Carl Icahn go fuck yourself :)

October24

What an asshole that contributes almost nothing to the world. This is the type of bullshit that makes people hate the stock market and the bullshit quarterly outlook that creates a lack of long term value creation…

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Rest, Swelling, and Siestas.

October21

So after a day of rest in Salamanca I’m going to have to call it quits, its going to take a week or so to get the swelling down on my ankle and after that type of delay I’d have to average some really long miles every day to finish in time… Which kinda sucks but it was a good break, going no internet with nothing to do each day but get up and walk is incredibly refreshing. I need to do it more often.

And maybe I can come back at a later date to pick up from where I left off, maybe this time with a bike or running it. But for now I’m off for a bit of a rest for the ankle and exlore a different part of Spain. I do wish I hadn’t put it off as long as I did, and did it 5 to 6 years ago, I think it would have meant more to Ben version 1.2. Good walk though of almost 150 miles.

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Camino Day 5, 6, and 7: Holy shit sometimes your right ankle doesn’t like to march like the roman army…

October18

Eek, so my right ankle did not enjoy walking for 11+ hours and decided to swell up and evoke some pain on the top tendons. I’m out of vitamin I so had to walk on it for the next few days, not feeling so great right now. Got some vitamin I (ib profin) and frozen veggie packs so hopefully swelling goes down and I can bend this sucker in a few days.

Day 5: Valverde to Fuenterroble – With my ankle swelling up I retired after a mere 7 miles :(. Had to rest a bit as right ankle is pretty messed up. Kinda cool to see socks soaked in blood though.

Day 6: Fuenterroble to San Pedro – 17 Miles in 5 hours 18 minutes. It’s crazy how much altitude affects pace.

Day 7: San Pedro to Salamanca – 14 miles in 3 hours 40 min. Going to rest here for a few days as work starts up this week and might need to cut this thing short and pick it up again in the future :).

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Camino Day 3 and 4: Galisteo to Aldeanueva and Aldeanueva to Valverde

October15

I slept in an Aburgue/dorm for the first time last night, man i hate people who snore :). So I didn’t sleep great but got ~5 hours sleep. Surprisingly I didn’t feel too tired, as I usually sleep through other people’s noise.

Galisteo to Aldenueva – Day 3
I started at 7am when it was still dark for an hour since this was going to be a long day… It was the most beautiful hiking yet and just awesome! Amazing Roman arch and excavations in one area too where you could see the entire stratis of the roman road. But also a very very long walk before there was a town to stop in, I ended up making a few short but painful navigation mistakes and when I finally stumbled into town, I had walked ~36 miles in 11 hours of walking. Some blood, a few small blisters, sore feet, but otherwise intact. Crazy enough I wasn’t very tired, and didn’t sleep well.

Aldenueva to Valverde – Day 4
I woke up with sore feet and shins, duck taped the holes up and started walking. A shorter day today and I did 20 miles in a little under 6 hours. Really beautiful walk and it is crazy how the scenery turned to forest and mountains from the deserty vibe earlier this week. A harder day as I was so sore and very happy to stop. Tomorrow is a 36km one as there just is no place to stop that makes sense, after that an easy day + a day off to let my body heal a bit.

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Camino Day 2: Canaveral to Galisteo

October13

Easy 20 mile hike today to Galisteo with some awesome fortifications surrounding the city. Really nice hike too, mostly through the woods, some road but nobody on it. Saw rows and rows of Tobacco and peppers. No Tomacco, but I looked all over. I felt pretty good when I woke up and the bar below the hotel was bumping. No blisters and a bit sore but otherwise ok, all the bruises on my shoulders and back were ok too.

Tomorrow is going to be a bit of a haul… I’m going to aim for about 50km… hopefully I find food provisions tonight. Staying in a refugio instead of a hotel, dorm room should be fun.

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Camino Day 1: Caceres to Canaveral

October12

Caceres was an amazing town, the old city was full of small alleys and fun to wander around… Great breakfest and a really nice stay.

So the walk? I might have overdone it as I walked for 7 hours 42 minutes and covered ~29 miles. And my feet are sore as hell. I had a really really good time :). I forgot how fun it is to really travel and not know where you are going to spend the night, nor if you will find a place to stay, nor where you are going to be the next day, really really fun.

