Dea God,

Do you have a minute for a quick chat?  I need to make sure there is no misunderstandings.  Do you remember the other day when I quoted a Warren Zevon song?  The words of the first two lines of the chorus may have caused some confusion and I’d like to straighten that out. Maybe I am wrong.  You can check with the Z-man; he is already up there in the band. Warren was always a little bit loose with the English language when he was stoned but here is what I think he meant.  Please keep in mind that the events of today on the trail lead me to this epistle.  

“Don’t let us get sick” – This one is pretty obvious, I think.  As my friends and I get older, we start to face the consequences of the neglect and punishment we put our bodies through when we were young.  We also have to deal with the fact that we are not built to last forever.  I pray every night for good health for me and my loved ones but if we do get sick, I still have faith in your curing powers.

“Don’t let us get old” – Okay, this one is tricky.  What I believe WarZ was saying is that it’s okay to age but don’t let us get to the part where we are sitting in a rocking chair, staring out the window, and being spoon fed soft food by a 24 hour nurse.  When my time comes, I am okay with it.  Just call me. I’ll be there even though I am certainly not in a hurry myself. I just don’t like an applesauce and Ensure diet and rocking chairs make me seasick.

“Don’t let us be stupid, all right.” – This is the one that hit home today.  I need more help with this (and I always have).  Please, once again, help keep me from doing stupid things or making stupid decisions, particularly when I am under stress, angry, hungry, overconfident, uninformed, just plain inattentive, whatever.   For example, today, I couldn’t see the Camino arrows on the trail because it was dark.  It was dark because I chose to leave before sunrise.  I referred to the gps trail on my phone to find the right way but I never checked that the gps trail was fully correct.  At that point where the trail went two ways.  The first choice was a “road route” which was simple, straight forward and an easy 24.9km walk along side of or near to a major road on a protected track.  After yesterday’s slog, we chose that way.  There was also a “scenic way” that was supposed to be only about 3km further (THEY LIED!!) but was on quieter dirt tracks through several small towns with services (THEY LIED!!).  I really should have triple checked that I had the right path.

Guess who screwed up?  I would have sworn that we were on the right path but I didn’t even check a second app that would have told me that we were not.  Melanie said that she saw a sign towards an alternative route that was in the direction we were headed but “I knew I was on the right path”.  All was good as we approached the first village at the appropriate timing but then I saw the sign with the name of the village.  It should have read “Valverde de La Virgen” we were going to skip because the next village was only 1.3km further and had the best totadas on the Camino – Melanie had been dreaming about them for days.  But instead of Valverde, the sign said “Oncina de la Valdoncina”.  I quickly checked my app and we were on the longer scenic route.  I calculated that I could get back to the right trail and the best tostadas by making an additional 4km diversion.  Buggers!

Melanie quickly forgave me, far quicker than I forgave myself but we decided that we were here for a reason so we made the best of it.  It turns out that Oncinaa has a very nice place for food so we went in there… and then left two minutes lates when we found out it was a fancy hotel with only an expensive buffet breakfast. They seemed to also say “you can’t afford to eat here and you aren’t dressed properly either”.

We had to wait another 6km for breakfast #1 at Chozas de Abajo.  Even there, the only bar in town required a 300m detour from the path. And a further 200m meter later to get back on the tail.  None the less, Melanie had to settle on a spicy (spice level 1 out of 10) tortilla and cafe.  I just had a small fried milk toast and cerveza con limón.  That gave us strength to carry on.  I must say that the trail between those two towns was outstanding.  It was a good dirt path with some small stones and great scenery including a great view of the rising sun.

We then walked on a thin dirt trail along a small road that had cars passing every four or five minutes.  That was better than next to a highway for sure.  That took us another 14km to Villavante where Melanie had a juice and I had another cerveza con limón and we shared a ham and tomato bocadillo. 

While we appreciated the additional sustenance, we were both a bit surprised at just how quickly and easily the first 24km went.  The weather forecast was for a cloudy day and the sun laughed that off but it wasn’t as energy sapping as yesterday.  We barely had anyone to talk to because the sane folk were all over at the shorter trail.  Was it just the more beautiful, non-concrete, trail with lovely scenery that made the difference?  Possibly so.  On tomorrow’s trail, Melanie has already said that we should take the scenic route but that barely adds any distance to the expected (?!?) short day into Astorga.

As noted, there were not too many pilgrims on the trail today but we did chat with Swiss Angie and Canadian Ken at breakfast and for a kilometer on the trail.  There were maybe four French pilgrims we bumped into a couple of times, two Spanish cyclists who were hitting on Melanie at lunchtime and maybe a handful of other pilgrims that we passed or passed us.  I have not seen anyone to hear about the other trail but I hope they were happy with their choice (or their mistake).

Finally, I should mention that we were rewarded for our efforts today.  By the time we got to the albergue, it was after 3:00pm., the latest we have arrived on this Camino.  While we were checking in though, the host said that he could wash and dry our laundry if we pass it to him.  That was as close I have ever been to kissing a man (but I restrained myself).  We are in a great room despite the two single beds. So all I had to do was shower, dress and head to the bar to write the blog.  On this rare occasion, I haven’t been falling asleep as I type.  Yeah!

In summary, despite my stupidity, it was a great day.  Melanie is happy too.  I can’t ask for anything more.

Peace y’all. Goodnight George, Leo and Stella. We love you all.