Total for the first 20 days: 251.2 km
Today was a day of ups and downs for me.
It started way up. While we were having breakfast in Belorado, a farmer's market was being set up around the town square. We filled our packs with fresh apples, oranges, and the most delicious pears!
But shortly after we started walking my shoulders began to ache. I blame this on everything from my backpack, to sleeping in a different bunk bed every night, to the thoughts weighing heavy on my mind.
Randy and I get teased everywhere we go that we aren't going to make it to Santiago "until Septiembre" at our pace. That even the "viejo" (old) can do 30 kilometers a day.
I'm not actually worried that I won't make it in my time frame. And I'm quite happy with our slow and steady pace that allows us to appreciate the world around us and each others company.
But I am reminded that I have only one month left in Spain. With tickets to fly home on April 24.
Will it be enough time to do and see and experience all that I want? Will I be different when I go back? Will I be ready? Will the transition be hard?
Randy knows me as well as anyone by this point and could tell I needed a break today. We stopped outside a church in Tosantos and shared the fresh fruit from the morning market. While sitting there a bread truck came along, honked twice, and stopped alongside us. We looked at each other in amusement, and jumped to our feet to see what was going on. Some of the neighbors joined us. The van door slid open and the driver sold us a fresh loaf of bread, for less than one euro. We were just as excited as if he had been an ice cream truck! (Perhaps more since it was only 35 degrees!)
This manna from heaven was exactly what I needed to bolster my spirits.
We walked and enjoyed our "communion" of bread and conversation. My pack felt several kilos lighter. And after a coffee stop in Villambistia, I was even able to appreciate the cold, windy, rainy walk the rest of the way to Villafranca. Especially since we could see our friend Aloys from Holland and his backpack's yellow rain cover ahead of us on the Way!
I'm happy now to be warm and dry. To have a bunk bed on which to sleep. And am committed to making the most of my next 30 days!
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