Communal aches and pains

Hello again.
Another 14 miles, another ache here and there. Actually we are all suffering and sharing. Anna Sophia left her insoles in Canada and got blisters from wearing boots without any supports. Luckily Carol had brought extras so she gave them to her and that helped out immensely. Carol´s knee is not any better, but along the way a guy had some spray-on liniment which relieved the pain, an Italian woman in the next bunk has HORRIBLE blisters, and I had something called new skin which we gave her. Grazi, grazi, she kept saying. People offer all kinds of things ´cause we all know what the other person is going through. My knee hurts but not as badly as Carol´s, my big toe is sore, and the balls of my feet are very tired of the step after step. But everybody hangs in there together and supports each other.
One of the sayings about the Camino is that it will provide whatever the pilgrim needs, and to that end, Carol found a dead branch which was laying there just waiting for her to pick up and use as her walking stick. I was going to buy her one last night, but couldn´t find one that I thought she´d like, so today she finds one for herself. And as you know, Carol would rather make her own than find one ready made. So right now she´s back at the refugio whittling and fine tuning her personal stick. And what´s Jim doing? He´s out walking around town running into internet cafes where he can say, "cool, I can write Carol also found a elastic knee bandage which seems to be helping.”
We have been given an ample re-education on the fact that Spain is the second most mountainous country in Europe. Geography lesson, everybody. Damn teachers, they never stop. Anyway, looking at a map of today´s route, it looked very flat. Well, that just means that the climbs were only 1,000 to 1,500 feet. That would be okay if you could just go up and then down, but no....... they put one after another so in the end it is somewhat misleading to say that there are three days with climbs over 4,000 in the day. I think that we must do that most days.
Since we had a slower pace today, we didn´t arrive here in time to go out to the free winery. The Bodega Irache has a tap with water on one side and wine on the other, free to pilgrims. And the thing about it is, that the locals don´t go out there and scarf up on the free wine, they leave it for us thirsty peregrinos. Try that in Lodi:-) Unfortunately, they don´t open the spigots until 10:30 in the morning. No early morning drunks on the trail. We´ll pass it too early tomorrow.
Colors are so beautiful at this time of year. Huge fields of red poppies, tons of wild flowers all brilliantly displayed. Because the trail is often narrow and we have to walk single file, if I’m in front I sometimes realize that I don’t hear the plop-plop-plop of her stick behind me. I stop and turn around to see if she’s having a problem, but no, she off smelling some flower she doesn´t know, trying to identify it. The latest is the pink honeysuckle. She finds tiny little snails attached to wheat stalks, and all kinds of things which always bring out that giggle that I know means she groovin’ on something.
One benefit of the long climbs is that we get some incredible vistas. Today we could look back all the way to the mountains we climbed yesterday with the windmills. It was really gratifying to know that we had travelled all that distance. Made the pains seem worthwhile and certainly understandable.
It´s really funny how we all seem to have this communal consciousness. Often we´ll see something coming up and decide to take a break. When we get there we find a dozen or more of other pilgrims who have decided to do the same thing at the same place.
Everybody is so open with their stories of why they are here. There is this sense that every moment is so transitory. There´s little time to play cute and coy, so it´s just kinda let the truth all hang out ´cause nobody knows if they´ll see each other again. For example, two Finns, a married couple, got today in four days but had actually started 20 miles before we started. So we´ll talk tonight, but tomorrow with their pace and ours, they´ll be long gone.
Dianne and Kristin are the two with whom we spend the most time. We have wound up at the same place each night about the same time, so our beds wind up close to each other.
You think we´re crazy for walking the 500 miles! Well, there are dozens of pilgrims who started back in France at Le Puy, which means that they have already walked 500 miles and have 500 more to go. Some have been walking for 6 weeks already because of the cold spring weather. Their journey will take up to three months. Now that´s what I call free time.
Well, my whittling wife waits. I was supposed to find some little place to eat something, and I did, it´s just that they also had computers at the same place. So I´ve been eating eggs, sausage, and French fries while I type. Don´t get me started on the French fries. I swear every Spanish meal seems to have fries with them. Trying to get something to eat for dinner at a time when most of the world wants to eat is difficult in Spain. "Lights out" is at 10 (except for the other refugio last night where apparently they partied most of the night. So much for the religious aspect of the Camino) and so because most restaurants don´t open till 8:30 it´s hard not to go to bed with stomach´s rolling and roiling. There does seem to be one that opens here at 7:30. Think we´ll try it. Spanish Chinese food. Could be the subject for another letter.
Tomorrow is a critical day for us. Our pace has slowed and that´s okay because the stages have been about 14-15 miles each day. Tomorrow will be the same, but then we get into some longer 18-20 miles stages. We were on the trail eight hours today, so we´re hopeful that with the walking stick and the bandage tomorrow we’ll be more on track time wise. We´ll find out.
Hope this finds all of you where ever you are in the world as happy and fulfilled as we are.
Love to all,
Jim and Carol