Today was tough. 16 miles . The first 10 were good , sunny and crisp. Then an idyllic picnic by a river and then a seemingly endless trek into this village.
The bottoms of my feet hurt. That's the only real problem. But it does subside and is better than it was. Today's walk was on the ancient Roman road- the original one. We saw no one, no buildings, no wildlife except some birds of prey, only the occasional river, arroyo, and fields of grain, wild flowers, on and on and on. Not more than 4 other peregrinos. Perhaps they took the new road parallel to the freeway.
I wouldn't want to miss this part of the Camino with the stillness it brings and the opportunity for thoughts to come and go.
Conversation at one point:
Me: "What are you thinking about ?"
Craig, "this banana." "You?"
Me: "banana and my future thought of where to pee."
That about sums it up.
My dreams lately have all been about the past. I dreamt of Norm Josephson the other night and he was at Washington with us. Then he went back to being dead. Last night my parents were probably about our age, living well with grandchildren and adventures . I have had dreams of Sonya, Matt, and Chris as youngsters as well as Tennessee, Atti, and Olive as their younger selves.
Today Craig told me that he'd spent some hours reliving his life in Wessington Springs. I'd been doing the same with the time period of my 30s when we were creating our family together.
I share this because there's something about the walking that allows for reflection with detachment so that one does not stay too long with a thought or memory.
Oh my poor feet!!! Time for a beverage and a foot massage.
Seems Craig and I have moved into a happy place with the initial stresses of travel behind us. And the sun is shining!!
So our room was a welcome oasis. After my feet calmed down a little, I hopped in the shower with our laundry. This strategy works very well. After dealing with all that, we plugged into our music and books respectively and the next thing, it's 8:30. Good thing the Spanish eat late. We deviated from the pilgrim's menu and I has the typical fish dish Bacalao from this region. We 're accustomed to paying the Pilgrim's menu price so it seemed high.
We both were ready to get back to bed!!
That's the thing with this type of travel. After so much exertion, every sense is heightened and we appreciate everything .- all the creature comforts.
It's a lovely town but like so many, appears deserted . The impression is that only pilgrims and their services exist. Houses appear closed up; there aren't people out strolling. We're puzzled.
Oh tomorrow will be good!! No packs! No Camino!!
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