There and Back Again
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
written by Rev. Dr. Mike Hegeman
“There and Back Again” is the title Bilbo Baggins gives the memoir of his journey with thirteen dwarves to the Lonely Mountain and back home again in the story of The Hobbit. It’s a grand adventure with a cast of exotic characters and miraculous coincidences. I loved the book when I was 13, and I still love re-reading it!
Well, our 14 pilgrims just got back from their adventure on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. We may not have encountered elves, trolls, and dragons along the way (as far as I know), but we had a grand adventure.
First of all, I wasn’t sure I was even going to make it to meet up with the other pilgrims, who had gone on before me. My first flight from Phoenix to Dulles was somewhat on time, but the next flight (from DC to Lisbon) never made it off the ground. After waiting for three hours, we were finally told that the flight was cancelled, and all 200 passengers would have to be rebooked. It was 11:45 pm, and as all those folks got into one line, I immediately called the airline helpline. The woman on the other end, though helpful, said, “I can’t get you to Lisbon until Wednesday morning.” That was not going to work! That was two and a half days away! The pilgrims were due to start walking Wednesday morning, 450 km away from the Lisbon airport. So, I said, “You know, I actually need to be in Porto by Tuesday at the latest. Can you get me there?” The agent did some checking and got back to me, “I can get you to Porto Tuesday morning, but it’s the last ticket; I need to book you now. You’ll need to go to Newark tomorrow, and then to Porto. Do you want the ticket?” “Yes! That’ll work! Book it!” It was the first of the miracles that was to happen. I was quickly rebooked, given a voucher for a hotel, and sent on my way.
Now here was the next adventure: wandering around Dulles airport at midnight, trying to find my way to the hotel shuttle. And the airport was completely empty. It was so eerie! I wandered down long, deserted concourses, jumped on a vacant train, desperately looking for signs that would tell me where to go. Finally, I found a way out of the airport, but continued to search furiously for the airport shuttle. I found a couple of people cleaning the airport, but it was no use speaking to them, no one spoke English! Finally, I found the shuttle stop, and confirmed that the two other people standing there were going to the same hotel! Yeah! The shuttle should have come in ten minutes. However, it came in 40 minutes! By that time, 20 other people wanted to get on the 16-seat shuttle. I was polite and let some folks go before me, but I was able to get the last seat. The man who sat next to me was a filmmaker who had been trying to get to Cannes, France, for the film festival, but he’d had 5 flights cancelled! I told him that I got to watch my favorite film, Blade Runner, on the plane, and he said, “That’s my favorite movie too!” We had a great conversation all the way to the Holiday Inn Express.
The next day, all the flights happened without a hitch, and I was able to get to the hotel in Porto to meet all the other pilgrims just as they were checking out and getting ready to board the vans to take us to our starting point on the Camino: a little town of Oia on the western coast of Spain. Miracle of miracles, it all turned out okay. We were booked in a lovely hotel, overlooking the ocean, and after a sumptuous dinner of local delicacies, we got settled for a night of rest before the adventure began the next day.
A long story short: each of our seven walking days had its own adventures, and I am certain that there were moments of divine intervention, but we all made it safely to our destinations each day, and experienced God’s loving provision.
To hear more of the story from our pilgrims come to the 9 am class on June 8 in the Chapel Library. Each person has his or her moments of grace to cherish from this trip!