Traveling with Joe

Today was a first in more than one way.  It was the first really nice day we’ve had since the trip started on March 14 and it’s the first day when there were actually an appreciable number of other people on the trail.  We were told to expect more Pilgrims after Easter but apparently there is an uptick in Camino traffic the week before Easter as well because there were a lot of new faces today.

Marji and I walked for an hour or so with a Dutch guy that’s on a 2 month trek.  He started in Bordeaux, France and is combining parts of more than one of the Camino trails into his trip.  By the time he is done he will have walked over 1,100 kilometers (we are walking around 800) and his trip is taking him up into the mountains on multiple occasions.  He has been the first Pilgrim of the year at many of the Alburgues he’s stopped at.  It was a nice diversion to hear stories and just walk and talk especially since it was warm & sunny.

We arrived at our hotel around 3:30pm in a tiny little Pueblo called Fromista.  It was so nice this afternoon that we all gathered outside for our daily briefing and then, surprise of all surprises, the restaurant next door started serving dinner at 7:00pm instead of the usual 8:00pm to 9:00pm so a group of us descended on them right at 7:00pm. 

During my last Camino I had a few heroes.  There was a 76 year old woman from Australia that walked every step of the way and a Deacon from Puerto Rico that was just a super nice guy.  Being around them for 5 weeks was a pleasure.  This trip has been decidedly different as our group is so much smaller and the Camino has been a ghost town but there has been a couple of people that are tracking on our exact schedule and we’ve gotten to know them.

Norah and Charlotte are from Rhode Island and Vancouver (I think) respectively.  They did not know each other until they met on the trail and over the past few weeks they have been joined on and off by other women.  Everybody has split off now for one reason or another but they are going the whole way.  Their energy is contagious and Norah is only 24 so everything is a new experience for her.  Charlotte is significantly older and has taken on a friend/mentor role and it’s obvious they are just having the experience of a lifetime. 

Marji and I paid for their dinner tonight as it appears that at least Norah is on a tight budget.  We tried to pay for the whole table but one of the stragglers, some half toothless skeleton that somebody invited along made a production of dumping his money practically on my hands.  I guess he forgot about Christian charity or whatever the hell he’s walking the Camino to celebrate.  I felt sorry for him because he couldn’t communicate with anybody and his teeth were awful.  

 Norah and Charlotte graciously accepted our offer and we had a nice time.  Norah actually had a bit of a medical emergency several days ago and Judy, the owner of our tour company was involved in getting her help.  She just toughed it out and didn’t let it deter her and even had to go to the hospital again in Burgos to get a checkup.

Apparently she developed Bells Palsy which is a form of facial paralysis (looks a lot like a stroke when it first comes on) but instead of letting it ruin her trip, she has joked about it from day one and looks normal now.  She’s weaning off of her Prednisone now and will finish the trip in fine form.  Her energy is a gift to everyone that meets her and Charlotte is there keeping her company.  I’m sure they will know each other for the rest of their lives and THAT is part of the Camino that’s hard to explain; you just have to experience it.

For the first night in a while it’s after 9:00pm and I’m not about to pass out.  Actually it’s almost 10pm and I’m only now starting to fade.  It sounds like there’s a wedding banquet going on below me (Spanish people are loud) so it might be a while before I can actually got to sleep so I thought I’d try to actually blog a bit.

This is day 1 of week 3 and the conversation at the table tonight wandered around and settled on why people are doing the Camino and, for those of us doing it again, what inspired that since for most people it’s a once in a lifetime event.

As the days roll past and the kilometers disappear it’s becoming clearer and clearer that there’s just something liberating about being on your feet all day long and needing very little to meet your needs.  There’s no real schedule, you eat, you walk, you eat again, you walk, you eat again (if you’re lucky) you sleep, then it starts all over again.  We’ve walked hundreds of miles already, through multiple provinces, experienced just about every kind of weather you would ever want to experience, and a definite rhythm has started to kick in.

The conclusion we all came up with is that there is a point in a trip like this, and it’s definitely after the two week mark, when the walking and the weather and all of the obstacles or perceived obstacles, just disappear and you just start soaking in everything around you.  Laughter becomes more spontaneous, your feet hurt less or you ignore them more, the miles (or kilometers if you prefer) get shorter, and at some point tomorrow we will cross the half way point but we don’t really care any more.  What matters are the daily experiences we have on the trail, the people we meet, the thoughts we have, and, for me anyway, the realization that even though I miss my life back home, I can occasionally unplug like this and the world won’t stop turning. 

I was just on Skype with Tim and he was walking around my house and then was down in the Laundry area.  I’m sitting up in my tiny little bed in this dot of a hamlet in Spain having envy over the front-loading LG dryer that kept popping into view but also perfectly comfortable in my tiny little 1-1/2 star hotel room.  In a few weeks I will be standing where he was standing tonight and it won’t seem foreign at all but, at least for a few moments, it might as well have been another planet.  Shiny chrome trim on gleaming white appliances. 

My clothes from today are hanging on a rack in the shower soaking wet.  The radiators in my room aren’t on tonight so I don’t have a prayer that my clothes will be dry in the morning (I have more though) and the water I washed them in was practically brown because the intense storms have washed dirt into all the well-heads for a hundred miles.  My poor bright yellow REI shirt has taken on a rather sad orange tinge.  Oh well, it MIGHT come clean when I get home.

Next Sunday is Easter Sunday, next Friday is our first Guide’s last day, and Saturday is our 2nd of 3 nights in Leon.   Marji and I are taking Saturday off, going out to dinner in some cave-restaurant on Friday night to say goodbye to Jorge, our guide, and then plan on spending Saturday shopping and wandering around a real city before we head out Easter Sunday.  I remember the Monastery we stayed in and we are going back to the same place so for 3 glorious nights we will be in a 1,000 year old stone building tucked in behind a massive Church, Semana Santa will be in full force, at least on Thursday night (Spain’s Easter Celebration), and we will have an entire day off.  yes, life is good and will reach perfection then.

Well, I need to go to sleep.  I used to run on 8 hours a night back home but since I got to Spain I’ve been sleeping more or waking up in the middle of the night, puttering around for a few hours, then going back to sleep.  Normally that would drive me nuts but here I’m just rolling with it.  But I haven’t seen 10:00pm many nights on this trip so I’m going to wrap it up before I fall asleep typing this Blog.

Oh, one last thing.  I think I did recover most of the pictures I thought I had deleted and I am taking more photos with my camera.  If not before then at least by sometime late next week I plan on doing some heavy-photo postings.  It’s a production to get the photos onto the laptop and then get them onto the server, etc so it’s best if I just do a photo night – just not tonight.

March 29, 2015

Joe Jeter

 

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