Portomarin to Palas de Rei – 25.3km, 5.5 hours, Hotel Trina 20, 95€

I was devastated by the sad news from Baltimore. In the year that the Orioles are finally returning to the top of the league, just days away from starting the playoff games, “Mr. Oriole”, Brooks Robinson has died. He was a childhood hero of mine. Brooks was the greatest defensive third baseman in baseball history. His sixteen consecutive gold gloves prove that. He was the guy that we all tried to imitate. In games of catch, I would never want the ball thrown directly to me. I wanted to have to dive for it and catch it in mid-air just like Brooks did. More importantly, Brooks was an even greater human being. He was a first ballot entry to the Baseball Hall of Fame but he still always had time for his fans. He never called us fans though; he called us friends. Baltimore has lost a hero and a friend.

I learned that news about halfway through today’s walk so I really don’t remember much after that. The early part of the walk was great though and I never once was bothered by anyone doing anything. That may make for a boring blog but I will do my best.

I remember the last time we tried walking out of Portomarin in the dark. It was definitely a case of the blind leading the blind in a confusing exit of the city. This time, we were much better prepared. We made it a good 200m further than last time, across a bridge before everyone was scratching their heads about where to go. At the end of the bridge, a Camino sign with an arrow said to turn left as you are about 91km from Santiago. Another Camino sign with an arrow said to turn right and only said something like “Complimentary”. I didn’t know what that meant but our Wise Pilgrim app and my GPS said to turn right. Everyone else was turning left. That made me very happy.

At that point on the trail, at the same time that we were trying to figure out which way to go, there was also a group of about ten people trying to do the same. Actually, only one of them was navigating, the rest were saying the rosary out loud. They could possibly have gotten on my nerves soon but if they had followed me to the right, I was planning to go back to the left. Our Lady of Fatima instructed people to pray the rosary but I reckon there is a better place and time for it.

Despite being in the great minority, we chose the correct way on a dirt path through the forest while the other trail was just up a sidewalk along a road. Score one for our team. That said, the distances looked like they were about the same and the hill up would have been the same for both too. The advantage of the other route was that they had streetlights guiding their path. We only had a torch. We also only saw five other pilgrims on that 3km section whereas the road route had hundreds pounding the sidewalk.

The trail combined on the gravel path along a main road but many of the pilgrims surprised me by doing the right thing. Instead of hurrying along to make sure they got a bed in the town they wanted to stop at or to make sure they avoided the afternoon heat, they stopped. They stopped and turned around to face East and to see a magnificent sunrise. Some just stopped for a second to get a photo. Others stopped and relished the moments. That was really nice.

Breakfast #1 was in Gonzar were we had several surprises. First was a pleasant surprise when our cafe con leche, large fresh squeezed orange juice, large croissant, and large Napolitana cost only 6.80€. Our second surprise was our large croissant, and large Napolitana were the worst we ever had. They really were awful and the orange juice was warm. Other than that, Melanie thought her coffee was nice. Another nice surprise was when a woman in the ordering queue saw us. Her face brightened quickly and she ran over to give us a big hug and to check how we were doing. That was so sweet of her. Another bad surprise was that we had no idea who the woman was. We proceeded to eat breakfast with her and her friend but that was us trying to place her. Who was this stranger?

Breakfast #2 was more of a toilet break and just a few kilometers past Gonzar. We needed to purge our system from breakfast #1. We did share an Aquarius and a small cake too though. We needed fuel.

Breakfast #3 / lunch #1 was at a restaurant with a ant theme in Lestedo. I’m not sure why they had ants drawn all over their menu and they had a giant 2m / 6.5’ ant statue but we got a couple of isotonic drinks and a huge serving of cheese and bread. We ate it all and left nothing for the ants.

Other than thinking about Brooks today, I contemplated whether I preferred my wife on drugs or off them. I bet you will never have heard that sentence before. For the past several days, Melanie hasn’t taken any ibuprofen for her knees. She knows she shouldn’t take it too many days in a row so she was clean for several days. She was also walking slowly on every descent of any length. I had been either dawdling slowly behind or walking normally then stopping to wait for her to catch up. Today though, Melanie said she had a sharp pain in the lower back. She wasn’t going to suffer through that again. She quickly started to mainline Vitamin I, also know as “Nana’s dirty little secret”, and “Camino candy”. The rest of the day, I could not keep up with her. In fact, coming down the steps in the old section of Palas de Rei, she said “it’s so nice to walk down the steps like a normal person and not like a three year old one step at a time”. Our grandson, George, just sat up in bed when he heard what Nana said. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t take baby steps down steps. He’s a big boy now. And he doesn’t need any drugs to do it, either.

One other thing I remember from today was seeing an elderly Amish couple walking the Camino. They are just walking the trail from Sarria and they admitted that they only walk what they can and take a taxi for the balance but it was a great surprise to see Amish folk on the Way. I asked where they were from, all ready to tell them my son is also a farmer in central Pennsylvania but they threw me a curve and said they were from central North Carolina. Having a brother in Durham, in upper management at Duke Medical Center didn’t impress them as much as a farmer son would have.

Other than that, today is all a fog which is appropriate because we walked in a fog in the morning. Tell your children about Brooksie. Keep his legend alive even if he isn’t. All of Baltimore and most of the baseball will miss him greatly. Once again, the world is a little less joyful than it was yesterday.

Peace y’all. Goodnight George and Leo. Don’t let the bedbugs bite. Brooks would have caught every single bedbug in the room and thrown them out the window before they even knew what hit them. Say a prayer for him and his family. I remember when my Granddad told me stories about the Orioles of his youth. When I see you guys next, I’ll tell you about Brooks, Frank, Boog, 20 game winners & the others.