I guess what was missing in my note was an encouraging tone of "You do it your way, I'll do it mine." and neither way is wrong. Just do it!
There was a man on the Via de la Plata this spring who's constant worrying was tiresome. He had a travel agency book him hotels and arrange for his pack to be delivered each day for the first week or 10 days. He knew it was a crutch, and spoke of doing a "real" pilgrimage when his reservations ran out.
Just the decision to eat lunch was a burden. At about 11:00 am he would ask where I itended to have lunch. "Next village" was my off hand reply. Then he would get into the details... "Oh, you know there is a cafe in the next village?" "No, but if there is, I'll think about lunch there."
"But what if there isn't a cafe?" "We'll have to go to the second village..." He was perplexed that he didn't know where lunch would be, and I was no help.
One evening I joined a table of pilgrims in a cafe just before supper hour. "Where are you having dinner?" he asked. "Probably right here." I said, without really thinking about it. "But there are two cafe's in town." he replied. "So...?"I asked. "How do you know this one is better?" he queried.
"I don't", I shrugged. "But what if the other one is better...?" I thought my escape was to say I would eat where ever the others ate, but this only made things worse. Then he had to have the same conversation with everyone at the table!
I had pity on him, because his fretting bordered on pathological. While I was mildly annoyed, I also had compassion because his indecisiveness was truly crippling.
He walked with us while he was on his prepared itinerary, but he disappeared as soon as his reservations ran out. I'll never know how he finally made out.
Alan's detailed planning brought back memories of this insecure pilgrim. "There is a train to Sevilla you know" "How do you know the bus is better?" Not that Alan is this messed up.
And as I said in my previous note, sometimes it is convenient to ride on the coat tails of well prepared pilgrims.
David, Victoria, Canada.