Yesterday I went to Stevens Creek County park, where my dad’s wake was held 15 years ago, and then went to Rancho San Antonio park for a hike. These two places were some of my favorite walking places as far back as when I was 16. I also took a drive along part of the route I’m planning to see where I might stay. Turns out there are no hotels for 22 miles and that last day is going to be the toughest. I decided to change my route and stay on El Camino the whole way. Turns out it’s 2 or 3 miles shorter and there are hotels all along the way.
I thought if I went down to the south bay, to some of these places filled with memories, I’d get some idea of what sort of experiences I might be having on my walk to Morgan Hill. But I found that maybe not. Maybe I wont have any cathartic experience, at least maybe not about the past. I decided to do this walk in preparation for marriage, and I thought in order to understand the future, I should understand the past. In my searching, I’m finding I understand it better than I thought. I guess when you make the sorts of decisions about family that I’ve made in the past, you need to make sure you are willing to put in the effort to figure out your own head. And so maybe this walk is just all 100% for Tom, because he’s worth a 75 mile walk. I know he sure doesn’t need proof of my love, or convincing that I’m in this thing for the long haul. But a 75 miles walk is the best gift I can think of to give to him… to tell him, see, we can do anything we want to, if we set our minds to it.