Today is a day for walking alone. I am now only one day from Cruz de Ferro and my plan is to make it to the albergue that sits just 5k away, so that I may leave out early and hopefully get there before the crowds.
I do have one problem, the grips on my trekking poles have come lose and slide down continuously throughout each day. This causes me to gradually succumb to a sort of Quasimodo stance by the time I arrive to my destination at the end of each day. It gets really interesting when they are not synchronized in their dysfunction and I have one that's tall and one that's small. This has led to many a pilgrim joke, as you can imagine. Once again, procrastination at its best, I've managed to put up with this for about 200k now. Both the jokes and the dysfunction, that is. It didn't really seem like a pressing matter through the Meseta, but now that I'm headed back into serious hills that some might refer to as mountains (although not anyone in the US or Canada), I figure I should get some help.
While walking through Astorga at 7am, I decided to keep my eyes open for a shop that may have some sort of glue that might work. Then I chuckle because nothing is open at 7am in Spain. Moments later when I round the bend and come into view of Palacio de Guadi, I am shocked to find a store, aptly named The Pilgrim Shop, just across the street and open. Surely there's a mistake, this has happened many times as I've wandered into the open doors of a supermacado at 7am only to be chased out by the store owner who is merely stocking the shelves in preparation for the 10am rush of customers. I walk in and find the most pleasant, smiling, English speaking man who jumps into action the minute I share my problem with him. He first glues the grips into place and then decides they must sit and dry for about 15 minutes before he adds tape for good measure. While he is busy bustling about I decide to shop around. Since he is being so good to help I feel like I should buy something, but there is nothing I like enough to consider carrying it for the next three weeks. He asks if I'm looking for something special. When I describe what I'm hoping to find, he pulls a case out from under his register and produces the exact items that I had been picturing in my mind. Okay, now things are just getting a little freaky. My poles are fixed, my daughters gifts are purchased, and all before 8am. I walk away amazed at how perfectly everything has worked out.
I was a bit disappointed with myself for not getting enough Camino work done yesterday. In the morning, I was pleasantly distracted by great conversation with Lucie & Grant who I'm so glad I met, and then I spent a good bit of the afternoon chatting with and worried about Michael and his eyes. In my experience, eyes are nothing to mess around with and I told Michael this. When my son, Levi, was about 6, he got a piece of mulch in his eye on the playground at school. Being a young working mother of two little ones with a husband who was always away, I never had a lot of extra time or money, and missing work always meant less money. First the school calls me at the dental office I worked at to tell me what happened. So I ask all the questions of the nurse, the obvious, is it still in his eye? She assures me that it's out, the eye has been flushed and all is well, but for some reason Levi continues to complain about it. She agrees to give it another hour, then of course calls me back and says that I need to leave work & come to get him. I pick him up, look in his eye where I see nothing, and tell him to just stop rubbing it and it will be fine. Can't say that I ever babied my children when it came to these things. After being home several hours and watching Levi's eye continue to water and swell, we went to the ER. The poor child had a lacerated cornea and was in excruciating pain, and all the sympathy he got from me was, "stop rubbing it and it will be fine" In the end he got special glow in the dark drops and a super cool pirate patch (every 6 year old boys dream) as well as loads of love and treats from a completely guilt ridden mama. That is until the broken foot incident a few years later when I told him to, "just walk it off" for two days before we went for an X-ray. The poor child. It must've been so hard to be the experimental one, I mean the first one.
Today I have no problem walking alone. The first half of the day is freezing cold gusty wind and the second half the same with pouring rain. No one wants to talk in this, no one wants to walk in this and many don't. I go most of the day without seeing more than a handful of pilgrims. This is good, my mind first runs through the things I've done in my life that I'm most ashamed of, which is generally the first order of business each day. There are many so this generally takes a while. While doing this, I look at all the angles to determine if there's any different perspective or light that I can see these things in, and then consider if there's any retribution that can be made at this point to people who were involved or hurt. I have to admit that I haven't made a whole lot of progress in this area. It seems that being aware of these things, and therefore mindful to not let them happen again would bring some sort of relief. It really hasn't worked that way. I did these things, I learned some hard lessons, in some instances I hurt others and I have now attempted to make amends in each occurrence, but I still don't feel that much better about any of it. Once again the Catholic religion has this figured out. Do something you know you shouldn't do, go to confession, all is forgiven.
After the daily self reflection, I get focused on each stone that I carry and the reasons I have them. My mind is easily lost in thought as I walk in the cold nasty weather and think about these people who I'm worried about, yet inspired by.
By the days end I have walked 34k in the pouring, freezing cold rain, with all my laundry dirty and wet I arrive at an albergue at 430pm and get the last spot on the floor in the barn out back, no lie. This is the closest I've ever cut it, and I am absolutely miserable when I stop, but 90 minutes later after I have my shower, put my laundry in, and eat dinner, life is good again. Never mind that I'm paying someone $20 to sleep on the floor of their barn, which has been converted into a makeshift yoga studio, with 19 others, and the smell of incense is so strong that you can't help but squint your eyes & gag a little. I'm guessing the incense is serving a purpose and much better than whatever the alternative smell would be. All in all, it's not the worst situation I've been in and I know not one single soul here, which means I should have some undisturbed time to think.
Dinner is good enough, not fabulous by any means, but very festive. The folks running this place are pretty good at this, ensuring introductions are made at each table and instigating conversation and fellowship, darn them! Before I know it I have twenty new Camino friends and hiding in a corner isn't really an option. There are some really great people here and it turns out to be such a special place. After dinner all the tables are moved around and three men start to play music. (Video on fb)
The feeling here is unbelievable and within minutes we are all close Camino friends.
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