One of the really bad side effects of trying to Blog when you are fatigued is that you inadvertently erase some really cool stuff. I’m not 100% sure but I think I just erased two or three days of photos that I took with the Phone because I couldn’t take my camera out in the rain. Marji has some cool shots so I will have her send them to me and when I find another 10 minutes where I’m not exhausted, I will post her pics.
BUT, all is not lost. At least I think this is kind of cool.
So this is a map of Spain showing where we started 14 days ago.
Here’s where are today
And here’s (mostly) how we got here.
And this is where we’re going
It’s hard to put into words what has transpired to get us where we are today. You’ve seen pictures of the snow but not the horizontal snow, sleet & rain simply because we can’t pull the camera’s out. I’ve told you it was cold but that hardly does it justice when there is horizontal blowing sleet with a 25 degree wind-chill but, my personal favorite was the hour after hour walking through some of the stickiest mud I have ever encountered. At least an inch stuck to the bottom of your boot and then every step became like a suction cup. This was truly a test of endurance.
We passed.
Today we have entered the “Mesita”. That’s Spanish for fucking flat. We have a few days of the most monotonous travel you could ever imagine but at least there are almost no other Pilgrims on the trail. In October, when you wanted to use the bathroom, sometimes you had to wait hours (and hours) to have only a moment of privacy I’m pretty sure over the next few days you could poo in the center of the trail and nobody would see you.
I feel like such a failure because there is so much happening each day that I think “Oh god, I have to blog this”, and then when the night rolls around I’m simply too tired. Now I think I’ve just deleted days of photographs from the phone since I couldn’t pull my camera out. Oh well, I guess you will just have to trust me when I tell you it was Frustrating, cold, funny, stupid, wet, gross, but other than that, we’re having a great time.
Tonight we are in a town called Castrojeriz (or something close). An ominous ruin of a castle stares down into the town and we had lunch in the yard of an abandoned Monastery today. You can see both in this picture.
This is a shot taken today by one of our fellow trekkers. Note that except for the trail, there is nothing around but farmland; it’s so peaceful you just want to shoot something and eat it raw. LOL
Before I sign off tonight thought I want to send a shout-out to my partner Tim. Over the past 5 weeks he has been to Boston-Austin-Chicago-Portland-Las Vegas and just got home Friday afternoon from this marathon. As much as I hate to hear him exhausted and see him so wrung out, I couldn’t be prouder of the work he does. I’m thousands of miles away so I need you guys to give him a hug or even a quick text. Even during his busiest time he always sent me funny texts and pictures and I never felt abandoned. Not only does he put up with me walking across Spain (twice) but he makes sure I feel loved doing it.
Thank you Babe.
March 28, 2015
Joe Jeter
3 Comments
JoeLUNA
Great description of the castle!
jmichael
Joe I know you are concerned about how often your blog is being reviewed but I just want you to know that I do view the blog almost everyday even though I may not login. I enjoy reading of your saga and mentally have wanted to be with you every step as I know you are doing something I am not capable of doing (for physical reasons). Keep trekking and posting.
Your Cousin,
Mike
jjadmin
Mike:
I’m not worried about it really. Unfortunately, in my opinion anyway, the internet has lost all anonymity. I can look up the IP addresses of every person that views my Blog and damn near get their address from it. Scary sort of. I prefer to just look at the map of the world and see how many countries I have friends in that are following along.