Launch Day

Day 01: From Rochester to León

Meaningful Moment


Date23 - 24 Jul 2026
Total All Caminos: 2450 miles
Lodging (Deb & I): Apartamentos MK77 Zuloaga @ € 361
Total Lodging: € 361
Airplane(s):
Total Airplane(s) / Trvl Insrnc: $ 1000 / $ 199
Buses / Trains / Taxis & Rides (Deb & I): € 33   Taxi from Madrid Barajas airport to Estación de Sur
$ 88 Alsa bus Madrid to Leon
Total Transportation: $ 125
Food (Deb & I): $ 18 Cafeteria estación de Sur
Total Food: $ 18

Random Thought of the Day

I was listening to Hidden Brain on PBS, hosted by Shankar Vedantum. 

Today's show was about how mentally we fall into grooves that explain our mental gymnastics, based on our past experiences. 

Today's guest talked about how taking agency over your thought patterns can free you from being stuck in those grooves, but the journey is not easy to undo lifelong patterns. 

I can relate to that as I'm an ex-smoker and successfully quit four or five times. LOL 

Anyway, I think that's pretty relevant to my current state of mind. 

I hope to explore on this Camino through service in the hostel to other Pilgrims how to break free of entrapping grooves that limit my ability to see the bigger world around me. 

I think if I experience nothing else on this journey, I would like to free myself from a routine of negative thinking and instead surround myself with positivity a more realistic view of life. 

We shall see ...

I noticed that I could switch the screen on the airplane to German so I snuck in some practice


On the Road / Notable memories

2:00 p.m. Leave the house for Frederick Douglass International airport in Rochester.

2:45 p.m. Checked in with Delta and through TSA. Just killing time now to boarding which is approximately in 1 hour.

4:30 p.m. Boarding for JFK. 

5:30 p.m. Arrived JFK. 
Had to walk from concourse A concourse B but no big deal, as it was an opportunity to stretch the legs. 
Sitting at our departure gate for Madrid. Boarding begins in 90 minutes.

8:00 p.m. Boarded. Departure approx in 60 minutes. 7  hours in flight. Arrival should be about 10.00 a.m.
Hoping for no issues in clearing immigration. There been extensive reports about systemic failures to clear people in less than 3 hours.

Friday, July 24th 
10:00 a.m. Arrive Madrid Barajas. Some small problems getting through immigration with my passport but Deb figured it out. One needs to firmly press the passport onto the scanner. Did not take my biometric data, but it said to pass thru. Hope I'm in the country legally. 

11:00 a.m. at the Estación de Sur bus station. 

12:15 p.m. On the way to León.

4:15 p.m. Arrive León.

4:45 p.m. At our apartment for the next four nights. 
Total travel time: 20 hours.



 






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