The Story Behind the Story
Okay, the blurb you encountered one level up might have filled you in with some vital information, but you probably didn't find much of a story there. You don't really know who we are and, more importantly, how we came to the Camino. Everyone who has walked the Camino has a unique story of how they came to one day find themselves trudging along on a very long walk across Spain. We'll try to tell you ours without boring you, although we aren't too worried because we are well aware that you can escape anytime you want with the click of a mouse button or tap on a touchscreen.
Peg grew up in a perfectly normal (at least to the extent that it contained no Camino freaks) family in Rochester New York, emerging from college with a degree in French Language Education. You might think that's a clue for how she came to the Camino, but it really isn't. She settled into a career in teaching, and continued to teach after she and Russ married, and she joined him in Kansas.
Meanwhile Russ was growing up in a perfectly normal (at the time) family in the Adirondacks and emerged from college with a degree and a great deal of enthusiasm for everything having to do with biology. That brought him to the University of Kansas where he began work on first a Masters Degree, and later a Ph.D. in Ecology.
Her first year in Kansas, Peg taught at a rural high school. Finding the work uninspiring, the next year she began work on a Masters Degree in French, which she managed to polish off in a single year.
Russ got a job at Mansfield State College in northern Pennsylvania. While there, he finished off his doctoral degree and taught general biology to legions of Freshmen, only a few of whom were interested in biology. Meanwhile Peg was enjoying (most of the time) being home with their two daughters, filling in at the college when French teaching positions were temporarily vacant, and helping edit the alumni magazine.
Nearly resigned to a career where he would be teaching the same courses over and over again to ever new crops of students, Russ got a reprieve when a friend from graduate school recruited him to a research position at the famous (in ecology circles) Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland. With no teaching positions available, Peg turned her attention to university administration and began a new career at the University of Maryland in institutional advancement, working in fund raising, public relations, and alumni relations. Over several years as a part-time student she completed a Ph.D. program in higher education policy and administration.
Russ loved his job as a research scientist, but alas he began to get promotions. Almost before noticing what had happened, he found himself sitting full time behind desks, first at the research center and later at Fish and Wildlife Service headquarters in Washington, DC. Peg loved her work, and soon found herself on the top rung of university management, first as Vice President for Advancement at Mount Saint Mary's College in Maryland and later at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC.
Neither of their jobs lacked for excitement, but Russ was ready for a change. He accepted a new job as director of a USGS research center in Florida. Peg joined him there, taking a position as a professor in the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida. After nine years in Gainesville, he retired in 2006. After spending six months on a Fulbright grant in the Czech Republic, Peg retired later that year.
Since retiring from their paying jobs, they have been writing books, working with community benefit non-profits, givings lectures and presentations, teaching community education courses, and for the past five years doing the Camino.
But wait! you might say. What about the Camino? What does that have to do with biology and education, and all those other things?
Nothing really. Russ' sister, who had grown up with him in that perfectly normal family, led them to it. She and her husband first walked on the Camino in 2007. When Peg and Russ heard about what they would doing, they were incredulous. Why would anyone do something like that? They thought it was crazy, and their only reason for curiosity about the adventure was to learn just how crazy it was. Sister and husband returned full of enthusiasm, and that enthusiasm proved to be contagious.
Maybe the idea wasn't so crazy at all. Peg and Russ agreed that the sea change in their attitudes occurred when they saw a photo of smiling sister and husband, sitting at an outdoor cafe beside a scenic bubbling brook, while holding their wine glasses aloft as they offered a toast to the camera.
The following year found Peg and Russ on the Camino. Separately, sister and husband returned for their second Camino (they returned their seventh in 2014). So much for normal families!
How had Russ' sister learned about the Camino? A medieval historian and author, they long believed she had come across references to it in her studies of the Middle Ages in Europe. Only recently she set us straight. She came from a Roman Catholic background, and her husband's background was Southern Baptist. Curious about Catholicism, her husband began reading about some of its traditions, and was particularly intrigued by stories of saints, some of which are quite droll. These stories led him to the Saint James legend, the pilgrimage, and the modern Camino. So the spark was ignited in a curious Southern Baptist rather than in a medieval historian, and the rest is family history.
