Home sweet home

I arrived back home Sat. night.  After many hours in airports and on planes, we arrived in Albuquerque in the evening.  What a welcome sight!  Spain was a wonderful experience.  I still haven't figured out the big picture of why my knee got stupid, and maybe I'll never know.  I know I would have tried hard to walk the Camino, but as a friend once said," there are many different kinds of pilgrimages."So, this is the last installment of this story.  I know there will be more stories, though.  thanks for your thoughts and encouraging words. 

Northern Coast

Terry and I decided to rest up at the northern coast.  A little fishing village, San Vicente de la Barquera was recommended by sseveralj people.  It took a few buses, but we got here Mon. afternoon and it is just lovely.  The colors are lustrous. It is on a bay with a great high and low tide.  Right now many fishing boats are on the sandbars.  Something about the Bay of Biscay and like Mt. San Michel, I guess.  What do I know about tides, high or low?  I live in the desert.  We will be making our way down to Leon and onto Madrid tomorrow.  Since I can´t walk much, I can´t even enjoy tourist things. I do want to get home and have my Dr. check this out. I want to make sure my knee ligament or cartilage is only stretched and not torn.  Nor do I want to do any more harm to my body by trying to compensate.  Remember when I said"A bad day in Spain is better than a good day at work"??  I have changed my mind.  

New Plan

Took a transport into Santo Domingo de la Calzada along with 5 other pilgrims.  Three of us had bum knees.  The taxi van let me off at the urgent care because I was in the most pain.  They went on to the albergue with my pack.  Saw the teenage doctor(as my sisster would say) who told me I stretched something.  She didn´t think it tore, but without xrays, she couldn´t tell.  2oo euros later, I got to the albergue knowing that she also said your camino is finished.  I feel really bad because just yesterday, all was well and I was getting stronger.  I was ready to come home, but Terry said, rest, and then decide.  You can´t even walk, much less sit in an airplane for hours.  So I am thinking to maybe take a few days and then go to the North coast where I have never been.  I don´t know.  But it will be a different adventure. 

Getting into the groove.

Yesterday I was walking in the fresh early morning, thinking about how beautiful was the sunrise and the vinyards and the camino.  My feet weren´t hurting and the backkpack wasn´t even heavy.  All was very right with the world. I was getting into the mental state, I can do this.  This is what I remember from the first Camino.  I didn´t even ask once, Why am I doing this?.  We were planning on a 10 mile day and we knew we could make it easily.  then all of a sudden my  knee was acting stupid.  It hurt.  With every step it hurt.  I really had to lean on my stick.  I managed to get into Najera, bought a knee brace and took a taxi the last 5 km into Azofra.  I rested it, iced it and lay low.  This morning I couldn´t move any easier, in fact it was more painful and I have to figure out a new plan. 

limping along into Ventosa

We did not walk too much today.  Yesterday we walked from Viana into Logrono and left the Swedish women, who sailed merrily along.  Terry had back spasms and my toes were burning, so we took a bus to Navarette.  Stayed in a basic little pension and treated our bodies.  The Swedish sisters stayed in Navarette today and Terry and I walked only 7km. to Ventosa.  It is a lovely village among many vinyards and has the lovliest albergue I have ever been in.  It is calm and imvitimg, has softly playing classical music and also has a lovely garden.  I am so glad we didn´´t go to the next town with its warehouse of 100 pilgrims.j  This only holds 25.  Tomorrow I hope to walk 16 km of relative flat and hopefully won´´t talk myself out of this.  I have the debate every morning.  Why am I even doing this??  I have done it before.  A bad day in Spain is sure a lot better than a good day at work.  I´´ll get into the groove soon.  

I forgot how hard this is

Well, yesterday we walked from 7:00 a.m. til 3:p,m., out of Cizur Menor and into Puente La Reina.  We started through fields which slowly turned into a fairly steep incline and then a harder and rockier incline.  Reaching the top, we saw the pilgrim sculpture you see at the beginning of this blog, pictures that my sister took in 2008.  Good thing because there was a Mass then with at least 150 people there and us.  We stayed only a few minutes, and began the steep, rocky slope down.  I had forgotten how hard that was.  and how long.  I was praying to keep standing.  A fall would put me down like a turtle on its back.  walked and walked.  12 miles.  Finally got to our albergue which was on the other side of town.  The very smart thing we did was to have the backpacks transported to the albergue.  There they sat, waiting for us.  Today was to be an easy day.  only 9 miles.  but it was up many slopes of at least 45´I was standing at an angle trying to rest.  Crossed an old Roman bridge across the Roman road and up some more.  We are in a quaint Medeival town called Lorca in a wonderful albergue. My second toe has a bruise already from rubbing against the big toe.  But we´ll march on.  Tomorrow we wiill walk only 6 miles and take a bus to Los Arcos.  There is only 1 albergue and no potable water for 22 km.  The other albeergue is closed.   It was the one I had worked in 2006.  My hips are fine.  It is everything else that hurts.    

in pamplona

it is Friday afternoon and i will be staying here another night.  Terry, a friend of a friend, who is traveling with me convinced me to stay here another night.  wasn´t too hard as i had slept til 10a.m. today.  The bus to Roncesvalles still hasn´t left pamplona yet and i thoought myself, why travel up the mountain, only to come back down into pamplona two days from now?  Didn´t make any sense.  so we will walk out of pamplona into a small village, only about 10 km from here.  That will be easy enough tomorrow.  i figured out i could probably do this in 40 days.  Quite a spiritual number.   i am still trying to figure out blog and this keyboard.  i am finished.  maybe more tomorrow from Cizur menor.