Buen (Virtual) Camino

 

For some reason the last two times that Richard Bonomo has led Night Prayer, I have not received his email invitation until the middle of Night Prayer. Tonight it came at 9:12, when Night Prayer starts at 9:00. When I told him, he texted back "Arrgh$" and then "!" which I take it means the dollar sign was supposed to be an exclamation point. I suppose that makes more sense than my first thought, that this was his new pirate rapper name. But can we get this genre to happen for real? Pirate rap!!

As my regular readers know, I have always wanted to do the Camino de Santiago. The company that does various virtual challenges has a Camino challenge, and I finally took the plunge a few days back. You have to pay a small fee to join, which includes the beautiful medal when you finish and access to a social network of very supportive people ("You got this!!"), but most of all, you get street views. That's part of what makes the social network great too, because people will take screen shots of crazy things they see in the street view where they are in their virtual challenge. My favorite was a woman doing the Road to Hana who appeared to be right on top of an SUV. "Am I cheating?" she wondered. Now not all challenges have street views available, but the Mount Fuji one did, and so did the Road to Hana. I made darn sure that the Camino challenge did too, and my first day of the challenge, I was very moved to see where I would actually be on the Camino. Mountains! Wow! The next couple of days were just as amazing... and then yesterday it said: "No street view available for your current position." I was bummed, but I figured it was a temporary issue - somehow Google Maps didn't get that part of the Camino. But wouldn't you know that tonight when I entered my mileage, I got the same message? Man, what is the point of doing the virtual Camino if you don't get to see where you are?? That is what I am here for, not the medal, as cool as that might be. I want to see the Camino as if I were really there! Since my actual five miles a day are on the same routes on campus or in my neighborhood over and over again, it was fun to check in at night and see where I would be in Spain. Hopefully my street view comes back soon, or this won't feel like a real Camino, even if the mileage is real.

Famous Hat