My son Zach standing in a hollowed shrine.

I arrived in Bordeaux and found a place to put up my tent. I know my son and his in-laws were due to arrive on the 24th from England so I figured I would give them a day to relax before I showed up. However, on the morning of the 25th it rained. Not just a little, this was a long soaking rain and the first I have experienced with my tent. Having put a tarp in the tent for the ground water, I thought I was okay. But, I didn’t know my tent was not waterproof and it was raining inside my tent. I had a puddle of water where my feet were so my sleeping bag and much of my bag was soaked or damp. Anything that touched the tent walls was wet, including me.

My son and his wife modestly clad in their fig leaves.

I haven’t seen my son in 3 years so it was great finally being able to spend some time with him. Unfortunately we spent much of the time shopping for a new tent or for other items needed by myself or his in-laws. We still enjoyed our time together and discussing matters of interest.

On Saturday the 29th Denis took us all to a Blaye Citadelle Chateau and Le Porge beach. I really enjoyed it because the family took their time and looked at everything in great detail and not just rushing to get to the next place. The architect of this fort created a new strategy. It was built in basically 3 triangles that would lure the enemies into areas where they could be attacked from an elevated position on three sides. Quite ingenious really.

My son and Chelsea (his new sister-in-law) in the out door bathroom. If you look at the feet, they had imprints of where your feet go while you are sitting. My son is demonstrating.

This is the remains of the actual castle. Not much left, it was small but interesting.

Zach and his wife kissing in a more private toilet.

My son and his in-laws.

This is the town inside the fort.

At the beach it was a bit too windy to enjoy it much. It was cold and the sand was pelting your legs like a sand blaster but I love seeing a beautiful beach unadulterated by human feet. I also enjoyed seeing all the wind surfers doing their tricks.

This reminded me of Pismo Beach.

No footprints. It was beautiful seeing a fresh beach, seemingly untouched.

After church today I will continue my pilgrimage to give them some time alone because Zach and his wife will be heading back to Utah early Tuesday morning.

This was Briancon, a small Italian town in the wrong direction but loved the town.

I started my journey back to Bordeaux to visit my son but after 2 months of no hiking and losing so much weight I was a bit weaker and my bag was a bit heavier due to Antonella giving me a few extra T-shirts and food as well as Timothy and Mary Claude giving me extra food as well. Because of this I felt like the first day of my pilgrimage, my feet were blistered, my shoulders and back were bruised and sore and the pack and I were wobbling as I put it on and walked around. I did gain back most of the weight I lost from the hospital so I went from 78 kg or 172 lbs (near my weight in high school) to 82 kg or 181 lbs, so my strength is improving. Trekking around, I don’t know if I will lose weight again but I do still feel very skinny. I’ve also had a few people tell me I am too skinny and they never saw me before so I know it would be better for me to gain weight but my diet of peanuts, carrots, a little meat and some kind of sweet bread, may not cater to weight gain.

The night before leaving we spent with Dominiquo, Mariangela and their family at dinner with the missionaries. Their mother made an excellent Italian dinner and I enjoyed the conversation very much. They have a beautiful house and they are very pleasant to talk with. I had to tell Dominiquo that he was not Italian because he was the most soft-spoken Italian I had ever met. They are such a great family, I wish I could stay there to get to know them even more. I sat next to Ralph (their dad) and we tried to communicate but it was difficult. He would speak to me in broken English and I would reply in broken Italian but we still enjoyed the conversation.

I’ve only been gone three days but I already miss Antonella. She was so much fun and such a great person I wish I could have her in my life for good (she would say I could if I would stay in Turin J). I don’t know if I could keep up with her though, she is always on the go. I’ve never seen a person with so much energy over 50.

So to begin my trip I got my first lift (ride) from a guy heading out of Turin but after a couple of miles down the road I saw a sign for a city heading south. I asked the guy again where he was going and he was heading for Milan so I told him to stop because he was heading the opposite direction that I needed to go. He dropped me off at a service exit where I tried to auto stop (hitchhike) but nobody would give me a lift so I started hiking back. I left around 9 or 10:00 in the morning and at 5:30 pm I found myself back in the middle of Turin with blisters on my feet. Not a good start. I did end the day in Bardonecchia Italy where the 2006 Winter Olympics were held and the city is near the tree line so the mountains were very high but not very beautiful because there were few trees. The tree colours were starting to change but they were too scattered to make a good picture. It was cold there so it was the first time I was able to test drive my new slippers at night and they worked. It was the coldest air I had slept it but my feet never froze and I never woke up from the pain of cold feet. I did wake up from a pine cone in the ribs but not cold feet.