From the walk:

I love my new blue shoes! Plus the walk felt like the Gladiator scene walking through the Elysium fields, a 14th century bridge at the end, and there were only about 8km of walking on the highway.

We will see how blisters look in the morning, plenty of duck tape. Should be a lower day tomorrow followed by a super super long day after that if I’m up to it.

Camino… Via de la Plata. Adventure!

October12

IMG_3326I’ve been wanting to do one of the Camino Pilgrimage routes for a long time and finally made some time :). I’m doing the Via de la Plata route from Seville to Santiago (mostly along an old roman road = awesome).

I really really wanted to run it every day, but after spending 3 hours until 2am trying to pack everything into a 1,000 cubic inch backpack (suunto 14l skin pro) I just couldn’t make it work. Plus since I need to bring a laptop and combined with other gear it was going to be heavy combined with water. So after a mere 4 hours of sleep I switched gears into a small day bag and planning to walk the trip. The big problem was trying to plan for winter gear, as its 70f to 80f at the start, but up north it should be really cold and rainy…. Although we will see if that is really true… as after day 1 of the trip I think I could have done it. I also am not in great running shape and can run 10 to 15 miles pretty easily but doing that day after day would cripple me + I have to carry enough to stay warm when I switch to walking. Anyway….

I arrived in Seville on October 10th, bought my sim cards for being on emergency call + 3g, and found a cheap swiss army knife for food/wine, and the next day took a bus North to Caceres so I could start from there. Why? I just didn’t have enough days off to do the complete journey, I’m taking 10 days off work, but then the normal calls and work start :).

So what did I bring?
– 3 pair wool socks
– 3 pair underwear
– 1 pair thermal running tights
– 1 pair thermal long sleve shirt
– 3 t shirts (2 synth / one cotten)
– 2 pair of shorts
– 1 pair jeans
– 1 macbook air 11in
– 3g modem
– iphone
– kindle
– Suunto gps watch
– bathroom goods + micro fiber towel.
– rain cover for bag + a few micro dry bags
– smart wool running hoodie
– wind proof warmth hoodie
– gore tex rain jacket
– gore tex rain pants
– room for food / side pockets for carrying 1.5L on either side.
– sunglasses / cords / water proof stuff for laptops.

I’ve got one walking / running outfit which I wash every night, we will see how that goes :).

I stupidly brought my fav laptop backpack, and its not a good hiking bag maybe… Hopefully the bruises / blood heal quick on my back/shoulders. I say stupid as I have about 15 different bags for the different adventures I imagine myself having back at home.

You know you are really travelling…

October12

When you stay in a “hotel” where you barricade the door at night with a chair, keep a “weapon” on hand, or sleep on top of the bed on a towel.

I only have a few of these nights, but they are def still vivid :). For some reason, this hit me when I checked my bed for bedbugs tonight, although it’s not quite a “chair under the door handle” place, nor the slightly worse “wine-bottle-next-to-bed-for-stabbing” place.

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Romania!

October1

Romania is beautiful, it reminds me in a lot of ways of Arkansas but with more “big” mountains!

It was a rough transition as I’ve spent a year in summer spanning from the southern to northern hemisphere and I left 2 months of being in some of the sunniest parts of europe to head to Brasov and the dark Carpathian mountains. It was dark cold and a bit of a shock. I did some great trail runs before it started getting colder, and a lot of little tourist day trips in between work. I managed to see dracula’s castle, his real castle, his supposed tomb, and lots more :), great trips! It snowed the couple before I split for a work conference in Amsterdam too :)

Plus I visited a ton of our team, which was the best part! Some fun nights out, especially at SmartWeb which was one of the best conferences I’ve been too! Can’t wait until next year too. Short post but more coming on some of the pictures…

Funny enough, a big part of my world trip was tracking down places with mythological significance. In the case of Romania Dracula, and also Vigo the Carpathian from Ghostbusters 2 :)

This is bwb’s personal blog, so he can share his thoughts with the world, however scary or silly they might be. Plus family and friends can track what I am up to, and where I am in the world.

I am pretty simple. I love Mangos. I love the ocean (although mostly at sunset, as I’m a ginger). I love to travel, eat exotic food, do long bike rides, read, and use my imagination. At some point, I decided it was better to be a pirate captain than an admiral. I am a globalist and see the entire world as my responsibility and playground. And I am married to an amazing woman who makes life even more fun :)! And we are now the proud parents of Calico Jack :).


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