Spiritual Growth Through Travels, Nature, And Living Life: There are many roads to realizing oneaEUR(tm)s inner-self

By Lance T. Crawford

A lifelong traveler, riding on a train from Long Beach to New Orleans, Louisiana, at age one--in the middle of World War II, to a 520-mile pilgrimage trek on the Camino de Santiago in his mid-seventies--the author describes many ways he has grown internally as a result of his travels and bonding with nature.

A few travel highlights include a five-month tour of Western Europe in the early 1970s, many road trips through the United States and Mexico, walking across Northern Spain on the two longest Caminos (one thousand miles total) and walking from Porto, Portugal, to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. In addition are two memorable group pilgrimages: one in Italy; and the other to the three countries of Portugal, Spain, and France.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781639859498

Book preview

Acknowledgments

There are many people to recognize as far as contributions and support in writing this book.

First of all, my good friend Curtis Wilcox for his unwavering help, from the beginning, in editing and keeping me on my thesis. Curtis is a great student of the classics as well as of languages, and these areas were of tremendous value. Curtis’s son Anthony was a huge help with technical aspects as well as editing to create easier-to-read sentences.

I wish to thank Francisco and Maria Cabrera for inviting me to walk with them for five days into Santiago de Compostela. It was a unique experience, and they allowed me to interview them for the purpose of writing Chapter 13, It’s Good to Walk with Friends. In addition, I am grateful for the photos that Francisco provided. They help tell the story.

Next, I thank Frank and Doris Smeltz for a number of things. Their friendship and for asking me to mentor them before their Camino Pilgrimage in 2019. For inviting me to a BBQ at their home on August 3, 2019, whereupon I met the first person who strongly encouraged me to write. Finally, for the photos that they generously gave to me.

I wish to recognize Frank and Jeanette Chacon for the mentoring they provided to me before my first trekking pilgrimage in 2017. This generous couple has helped many people such as myself, and they also train lovers of the Camino to be volunteer hospitaleros on the Camino.

For two of my Camino friends on the Norte route, I am grateful for the photos they provided to me: Berta Dot Casellas and Laurence Moulin.

Some of the other friends and walking companions that I wish to recognize from the Camino del Norte journey are as follows: Juyoung, Nadia, Petra, Daniel, Domenico, Evert, Stephen, and Zenick. They all helped make it a richer experience.

The people at Fulton Books have done a great job of keeping me posted on what comes next in the process, as well as helping me to get through copy edit, page design, and cover design.

Jennifer George, Literary Development Agent, was most helpful and kind in getting me through the first steps of partnering with Fulton Books.

Matthew Quiring, Publication Assistant, has been a steady force in all of the coordination with different departments. Thank you, Matthew!

To the copy edit team and the art departments, my grateful thanks.

Prelude

I am a lifelong traveler, or pilgrim. Along the way in life, I have come to realize the connection between traveling and spiritual growth.

Travel can take on many dimensions or purposes: family or business, education, pleasure vacations, curiosity about groups of people and places of interest, and pilgrimages, to name a few.

Pilgrimage, or the act of travel to sacred sites or areas, has become a major focus of mine in the past four years. A sense of spiritualness in the journey is always in mind during a pilgrimage. I believe that life itself is a journey, and in a way, we are all pilgrims on the journey.

Since their beginnings, major world religions have encouraged their followers to do the act of pilgrimage.

Christians have three major pilgrimage destinations: Rome, Jerusalem, and Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain. These routes have been traveled for hundreds and thousands of years by pilgrims. Even though the world seems to be getting more and more secular, pilgrimages have witnessed a growing rate of participation. Something is going on! Could it be that people are really becoming more spiritually aware?

This question speaks to something that’s of major interest to the author: What will it take for humanity to wake up to a greater sense of awareness of each person’s spirituality or the existence of a spiritual nature within each of us?

These questions are not easily answered. However, participation rates of pilgrims on a journey can give some insight. You could call this a mini hypothesis.

I observe many things happening in the world with great concern:

The huge divisions in the political and social arenas, not just in the United States but in many societies.

The overemphasis on 24-7 news programs.

Excessive television viewing, video game mania (especially violent ones), and social media usage to the extreme.

A general lack of courtesy and kindness on the roads and highways.

An apparent shortfall in basic values, such as honesty and compassion.

In short, I see many areas of behavior that run counter to having a peaceful, cooperating society. The realization of a spiritual nature within each of us, I believe, can help societies to overcome many of the negative trends that I outlined above.