 On the way, an old man gave me a lift to the town of Plampinet that was very small (about 20 buildings total) and I had to take a picture of this very old little church. The man told me he was a hunter and showed me where the best hunting was on the mountain. I asked him how he gets up there and he said by hiking. I asked him if he was part billy goat because the area he was pointing to was almost nothing but cliffs and only a few sparse areas where even trees were able to grow. He just laughed and said, yes he hike there.

These trailer cabins were cool. Maybe my next house. They were in a little trailer park near the boarder of Italy and France.

This is a tomato spider behind Timothy's shop. It's body is about half the length of my little finger but about the same girth.

I know it has been a while since my last update but I have been mostly working for the last three weeks making wallpaper with Timothy (the son of Roberto and Mary Claude). Timothy has been great to work with and feeds me very well for lunch. We usually have a sandwich made with nice meat and soft cheese or salmon marinated in lemon juice with crackers. We then have gelato (ice cream) and finish it off with fennel, which I have never had before but it is a vegetable with the consistency of celery and tastes like liquorish.

My body is finally used to the work and I pretty much have it down but it is time for me to leave. I have been told by Mary Claude that Timothy tells her I work too hard and he gets a lot done with me compared to others he’s had work for him. I told him in the beginning that I may have been a businessman sitting behind a desk most of my life but I do know how to work, so I’m glad I was able to live up to what I said and help him out. I will continue helping him change his business model and marketing via email and hopefully help his business start making money as he has been floundering for four years now.

Antonella invited Dominiquo, Mariangela, their parents and aunt over Sunday with the missionaries and we had a great time with them and it is good to see Dominiquo on the mend from his intestinal surgeries. They have invited us to dinner at their house tonight before I leave tomorrow morning for Bordeaux, France to visit with my son and his in-laws for a few days following the marriage of their son in England.

 For the really great news, Sjlvia Macchi, a professional translator in our church here in Italy, has translated my book (The Opportunity In Every Problem) into Italian. I can’t thank her enough and hope it will be distributed throughout Italy (eventually) to help people find opportunities here.

This is the second piece of junk solar batter sent to me from China. The batteries are bulged and don’t work and this is a brand new unit. The first one had batteries but wouldn’t charge. This one charges but has no batteries so it charges for about 3 minutes then stops. This is after I told them I am traveling and can’t wait around for shipping from China so please test the unit before you send the second one. They assured me they would and would also send me a European plug. Instead they send me another piece of junk that if they tested, would find right away that it didn’t work; and of course they sent me an American plug. This has been such a waste of time and money as I have to keep paying shipping to send it back and forth. I will demand my money back but I doubt they will because I opened it but I will let people on ebay know my experience with them.

For comparison: The batter in my hand is what it is supposed to look like. The Pillows are bad batteries. Remember, this is the brand new replacement for the first brand new piece of junk they sent me.

This is from the haiguang-store so if you ever buy electronics on ebay, be sure it is not from this store.

A few interesting things I've discovered after being in Italy nearly 2 months: People complain that Americans are loud and obnoxious when they visit other countries... Italians have them beat!!! When the Italians get upset, Mt Vesuvius erupting couldn't be heard in the background.

They have two primary languages here: loud and hand gestures. 

I finally finished my fun project. Due to my diabetes, my feet now become painful when they get cold. I, therefore, took the precaution of taking the felt linings from my snow boots with me. However, to walk in them without protection would destroy them. Therefore, when I was in Toulouse France, I went to a market and bought a remnant of blue boat skin large enough to cover the bottom area of my converted slippers. They are very warm and comfortable. It did take me a few days to hand stitch them though.

Roberto is painting and is son Timothy (in white) owns the company. I was preparing to leave for Switzerland to find work picking fruit through September, when I was approached by Roberto, who took Antonella and myself on his vacation in the Italian Alps, to help his son’s company. It may pay only a fraction of what I would have received picking fruit but the fact that I could help them restructure their business model and marketing approach made this a better option for me in fulfilling the quest of my pilgrimage.

After seeing how their company works and learning how to make wall paper myself, I have come up with an idea I believe will revolutionize their industry. They have many great styles and custom designs but there are some that can’t be intermingled… or so they told me. I came up with a method where they could mix these styles together to create an entirely new wall paper experience but it will be expensive. I told them not to worry about the expense because their market is already the rich and the crisis doesn’t affect them, so they will work on the designs for the future. I also advised them to get rid of their distributors and work with manufacturing reps to save money as their distribution network requires the lion’s share of the profit. I’m looking forward to this project but they won’t be able to start on the website until we finish the work of putting together sample catalogues. That means much of the marketing work will happen after I continue my pilgrimage so now I teach them about it and help them make wall paper for their samples.

I will leave on the 22nd of September on my way back to Bordeaux to visit my son who will be visiting his in-laws there on the 24th. It should take me 2-4 days to make it there.