Why do I feel like a plant about to be ripped up by its roots? After months of planning, training, dreaming, the transatlantic flight and the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage loom as though I had never travelled before. Is this part of why we travel, to prove that we can transplant ourselves, that we can adapt, thrive in a foreign light, an unfamiliar rain, unstuck from the weedy habits that have overrun our lives? If nothing else, I will prove to myself that I can subsist on one pair of shoes and one 12-pound bag of gear.

Please join me on this journey as I will be microblogging from my Instagram account (@seashorewrite).

Written by Patricia Erikson, Peaks Island Press offers behind-the-scenes glimpses of a vibrant, literary community perched on Peaks Island, two miles off the coast of the beautiful and award-winning city of Portland, Maine. If you haven’t already, you may subscribe in the upper right corner at http://www.peaksislandpress.com.