One of our goals on this journey was to simplify our lives- pack less stuff, shed some time consuming activities, downplay material concerns and focus on the people we care about and love. I dropped some daily activities, and 2 in particular. Every day my son and I do word games- Wordle, Quordle, and Octordal. We would exchange scores. I put that on hold for this journey. I also spent too much time gaming on a game called Diablo Immortal. Stopped that cold turkey- though the devil tempted me as I’ll explain below. What Carla and I think about and focus on are our family and friends which is a more meaningful use of our time. We stop at many churches along the way to pray for and reflect on those we cherish most. Walk, eat, sleep, drink (including beer and wine) and think about people is an enriching way to go through the day. When we get back home, I hope we can continue this simple but powerful focus. Belorado, the town we are staying in tonight, embodies this ideal. It’s small, the entire town covers a small area. All the houses are together (no yards see photo below) as are the school, church and stores. Carla and I sat at an outside cafe in the main plaza which around 5:00 came alive with kids playing soccer and families congregating. Women were playing cards, conversations everywhere- human interaction. Relationships over things. Today we felt and witnessed the power of simplicity.

This morning as we were getting ready for the day’s challenge my phone, which was just laying on the table, lit up with Diablo Immortal. I hadn’t opened the app since before we left for Spain. I got some water and sprinkled it on the phone and chanted “the body of Christ compels you” but it didn’t work so I just turned it off. The devil tried to coax me back into Diablo to distract me from our faithful journey but he failed. Not lying about the phone

A shot of the entire town of Belarodo

Leaving the Parador this morning