts and show off my bandy legs, not so toned arms and a wrinkled face with not a care in the world. Cheers.....Craig

Have a marvelous Camino.

 

[Deputy Dan]

I carried two pair of ThinOptics, one in a case attached to my phone (always with me!) and one as backup with my hygiene stuff. Together, in their carry cases, they weigh less than 3 grams with no bulk at all.

While ThinOptics are great for reading maps and menus, they're not the most comfortable for long reads (e.g. long plane trips!) so I do carry a pair of cheap readers from the dollar store. While these glasses themselves are light, most standard cases are heavy and if you're carrying them in a pack they need some protection. My solution was to find a package of Crystal Lite drink mix - the plastic "can" is just the right size, weighs next to nothing, and is seemingly crush proof.

Finally, I recently converted my age from Fahrenheit to Celsius. Now I'm a teenager again - I'm not even 19 yet!

 

[John Crawford Howell]

On this date one year ago, June 5, 2017, these old legs made it up the stairs to tag the cathedral door whereupon I headed straight for the bar, after receiving my Compostela. That particular cold beer after the long trek tasted ever so delicious. I was done. Too soon to reflect. Time to relax and hang out in Santiago, and bask in the glow of having achieved something that in the beginning seemed a daunting task. For the next few days I fleshed out the four journals in which I kept daily notes. Once home I set everything aside and let the experience marinate in my mind. In November, I began to write about the adventure and weave in other experiences from my 47 years of extensive travel throughout this beautiful land, including haunting echos of the Spanish Civil War, visible reminders of which are present on the Camino. The first draft of the manuscript is currently 314 pages; the working title is Cuckoo Me. I'm grateful to all who made my journey an indelible composition of kindness, empathy, and love. Viva el Camino y viva España! Ultreia!

 

[Devereaux]

Good for you! Write on and finish the book!
The hardest part lies ahead...editing.
Good luck!

 

[Juspassinthru]

JCH, Write on my Brother!

 

[C clearly]

Finally, I recently converted my age from Fahrenheit to Celsius. Now I'm a teenager again - I'm not even 19 yet!

I like that method!

 

[Beeman]

I am 73 and did the Primitivo to Muxia last fall. I had no problems,and seem to have outwalked many younger people. I want to walk the Argonne and Salvador next year,as I love the mountains more than anything. Put this age thing out of your mind. I am not as fit as I was at 25, but am vastly smarter(maybe still not very smart). Others view of you is only other people's view of you.

 

[ritaj]

In long pants (hopeless vanity), glasses hanging around my neck, 2 knee replacements, multiple trips to the toilet each night, walking another Camino (me 75, my partner 81) these last 3 weeks -- and all I can think is how lucky we are to be aging. We have lost so many friends these last 10 years and they didn't have the opportunity to grow old. With every (truly irritating) aspect of aging, I can't help but feel grateful.

 

[Anamya]

I'm only 36, for years I was always the youngest in my workplace. Now I have an assistant who is 18, and asked if I had on Facebook "any photos from when I was young". I admit my initial reaction was the desire to hit him with the stapler

Anyway, age happens to everyone. I once visited a city in New Zealand which is famous for medicinal mud, and now companies are doing cosmetics with it. One of the elder women of the place told me it was good to have this new source of income, but she does not get "why some people want to fade their wisdom marks".

I loved the concept. Just got my first wisdom marks and I'm proud of them. And about my assistant, I showed him photos of last weekend

 

[Kanga]

On the glasses thing, I have always been short-sighted so wear them all the time. For several years now I've worn transition lenses so no need for a second pair of sunglasses, and mine are multifocals so I don't need special reading glasses. But what I really do need are multiple pairs for fashion and fun! On Camino I took two pairs (out of the four that are currently in my "eye wardrobe") and it was nice to have something to change my look - seeing as the clothes were the same every day. They weigh nothing.

Make the most of the glasses and get some you can play with.

 

[John Crawford Howell]

Good for you! Write on and finish the book!
The hardest part lies ahead...editing.
Good luck!

Oh, so true. And then edit again. And again. Before sending it to the professional editors... Thanks for your encouragemant.

 

[John Crawford Howell]

JCH, Write on my Brother!

I shall. We may even have greeted each other on the Camino last year sometime in May. Appreciate your encouragement.

 

[Deleted member 12253]

I am of a certain age. That certain age where 'getting old' starts to rear its head when it simply was never a conceivable concept before. It has come on aggressively in the last year or so, since my last Camino.

My hair suddenly has a lot of natural highlights.

I've been thinking about, and planning for packing. I trialled a pair of shorts but now my legs have lost their athleticism and have that sort of saggy skin thing going on so I think I'm limited to knee length or lower if I'm to be discrete about my true age.

But most importantly, my vision. I have increasingly needed to use old lady glasses to see the same things I've never had trouble seeing before. Panic set in today when I realized I'd be alone in a foreign country. I certainly don't want to use the pack space for a pair of old lady glasses. But what a horror it would be if I get myself into a pickle simply because I can't read something.

This aging thing is the pits.

At least I get cheap highlights though.

And free travel. We are all a day older than yesterday and as i walked 35km of mountain i feel younger today

 

[Former member 49149]

I'm only 36, for years I was always the youngest in my workplace. Now I have an assistant who is 18, and asked if I had on Facebook "any photos from when I was young". I admit my initial reaction was the desire to hit him with the stapler

Anyway, age happens to everyone. I once visited a city in New Zealand which is famous for medicinal mud, and now companies are doing cosmetics with it. One of the elder women of the place told me it was good to have this new source of income, but she does not get "why some people want to fade their wisdom marks".

