Camino Karma
In yesterday’s blog post I reported that I was in the lower berth of a bunk bed in a small room with 8 bunk beds. As Paul Harvey used to say, here’s the rest of the story. As I was checking in, the guy behind the desk said that I could have a bed in the alburgue for $6 or a single room with WC, in the convent, for $25. I asked the guy if I could get the single room in the convent and get a no whacking guarantee from the Mother Superior. He said that I could have the last coveted single room for $25 and for an extra five dollars I could purchase a no whacking guarantee. I jumped for joy and enthusiastically told him to start the paperwork por favor. For those of you who don’t speak Spanish that means please. As he was starting the paperwork Andrea, from Stockholm, my walking compatriot for the day, stepped up to the counter and, with tears in her eyes, informed the volunteer behind the check in desk that she has not slept for days, is hallucinating from lack of sleep, and she desperately needs a single room. The guy behind the counter told Andrea that I got the last single room and she would have to sleep in the alburgue with the smelly, farting, snoring mass of pilgrims. I told the guy to hold his horses. I don’t think he understood that evocative American phrase, but I made sure he stopped the paperwork for my coveted single room and gave it to Andrea instead. After he showed Andrea to her luxurious single room he came back down to the reception area to check me into this particularity dreary alburgue. After he checked me into the careworn alburgue, he gave me a hug and a kiss on both cheeks, and said that giving my single room to Andrea was an old school chivalrous act that would not go unrewarded. I was thinking that my reward would be points from the Mother Superior that would lessen, by five minutes or so, my roasting time in Hell when judgement day comes. No, he said that giving Andrea the single room wasn’t enough to buy me any judgement day points, but if a cancellation on a single room comes in, I will be first in line for an upgrade. I started to dance around the alburgue singing 🎤 a horribly off key version of “We Are The Champions” by Queen. As you can imagine this drew the ire of my fellow inmates in the alburgue who had been sentenced to spend the night in the alburgue with no chance for a parole or pardon. A few hours later the front desk guy tracked me down and gave me the keys to my very own single room in the convent. He also told the Mother Superior about me giving up my room to Andrea and she said that I wasn’t all bad and that she would give me a 12 hour no whacking guarantee, gratis. Another example of Camino Magic.
Today’s Walk
I got a great night’s sleep and was out of my single room in the convent at 6:30 AM. The Mother Superior met me at the front gate of the convent, opened the door for me, gave me her blessing and with a beatific smile that lit up her face, told me to try being less of a dick as I walk the Camino. I told her it is an everyday struggle but I will do my best. She rolled her eyes, shook her head and booted me out the door and whacked me on the butt with her yardstick for good measure. An auspicious start to my Nineteenth Day on the Camino.
I walked for the first hour and a half in darkness. What a treat that was. I got out of Carrion de Los Condes at 6:30 AM and walked the Via Aquitana by starlight and the light of a sickle moon. This is an old Roman road built 2000 years ago through a wetland. It has been estimated that the Romans used 100,000 tons of rock to create a roadbed that was above the winter flood levels. There is no rock in this area of the Meseta so the Romans had to quarry the rock from some distant rock quarry and haul it to the road construction site. The Roman Empire was truly amazing and helped to shape this part of Spain.
This is the pilgrim statute at the beginning of the Old Roman Road reminding everyone why we are doing this pilgrimage.
These are pictures of sunrise from the Way.
This is Emily and Tom. Last year Tom’s wife was dying of cancer and Tom hired Emily to help him care for his dying wife. On her deathbed, Tom’s wife made him promise that he would do the Camino and made Emily promise that she would accompany Tom on his Camino and look after him. I have been running into them almost every day and they have been struggling with the physical challenge of the Camino. Today was no exception.
As we were walking along the path I saw Emily laying supine in the middle of the path with Tom tending to her. I asked her if she was OK and she said that she had sprained her ankle and they had no food to get them to their lunch stop, 10 kilometers away. Last night I had the foresight to stop at a Super Mercado, in English, a supermarket, and buy some snacks. It took me forever to find just the right smacks but I finally found some honey roasted peanuts and two chocolate granola bars. Yum! When Abe and St. Christopher heard that Emily and Tom needed food they volunteered to give them the granola bars and the honey roasted peanuts. WTF!
I was starving and was really looking forward to stopping and enjoying my treats. I reluctantly handed over the honey roasted peanuts and the granola bars. Then, to add insult to injury, Abe, in a loud voice, ordered me to cough up the peanut M&Ms I was hiding in a secret compartment of my backpack.
So much for trying to keep secrets from Honest Abe. I had to unpack my bag and fork over my favorite treat, the peanut M&Ms! I then politely asked Emily and Tom if there was anything else they needed, hoping they would say: “No, you have done more than enough.” No such luck. Emily said that she needed someone to say a prayer for her ankle. At that moment an older gentleman stopped and introduced himself as Mike, a Presbyterian pastor from Parker, Arizona. We all held hands and formed a prayer circle around Emily as St. Christopher, Honest Abe, Pastor Mike, Tom and your humble correspondent said a heartfelt prayer for Emily, her ankle and her Camino. The whole thing moved me to tears, not only the fellowship and the prayer, but also losing my peanut M&Ms. Such is life on the Camino.
When I walk with Tom and Emily I am overwhelmed by their courage and devotion to make their walk a true pilgrimage. I feel so blessed to have met Tom and Emily and to have had the opportunity to walk with them and share their pilgrimage. Tom and Emily have been one of the highlights of my Camino.
This is a picture of the trail leading to the first village we will encounter today, Calzadilla de la Cueza.
The first stop of the day was this little snack shack on the side of the Camino.
This is a sign at this little roadside shack.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what this sign is telling you not to do.
This is another shot from the trail.
This is a view of the first village on the trail today, Calzadilla de la Cueza.
This is a view of the rolling hillsides just a little west of Calzadilla de la Cueza.
These are shots of an old church on the outskirts of Ledigos. We stopped here and said a prayer for Anna.
This is a shot of a cattle operation next to the Camino as we approach our final resting place for the day, Terradillos de los Templarios. I can hear the cows and smell the cows but I can’t see the cows. Can you see the cow head above the door of the barn?
We are staying at the Alburgue Jaques de Molay. At the alburgue bar they were serving pork rinds as a bar snack. You just can’t get away for pigs, pork and ham around here. God help the Pilgrim who is trying to eat kosher!
The alburgue WIFI was on the fritz so this blog post is a day late.
I hope everyone had a relaxing Saturday.
Good night from Terradillos de los Templarios Spain.
AbeAndMarkontheCamino 