I am an optimist, and I always hold hope for a better life for everyone. I hope you enjoy this book. Blessings to all.

Spanish-English

Distances and Refuges

Distance

kilometer = km (one thousand meters)

meters = m

10 km = approximately 6.2 miles

Refuge: A place for pilgrims to rest for a night.

Types of refuges:

albergue

convento

donativo

monasterio

Allegro: Twentieth Century

Not all who wander are lost.

—Henry David Thoreau

Chapter 1

A Nomad at Heart

It’s early October 1944.

The United States involvement in World War II is months away from ending.

An eleven-month-old boy begins his traveling ways on a train from Long Beach to New Orleans, Louisiana—a son of Viking and Celtic heritage, for sure.

That toddler was yours truly, the author. I turned one-year-old before the train reached its destination. Mom and I were very sick, probably a flu virus. Meanwhile, my sister, Lynda, who was three and a half years old at the time, was busy entertaining the troops. There were plenty of soldiers aboard, and they took turns listening to Lynda’s stories as they passed her around from one soldier’s knees to another. She hasn’t changed much in that regard—still the storyteller.

Our father was the captain of a supply ship who had earned his officer’s commission at the United States Maritime Academy in Monterey, California. Mom gathered us up and put us all on a train without notifying her husband that we were coming. The last that she had heard was his ship was in the port of New Orleans. However, the ship needed to be resupplied, and it had already sailed around the Florida Coast and was en route to Baltimore, Maryland. So we stayed in a hotel for almost six weeks.

Mom told me later of an incident that happened in the middle of the night in our hotel room. She awoke early in the morning to see a man standing at the foot of her bed. She asked what he was doing there. He mumbled something, and she cast him out with a very strong and loud command, You get out of here now! The obviously intoxicated intruder took the command seriously and left the hotel room.

Another incident happened at a park. My sister took a drink from a park fountain that was labeled, Colored only, instead of the Whites-only fountain. Mom received a citation for it from a policeman. The Deep South was very strictly segregated in those days and remained that way for decades to come.

When my father finally returned to New Orleans with his ship and got to the hotel where we were staying, Mom wanted to see Bourbon Street in all its glory. Dad thought that would involve some danger, but Mom insisted. Lynda had helped the maid a few times, so Mom arranged with the maid to stay with us while the adults could go out for a night. Because the maid was Black, she was cited for coming into or leaving the hotel outside normal working hours. Now my father had two citations to pay with the City of New Orleans. He wasn’t thrilled with it, but he took care of them anyway. Apparently, the fact that my father had an important position in the war effort made no difference to the Big Easy (New Orleans). Money talks.

After we left New Orleans, we took a train north to Newton, Iowa. My grandmother on my father’s side lived there. We stayed with her for about two months, then we got a ride in some friend of a friend’s car and returned to California.

Chapter 2

There’s always another Destination

Our family didn’t have much money in the early years. Mom worked hard and knew how to pinch pennies. Yet she found ways to take us on a few budget trips on the bus.

A few of the places we visited were Death Valley National Park; San Francisco, California; San Diego, California; and Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Also, we went on a road trip to the states of Iowa and Minnesota with our aunt and her two girls. Six of us in a big 1949 Buick Special. All these trips were before I turned nine years old. I remember most of them, especially the trip to Tijuana and the road trip to the Midwest.

I recall walking across the bridge into Mexico and was startled by the horrible poverty that many families lived in. Also, I remember the strong odor of leather and foods that we encountered when walking through the street shops. It was a real eye-opener. Compassion and surprise were what I felt that day.

One thing that impressed me about the road trip to the Midwest states happened on a stop in Cheyenne, Wyoming. We had somehow heard that William Boyd, the actor, was in town at this time. Boyd played Hopalong Cassidy on a television series of the same name. Boy, was I excited! After my aunt and mom had gone out for a drink and spoke to a few people, they came back with the bad news: No sightings of Hoppy. What a letdown.

Other things I remember about that trip were visits with relatives and families related to my aunt. My great-aunt Grace was an older schoolmarm, a spinster. She was distinguished-looking with snow-white hair and a strict demeanor. While sitting in her parlor, listening to the adults talk, I saw a jackrabbit on the lawn outside. I said I wanted to go chase it. Aunt Grace kept me in the chair with a stern look and command, Oh, no, you won’t! Needless to say, I bided my time.