I loved the concept. Just got my first wisdom marks and I'm proud of them. And about my assistant, I showed him photos of last weekend

you gave me such a good laugh! I hope he never causes you to ACTUALLY do it!

 

[MaryLynn]

I am planning to walk until I'm 90 or so.

I was planning to walk until I'm 75...but that's getting close, so I'm bumping it up to 80!

 

[Lydia Gillen]

I seemed to have missed out on the "getting old" stage of life. I was "middle aged" for as long as I can remember and now I suddenly realise that three quarters of a century is kind of "old". With my new knee I hope to walk from Tui to Santiago every Spring of my life, no steep uphills and no deadly downhills. Need to get one of my sons to update that photo of me!!

 

[Suzanne S.]

I seemed to have missed out on the "getting old" stage of life. I was "middle aged" for as long as I can remember and now I suddenly realise that three quarters of a century is kind of "old". With my new knee I hope to walk from Tui to Santiago every Spring of my life, no steep uphills and no deadly downhills. Need to get one of my sons to update that photo of me!!

"...every Spring of my life..." Wonderful!!!

Many Buon Caminhos in your future...

 

[pelerine]

Steeply going down towards Redondela!
Buen Camino all the same - a lot of them as Suzanne says!

 

[Beeman]

I seemed to have missed out on the "getting old" stage of life. I was "middle aged" for as long as I can remember and now I suddenly realise that three quarters of a century is kind of "old". With my new knee I hope to walk from Tui to Santiago every Spring of my life, no steep uphills and no deadly downhills. Need to get one of my sons to update that photo of me!!

Good for you,dear irish lass. Age is just a number,after all.

Pretty much there with you, just 5 years younger and getting cataract surgery in a few months.

 

[Devereaux]

Here's an update to this "ole folks" saga.
Just finished a Sept-Oct Camino Frances in 35 days and I'm 73.
I had dinner in Melide with a Korean fellow who was 74.
Lots of gray hair on the Camino this Fall.
Best of all...it doesn't matter how old or young you are on the Camino.
I had my most memorable dinners with tables of all ages happily chatting with all.
La Faba was the best...I was the oldest at the table by a factor of 2, maybe 3 and made fast friends that night with people I'm still in touch with.
Age doesn't matter out there on the walk. Attitude, however, really does.

 

[tomnorth]

Here's an update to this "ole folks" saga.
Just finished a Sept-Oct Camino Frances in 35 days and I'm 73.
I had dinner in Melide with a Korean fellow who was 74.
Lots of gray hair on the Camino this Fall.
Best of all...it doesn't matter how old or young you are on the Camino.
I had my most memorable dinners with tables of all ages happily chatting with all.
La Faba was the best...I was the oldest at the table by a factor of 2, maybe 3 and made fast friends that night with people I'm still in touch with.
Age doesn't matter out there on the walk. Attitude, however, really does.

You are an inspiration! I hope and pray to be able to walk a Camino when I’m in my seventies.

 

[JillGat]

I always thought of middle age as ten years older than whatever age I am. Sometimes I suddenly realize that a person I'm talking to or see on the street and am assuming is my parents' age is actually my age. They're probably looking at me the same way.

I walked with a couple of women who were less than half my age and I thought of them as peers. It always confused me when people assumed they were my daughters!

 

[Kathy Jaudegis]

I carried two pair of ThinOptics, one in a case attached to my phone (always with me!) and one as backup with my hygiene stuff. Together, in their carry cases, they weigh less than 3 grams with no bulk at all.

While ThinOptics are great for reading maps and menus, they're not the most comfortable for long reads (e.g. long plane trips!) so I do carry a pair of cheap readers from the dollar store. While these glasses themselves are light, most standard cases are heavy and if you're carrying them in a pack they need some protection. My solution was to find a package of Crystal Lite drink mix - the plastic "can" is just the right size, weighs next to nothing, and is seemingly crush proof.

Finally, I recently converted my age from Fahrenheit to Celsius. Now I'm a teenager again - I'm not even 19 yet!

Hahahaha Excellent idea. I'm going to Celsius too!!

 

[Kathy Jaudegis]

I always thought of middle age as ten years older than whatever age I am. Sometimes I suddenly realize that a person I'm talking to or see on the street and am assuming is my parents' age is actually my age. They're probably looking at me the same way.

I walked with a couple of women who were less than half my age and I thought of them as peers. It always confused me when people assumed they were my daughters!

JilGat I know exactly what you mean!! I feel the same way as you ...

 

[John Crawford Howell]

And to think I lived in an era when the mantra was to never trust anyone over 30! So, my Camino in 2017, SJPdP to Santiago, was my 75th birthday present to myself. As I've indicated in another thread some months back I met another fellow Marine aviator who was 86. We reckoned that when we were on the trail together we were the oldest walking duo at a combined age of 161. Kinda scary when I think about it, but what do you think I'm contemplating to celebrate my 80th? Yep!

 

[Oregon's Mark]

Celebrated my 75th and 76th birthdays, last year and this year, from SJPdP to Santiago---and beyond. Hoping to spend my 77th there, as well. And to think that there was a time when I thought I had to do all my traveling before I turned 70.... Been Camino.

 

[John Crawford Howell]

Celebrated my 75th and 76th birthdays, last year and this year, from SJPdP to Santiago---and beyond. Hoping to spend my 77th there, as well. And to think that there was a time when I thought I had to do all my traveling before I turned 70.... Been Camino.

It's our West Coast air, Mark, + we have mountains.