Santiago or Seattle?

We are down to the last day of walking. My body is telling me this is a good thing, my heart and my spirit are of two minds: part of me is ready to return home, the other hopes the adventure will never end. I suppose the challenge is in not allowing the adventure to end even if your time away must.

The closer we get to Santiago, the more difficult the walking becomes for me, and I think for my parents as well. The Camino is much more crowded, both with foot and bicycle traffic. This means you must me constantly alert, and with so many people on the trail it also means that people are generally not as kind and friendly. The weather does not help. We are back to low clouds and rain. This is good for walking, but for a child of the south and the sun like me, not so good for the soul.

On our trek today, we met an old women out for her (I presume) daily walk around the little town we were in. She asked where we were going today, and where we had come from. She told us of her own pilgrimage experience, and prayed that Santiago would grant our wishes. We also asked that God would bless her. To me, these snippets of conversations and brief glimpses into the lives of strangers are priceless and irreplaceable and truly represent the spirit of what we are about on this journey.

I believe the trip into town tomorrow will be difficult: we must skirt an airport and the outskirts of a large city, and the closer to the historic city we get, the more crowded it will be, particularly as many pilgrims will be trying to get to the Cathedral in time for the special Pilgrim's Mass on a Sunday. We are not set on making it for the Mass at noon; we will be content to arrive whole and hale.

Nearing the end of our journey has us contemplative. I am not sure how I will feel when I enter the Cathedral square tomorrow, but I know that I will feel that I have accomplished something, having prepared for the better part of a year and walked 350 miles to "arrive". I am guessing that the arrival will be somewhat anti-climactic, except for my feet, as I have learned so much, met so many good people, and experienced so many unique things along the way - and that was the point.

So, until I remove my Pilgrim's scallop shell in Santiago tomorrow, I'll leave you with a couple of pictures. The first is of a pilgrim who is buried where he died on the Camino, less than a day away from his destination, and the second, a bit less heavy, of a Lamborghini tractor. It's probably the only Lamborghini I can ever hope to afford.