Yesterday was consumed with a physical challenge and the body needed the mind to help. Today the mind was free to wander. It did. I will share some of its meandering.

BREAD- In the last few towns we’ve been through, all very small, we encountered bread home deliveries. A van pulls up to a house, blasts its horn then the driver jumps out with a loaf of bread. The customer usually comes out in time time to take it. If not, it hangs on their door. We’ve repeatedly heard the horn and seen the loaves.

Woman in the Window- a few days ago we travelled through a small town, Hospital De Orbigo. We came to a juncture and we were not sure which way to turn. We heard a woman speaking to us but we couldn’t understand her or see her. Then we saw her, a grandmotherly woman waving at us from a window right at the intersection. She pointed us in the right direction. We figured she must do that all day long.

Elevator- Yesterday after a 21 mile day, Carla and I found ourselves taking the hotel elevator up one flight of stairs. So lame. I find it harder to take the few steps around our hotel room than all the miles we do on the Camino.

“I gave my love a cherry”- about 9 miles into today’s walk, we stopped in a crumbling town to have a rest and some food. A young German man surrounded by a bunch of young women came into the bar where we were. The women asked him to sing them a song. He broke out his little guitar and started to play and sing. For his sake, it was good John Belushi was not at our table.

Camino News- while everybody on the Camino has phones, it’s amazing how much information is transmitted by word of mouth. At the rest stop mentioned above Carla and I bumped into people who we haven’t seen for days and they had news of people we haven’t seen in weeks. Ancient trails, ancient forms of communication

Tomorrow will be a tough day for a few reasons

Bike art- yeah!

Roadside chapel perfect for prayer with a woman doing God’s work stamping Pilgrim Passports

Camino Casino

Traffic picking up on the Camino

Where I’ll be this evening for Vespers

Haven’t seen one of these since that Saturday Night Live skit in the 70’s