I don’t know what’s going on with my knees but it’s not good.  One day of excruciating pain, one day off, one day of normal discomfort and then another excruciating day.  Again, I had times when I wondered if I was going to make it.  I finally ran into the Group Leader in the early afternoon on a quiet street about 2 hours from the finish line.  She looked up  and knew immediately something was wrong.  As soon as she asked me if I was OK I almost broke down into tears.  I just shook my head, No, and sat down.  I think she could tell by how quiet I was that talking was not going to solve the problem.  She got me something to eat and drink then we went to the pharmacy and bought two really nice knee braces.   We also bought two of those chemical ice-pads that cool down when you squeeze them.  That helped tremendously but I took the van in.  Here’s the weird part. As soon as I iced each knee; five minutes with a bag full of ice, and the pain completely disappeared.  I iced both knees and felt absolutely normal the rest of the night.

 

Today was an optional day because we are staying at the same hotel two nights in a row so we can get laundry done.  Tomorrow the van will take us to where the group ended today and we have a 30km walk; about 14 miles.  I don’t know the terrain but I do know that it’s clouding up and could rain.  Oh well, we just have to take this one day at a time but I HAVE to finish this thing.  I’m completely baffled why my knees, and nobody else’s, would fail like this.  It’s not like a bone thing, it feels like a muscle-cartridge thing.  the anti-inflammatory shot I got the other day has long worn off so I just have to hope the braces and some anti-inflammatory cream I picked up today will take care of the problem.

 

But, before my legs gave out yesterday I did take a few photos.  Spain is covered in Olive trees and for those of you that have never seen one bearing fruit, this is what it looks like.

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Later in the day I walked past what looked like a Love Memorial.  It was really quite touching. Hundreds of piles of rocks, most of them with notes either sitting on top or buried under a key stone.  I didn’t have time to read many of them but I did shoot a few photos.

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All of these displays of sentiment made me a little home sick, made me think of all those friends and family that have passed, and made me think about my Partner, someone who is in my heart all day every day anyway.  I even thought about leaving something  behind but these displays of sentiment seemed to have a note of finality to them and that isn’t something I wanted to even think about.

My knees were also causing me excruciating pain.  It’s hard to be romantic and full of love when your main thought is “what in the hell am I going to do if my legs completely freeze up and I am stuck out here without help from anyone I know.  I’m not exaggerating, I honestly thought, again, that I was going to be stranded.  I don’t like feeling helpless.  Buen Camino