There's is an important proof in the history of who we are and how we came to the Camino. In 2013 Russ, his only sibling, and one of his two children found themselves simultaneously walking on the Camino, thus removing any reasonable doubt that insanity runs in families.
Peg grew up in a perfectly normal (at least to the extent that it contained no Camino freaks) family in Rochester New York, emerging from college with a degree in French Language Education. You might think that's a clue for how she came to the Camino, but it really isn't. She settled into a career in teaching, and continued to teach after she and Russ married, and she joined him in Kansas.
Meanwhile Russ was growing up in a perfectly normal (at the time) family in the Adirondacks and emerged from college with a degree and a great deal of enthusiasm for everything having to do with biology. That brought him to the University of Kansas where he began work on first a Masters Degree, and later a Ph.D. in Ecology.
Her first year in Kansas, Peg taught at a rural high school. Finding the work uninspiring, the next year she began work on a Masters Degree in French, which she managed to polish off in a single year.
Russ got a job at Mansfield State College in northern Pennsylvania. While there, he finished off his doctoral degree and taught general biology to legions of Freshmen, only a few of whom were interested in biology. Meanwhile Peg was enjoying (most of the time) being home with their two daughters, filling in at the college when French teaching positions were temporarily vacant, and helping edit the alumni magazine.
Nearly resigned to a career where he would be teaching the same courses over and over again to ever new crops of students, Russ got a reprieve when a friend from graduate school recruited him to a research position at the famous (in ecology circles) Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland. With no teaching positions available, Peg turned her attention to university administration and began a new career at the University of Maryland in institutional advancement, working in fund raising, public relations, and alumni relations. Over several years as a part-time student she completed a Ph.D. program in higher education policy and administration.
Russ loved his job as a research scientist, but alas he began to get promotions. Almost before noticing what had happened, he found himself sitting full time behind desks, first at the research center and later at Fish and Wildlife Service headquarters in Washington, DC. Peg loved her work, and soon found herself on the top rung of university management, first as Vice President for Advancement at Mount Saint Mary's College in Maryland and later at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC.
Neither of their jobs lacked for excitement, but Russ was ready for a change. He accepted a new job as director of a USGS research center in Florida. Peg joined him there, taking a position as a professor in the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida. After nine years in Gainesville, he retired in 2006. After spending six months on a Fulbright grant in the Czech Republic, Peg retired later that year.
Since retiring from their paying jobs, they have been writing books, working with community benefit non-profits, givings lectures and presentations, teaching community education courses, and for the past five years doing the Camino.
But wait! you might say. What about the Camino? What does that have to do with biology and education, and all those other things?
Nothing really. Russ' sister, who had grown up with him in that perfectly normal family, led them to it. She and her husband first walked on the Camino in 2007. When Peg and Russ heard about what they would doing, they were incredulous. Why would anyone do something like that? They thought it was crazy, and their only reason for curiosity about the adventure was to learn just how crazy it was. Sister and husband returned full of enthusiasm, and that enthusiasm proved to be contagious.
Maybe the idea wasn't so crazy at all. Peg and Russ agreed that the sea change in their attitudes occurred when they saw a photo of smiling sister and husband, sitting at an outdoor cafe beside a scenic bubbling brook, while holding their wine glasses aloft as they offered a toast to the camera.
The following year found Peg and Russ on the Camino. Separately, sister and husband returned for their second Camino (they returned their seventh in 2014). So much for normal families!
How had Russ' sister learned about the Camino? A medieval historian and author, they long believed she had come across references to it in her studies of the Middle Ages in Europe. Only recently she set us straight. She came from a Roman Catholic background, and her husband's background was Southern Baptist. Curious about Catholicism, her husband began reading about some of its traditions, and was particularly intrigued by stories of saints, some of which are quite droll. These stories led him to the Saint James legend, the pilgrimage, and the modern Camino. So the spark was ignited in a curious Southern Baptist rather than in a medieval historian, and the rest is family history.
There's is an important proof in the history of who we are and how we came to the Camino. In 2013 Russ, his only sibling, and one of his two children found themselves simultaneously walking on the Camino, thus removing any reasonable doubt that insanity runs in families.