“When Plan “A” fails, remember there are 25 more letters.” – Unknown
Those who know me know I am a planner, thinking of all contingencies and creating checklists. This has served me well in both my working and personal lives. Rex is a planner too but doesn’t tend to get bogged down in the minutiae (he leaves this to me). My goal as we head into retirement is to let go of some of the micro-planning tendencies to give room to a new “the universe will provide” mindset. If anything, it will be an interesting experiment to see if it is possible.
Yesterday as I was scrolling through my Facebook feed, I saw a cry for help on one of the Camino De Santiago Facebook groups I follow. The poster mentioned the bus route from Pamplona to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (SJPP) that Rex and I were planning to take is being suspended effective September 5th. We were planning to take this bus on September 6th to our starting point.
After a second, mild panic rose within me. “OH SHIT!” We have to find a new way to get from Madrid to SJPP.
I had promised myself (and Rex, so there’s no backsies) I wouldn’t over-plan the trip and make too many reservations. We both agreed the climb over the Pyrenees needed to have beds confirmed in advance, so we had our first two nights lodging reserved, but nothing else. We were going to “go with the flow” and figure things out as we went along.
New research began immediately. What alternate routes were there to get to the start? This cancelled bus kicked off a chain reaction of changes. Since we had already booked our stay in Madrid, SJPP, Orisson and Roncesvalles, we were searching for other transport methods into SJPP for our original planned Camino start. But after over an hour of research, we realized we had to come at this problem a different way. We decided our best course of action was to throw our original dates out the window and book the trip two days earlier so we could catch the final bus to SJPP on September 4th instead of September 6.
Now the worry begins as we anxiously await responses back from the hostels confirming if they can switch our dates.
Fingers crossed Plan B works out and we can continue to focus on our very long pre-journey checklist.
05 Sep 2022 Update: After several days of sleepless stressed sleep, finally all hostels aligned and were able to reschedule our stays. What a relief! Plan B worked!!!
I sincerely wish for you that you are able to get to that ‘universe will provide’ place… cause this post just gave ME anxiety on your behalf!!! I am definitely still in the ‘plan to the Nth degree’ mode of life!!
Thank you! I hope so too.
we will be following you all the way <3