I recall being on Bill and Martina Tix’s farm in Minnesota. Martina was mom’s stepsister, and they were my godparents. Uncle Bill paid me a nickel for every one hundred flies I could smash with a flyswatter. Good money in 1952.

Also, memories come to mind of the visit to Newton, Iowa, where my grandma Crawford lived. On July 4, Independence Day, there was a big parade through the town with all the latest tractors and farm equipment being the focal point along with marching bands. It was a genuine, small-town Fourth of July celebration. There was a big event in the town square.

Supposedly, a gold watch was being dropped from somewhere into the town square. No one saw anything, but we heard that a well-to-do woman of the area got it. Doesn’t that just take the cake? We were a bit deflated.

My father came from the State of Iowa. It seemed to me like one vast cornfield. The state has a very flat landscape with mostly farming communities. At least that was my impression.

Northfield, Minnesota, is where mom and her siblings were born. Aunt Grace still lived there. Northfield is known for having two colleges: St. Olaf’s College and a Teacher’s College. My grandma Sorensen (Mom’s mother) was a one-room-schoolhouse teacher in Northern Minnesota in the early twentieth century. I have a photograph of her class from 1906. I can’t imagine a colder place in the winter than the northern parts of Minnesota.

Back at home in California, there were Boy Scout outings to different locations in Southern California as well as short family trips that were memorable. These are examples of early travels. Some were adventurous, and others were just fun family outings.

As a young, single adult, I took a road trip with several friends. We ended up in Utah at a National Park. Stops included Las Vegas, Nevada, and St. George, Utah. A couple of the guys had makeshift boards with wheels: precursors to skateboards. Also, I traveled in Mexico, but not usually south of Ensenada.

When I met my wife, Connie, in 1964, my ideas of travel gradually expanded. She had a real zest for travel and had her bags packed and ready most of the time. She was a spirited traveler, just like me. We always had that strong bond between us.

Connie and I both had a similar philosophy of life: Experiences and adventures are usually the best things to live for. Accumulating wealth and having lots of stuff normally took a backseat in our priorities.

Chapter 3

Travels from 1966 through the 1990s

We spent our honeymoon in Hawaii. The islands that we visited were Oahu and Maui.

Connie had been to the islands of Oahu and the Big Island after she graduated from high school. She went with her family and friends who also had a daughter who had just graduated.

Our trip to Hawaii was a big step forward for both of us as neither of us had traveled much without family or friends along. Everything seemed new and different.

Included in the trip to Oahu were visits to two families that I had business connections with. We did a few tourist kinds of activities, such as the Don Ho Show and plenty of beach time.

Maui was a change as it didn’t seem nearly as developed as Oahu. We drove to the other side of the island to Haleakala National Park and Crater and visited Lahaina. Lahaina was the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii from 1820 to 1845 when the capital was moved back to Honolulu. Also, Lahaina was a historic whaling village during the whaling boom of the mid-1800s.

The warm, humid air and rather-frequent, short-lived showers created a tropical atmosphere.

In 1969, a few months after our first daughter was born, we took a train from Mexicali, Mexico, south to Mazatlán, Mexico. During this time at the resort, a huge tropical storm hit the area. We watched it for a couple of hours. I had never seen so much water drop from the sky.

The following year, we drove our truck and camper up to the northwestern states of Oregon and Washington. We traveled as far as Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. What stood out was how British the island seemed. We also visited my relatives in Salem, Oregon. My aunt Norma was the administrative assistant to the governor of Oregon.

Before marriage, my wife and I had made an agreement: We would take an extended trip to Europe within five years of our wedding date. Even with a couple of surgeries that year, we managed to leave for Germany on August 11, 1971. We had purchased a Volkswagen Camper Bus ahead of time, and it was ready for us after we had traveled by rental car a week or so to Munich and the south of Germany.

We traveled to nine countries in five months, and our learning curve seemed to get steeper by the day. There was so much to take in and experience, and we took our time. Our daughter was two and a half years old, so we would include activities for her to enjoy. Parks were frequent parts of our daily itinerary. History, art, and architecture that we were exposed to added richness to the experience.

We visited my cousin Inger and her family in Denmark. They were kind and gracious in sharing their home with us for a few days. Our daughter especially enjoyed the twin girls in the family. They were about ten years old.

