Day 19 (27 KM)

Carrión de los Condes – Terradillos de los Templarios

The sunrise behind us was stellar, but the line of “walkers” was eerie.

For some reason today, even though it was seriously flat (not “Jerry flat”) ground us down.  A stop at the 1/2 way mark and running into Maureen…again, was a serious pick me up.  By then we we had done 17K, so 10K more “shouldn’t” be so bad especially if we added walking sticks and some serious audio “heroin”.

With 2moremiles left (which equals 3.4K) the town of Lédigos appeared, and with it a local bar.  It is here we had a quick and refreshing beer and charged to our planned stopping point, where hopefully there would be “room at the inn”, as we have taken to not making  reservations, and are going with the “flow”.  When we got to the albergue, we were the last ones to get beds, and the people who just walked up behind us were sent packing.  Divine providence, once again.

Now here is a “coincidence “.  When we arrived and we headed to our room, young gal remarked to Paul, “nice shoes”, referring to his “clown shoes “, the Altras. The new Columbia shoes he bought in Pamplona have broken down.  Luckily he continued to carry his Altras from there…just in case.  Then in the room she remarked about my pack, as she has the same one.  I asked her where  she was from that she would recognize Paul’s shoes and my pack.  “Oregon”, was the reply.  Well that explains everything.  I asked if if she has done the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).  ” No, but my husband has.  In fact he’s Craig, of Craig’s PCT planner.” Hey we used Craig’s PCT planner, and the world shrinks once more.  Even more interesting we discovered that she had been reading our blog and wondered if she would run into us.  Yet again the universe (aka. God) has a way of making things happen.  Her (Corra’s) feet were pretty trashed and I did my best to help her remedy her feet and shared my KT tape.  More and more the journey is about the people you meet and intersect with.  The walk is just the vehicle to get you there.

Buen Camino!
Be Strong!  Austin Strong!