… Julie knew she was starting to like this guy. She asked him 3 simple questions; “Are you married?”, “Do you have any children?”, “Are you gay?”. When the answer to all three turned out to be “No”, she knew she was free to open herself up.

They hung out in New Orleans for a few days, and then it was time to hit the road again. Joerg wanted to explore the Southern Texas border on his own, so Julie dropped him off just before Galveston and left him walking the road towards the ocean, not sure if she would see him again.

They kept in touch by email/skype and happened to meet up in Austin Texas again but only for 10 minutes because when Joerg arrived at the hostel Julie was staying at, he was told the hostel was full. So off he went again, caught another train to El Paso.

About a month later, Julie was in Las Vegas with some friends when she remembered that Joerg wanted to see the Grand Canyon, so sent him and email and offered to drive with him on a trip to the Grand Canyon and through southern Utah’s National Parks. To her surprise, he said YES and they arranged the date they would meet up in Vegas and begin.

They drove around together for a week. Camping, hiking, staying in hostels and hotels. While camping one time, Joerg took a book out of his backpack and started to rip it up for kindling for the fire. Julie asked what the book was about, and he said it was about a German who had walked a trail in Spain. “I am walking that trail myself in September” Julie said. Joerg replied, “Maybe I will meet you at the start and the end of it, but you are crazy to walk it.”

March 3rd, it was time to take Joerg to the train, he was heading back to Chicago and then on to New York to catch a flight home. When they parted, there was talk of seeing each other in September in Spain, but reality was, neither knew if they would ever see each other again.

They kept in touch via email over the next few months and planned to meet again in Spain where Joerg could wave Julie onto the trail. About a month before, Joerg surprised Julie and said he has decided to walk the Camino as well. He was currently in Spain so drove home to Germany and then caught the bus back to St. Jean Pied de Port in France where they would meet and begin the walk.

You could say that the walk was their dating period as up to this point they were just friends. It soon became clear that they both meant more to each other. A few weeks in, a fellow pilgrim asked if they were boyfriend and girlfriend, but the answer was a little awkward. They answered “no, but perhaps by the end we will be”.

At the end it was decided. They wanted to be together. After much discussion, it was decided that Joerg would move to Canada. He flew home to tell the family and Julie flew about a week later to Germany to meet the family.

Joerg arrived in Canada in November 2009 and they settled down in Halifax for a couple years. Yearning for warmth, they made the trek across Canada and settled on Vancouver Island.

The rest, as they say … is history.