A medical doctor whom I had known from my work with Geigy Pharmaceuticals in Los Angeles asked me for a favor. Would I look up his cousin in Oslo, Norway? We stopped at his cousin’s clothing store in Oslo’s downtown area and ended up having tea and biscuits at their home.

We also met a family from Antwerp, Belgium, while traveling in Southern Germany. It was at a large farmhouse-style restaurant with shops in the countryside. Our new friends were on a bus tour, and we struck up a conversation with them. They invited us to stay for a couple of days at their home after we had returned from England. We had a very nice time getting to know Anita and her parents.

It was fascinating to learn unique aspects of each country with its own style of language, culture, history, inhabitants’ personal traits, geography, and foods. My wife had studied Spanish in high school and college, and we had a wonderful time visiting many of the major cities and regions of Spain. We drove from the north to Costa del Sol in the south.

By the time we headed north to Paris, France, it was late December. We needed to have our camper bus back to Paris by December 31 so that it could be transported to Le Havre Port for shipping to the United States.

Back in the US and after staying in Annandale, Virginia, with Connie’s relatives, the Beams, our vehicle was finally ready to be picked up. It had been over two weeks, and we were all relieved to get the news from the port. We took a train to Baltimore, Maryland, and soon, we were driving south to Florida. We took about two weeks to drive from Virginia to Florida, then across the Southern states to California. All in all, it was six months of travel, and we were eager to see family and to look for new career opportunities.

Other travel destinations over the next twenty-five years included a variety of business and pleasure trips. Business trips included New York; Columbus, Ohio; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Dallas, Texas; Las Vegas, Nevada; and the Bay Area, California.

A road trip to Arizona in the mid-1970s included Sedona and the Grand Canyon. The next year, we drove our car down the entire Baja California Peninsula with a side flight to Guadalajara, Mexico.

We flew to Laredo, Baja California, for a short holiday. On a different trip to Baja California, we drove to San Felipe. It was an adventurous road trip, mostly because of the type of road surface. It was like driving on wooden planks.

We traveled north to Lake Tahoe several times on both the California and Nevada sides.

Other places included Key West, Florida; Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico; several trips to New Jersey and New York City; Omaha, Nebraska; and the New England states. During one Christmas season, I met my wife in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and we enjoyed a few days in the city.

Andante: Early Millennium: 2000–2016

It’s the beauty within us that makes it possible for us to recognize the beauty around us.

—Henry David Thoreau

Chapter 4

Ushering in the New Millennium, Hawaiian Style

We made a return trip to Maui, Hawaii, at the end of 1999. Connie’s parents owned a condominium at a resort on the island and invited us to join them and other family members for a celebration of the new millennium. We enjoyed snorkeling in the blue, clear waters and shopping in the local shops. All in all, we had a great time and enjoyed a festive dinner at the resort restaurant on January 1, 2000.

When 2001 arrived, we decided that it had been too long since we traveled to Europe.

During the spring break, we arranged for a one-week stay at a resort on the Costa Brava, Spain, between Barcelona and Valencia. We spent a little time seeing a few things in Barcelona but more time down the coast. One day, we drove to Valencia, where we visited a local museum with some art and artifacts. It was also fun to walk the streets where some older, classic buildings were being restored. On another day, we drove to a nearby city and viewed a special showing of Pablo Picasso’s drawings. What a variety of ideas and stories he had to tell! Some of the drawings can only be described as X-rated. We bought a very large book of all the drawings, and I still have it in my collection. When I had to return after ten days, my wife kept traveling in Spain to Cordoba and Madrid.

In 2002, we spent time between Southern France and Italy again during spring break.

We stayed in a nice little hotel in a coastal town and enjoyed visiting other areas near Nice, France. Included in the visits were the Fondation Ephrussi de Rothschild and Villa Kerylos.

The Rothschild mansion is a palace with museum-grade furnishings and art on display. The gardens in the rear of the property with stunning sculptures and landscape designs were most interesting.

The Villa Kerylos is a large villa built in a style of Ancient Greece. A wealthy Greek man wanted the people in Southern France to see and learn of the way people in Greece lived several thousand years ago. It is located right next to the water.

After five days in the Nice area, we took a train to Genoa, Italy, birthplace of Christopher Columbus. An overnight stay included a visit to an art museum and a couple of other places of interest. The next morning, we caught a train down the famous coastline and visited a village.

We then traveled by train to Venice. Connie found a terrific hotel with a view of the Grand Canal and ancient bridge.