Badges?...We don't need no stinkin' badges

In preparation for starting from Le Puy tomorrow, I went to the 7am blessing  for Pilgrims at the Cathedral of Notre Dame along with about 200 others who received the blessing and a small medallion for our journey. You then fill out a card to receive the credentials of the church of Le Puy to be stamped along the way and turned in for a certificate of completion in Latin at the Cathedral of Santiago in Spain. After that I went an sat quietly in the chapel by myself contemplating my journey starting tomorrow morning when I was overcome with grief and sadness about the accident.

 Laundry, SIM card for a French phone number to make local calls and finding a baggage forwarding service that can carry my bag to the next town and then it started happening; badges...it must have been five or more today. You know those things you get when you meet and then exceed your daily targets from wearing a Fitbit. I was getting higher and higher awards as I walked around town and hiked the first three miles of the Camino to see where I'm going tomorrow. Bing! Bing! Bing! My phone was going off like a Las Vegas slot that had been hit. Apparently 29,562 steps for 12.85 miles and 152 floors of climbing is good. Climbing 3 flights to my room about 10 times, climbing up to the cathedral 3 times and climbing up to Saint Michael on top of a rock gets you points galore. I earned a classic badge, a roller coaster badge and an urban legend badge along with a couple others. Bing, just earned my stadium badge after coming to my room.

I bought a red hat today in honor of Phil who was in the documentary "Phil's Camino" and who graciously joined us last Saturday at my Buen Camino dinner. Please consider donating as I have to the movie to get the movie out there

http://philscamino.com

Why is everyone telling me to be careful? Pauline gave me a patron saint of bicycling or some such thing before I left, emails from everyone saying the same. What? ;-) just because I've had a few... OK, OK. I guess a helicopter ride puts me over the top. 

I've decided to be "smart" I'm only attempting 12 miles tomorrow and having a delivery service deliver my bag and one of my panniers to the hotel. I hate being smart, but in this case I'm in. After hiking the first few miles, it's not a piece of cake. 

Blessings to everyone back home

[)^v€