Is there a Norse God of snoring? Perhaps Thör had an evil twin, Snör? If so, he manifested himself in the form of the German guy who reminded me of Bryan Scott in our shared room at the albergue last night. None of us slept very well, at all, mostly because of Snör, but also because of the mother of one of our roommates who felt the need to call at 3 am.
Today was an 19-miler, and again we moved slow. Dad's feet do not seem to be healing. I'm sure that walking all day has nothing to do with that. The country is so beautiful, we all found ourselves wishing we could concentrate less on walking and more on enjoying God's creation and on introspection, but time and weather have proven to be our enemies.
One long stretch today was nearly 6 miles between towns with little shade, and uphill. We were so worn out by the time we got to town we rested in a bar for an hour before doing the final four miles to the medieval town of Santo Domingo de la Calzada (Saint Sunday of the Shoes, as I jokingly translate it)
and the Parador where we are tonight. Our only consolation is that two young guys from Mexico who were walking the same stage were in the same bar for just as long as us, looking just as worn out.
It hit nearly 100 today, and it is difficult to walk any kind of distance in that kind of heat with no shade, much less uphill. Dad had a bit of heat exhaustion, so we limped the last mile in to town - literally.
We are exhausted. Rather than drag ourselves out of bed way too early on the morning and hot the road again, we are going to lay over for a day, rest, and regroup. Dad summed it up nicely: "I love everything about this trip, but I'm not enjoying it anymore."
We had a long discussion tonight about needing to keep to our schedule vs. How important it is to take things in stride and enjoy the journey. Since our only fixed commitments are the reservations at Paradores, of which there are three left, we may adjust the schedule some and keep walking, we may walk as much as we are able to avoid the heat of the day and "make up the difference with other modes of transportation or we may figure something else out. At this point, we know it would be foolish to try and click off another 15 miles in our current state. None of us are willing to fight heat stroke to say we walked all of the Camino in 32 days
This sounds more doom and gloom than it is. I view this as all part of the adventure, and would not trade the experience for anything. Today on out long break, Mom and Dad got to talking about their parents and their quirks and how they were embarrassed by them when they were growing up. Mom told us, in tears, about how she hated how her Dad dressed like a farmer, and was always taking out his dentures, but if she could have just one more day with him, he could do anything he wanted. I wouldn't trade that conversation for all the stamps in my Pilgrim Passport, or anything else, for that matter.
Going back to our rooms tonight from the restaurant in the hotel (which is fabulous, pictures tomorrow, I promise), Mom asked if I was going to take the stairs up. I said I might, and she her knees didn't seem to be bending very well. Nay that moment we both proceeded to trip/fall down the two little steps that led to the elevator. We were both laughing so hysterically Dad came out of his room to see what had happened. I'll be sure to keep you posted on Plan B. in the meantime, since God rested on Sunday, I guess we will too.
No comments:
Post a Comment