Woot! Finally, after five days of waiting, I was able to walk 22 K from León to Villadangos. My guidebook says it´s an easy walk, and should take about 5 1/2 hours. We left at about 7:00 this morning, and Marty and I rolled in at about 2:30--about 2 hours longer than average. But I´m pretty darn excited that I made it at all.
The day didn´t start so well. The albergue we stayed at last night was pretty cool, and we actually got to attend Compline (in Spanish, with some Enblish translation) with the sisters, which was nice. But we were also reminded that the Camino is still part of the real world; after the doors were locked last night, and before they were opened this morning, someone stole Niles´ iPhone. Pretty rough stuff. We thought about trying to notify someone, but there were hundreds of people in this albergue, and we knew it wouldn´t do much good. So Niles used my phone to cancel all his accounts and change all his online passwords, and he´ll just manage without music or books for the next two weeks.
As we were leaving, Niles and Emlyn connected with a very nice young French man, and they ended up walking ahead. Marty and I told them to just plan on meeting us at the albergue in Villadangos, and I would decide on the way if I needed to bus it or not. Fortunately, there were several towns between León and Villadangos, so I could try a short bit and see if my shinsplints were going to be so bad I couldn´t walk today. I just couldn´t tell until after we started walking.
After only about 7 k, Marty and I stopped for coffee, and I asked if I could have some ice. The very, very nice woman at the cafe actually put it in a plastic bag so I could ice my leg; it´s amazing how much simple things like that matter. We were again walking for several miles on concrete next to highways, so it was pretty tough on my leg. But I walked really slowly (Marty being gracious enough to hang back with me, which isn´t actually that easy), and I was able to keep going.
At about 10:30 I was wondering if I needed to stop, and I began some pretty serious praying, trying to determine whether I was just being stubborn in wanting to walk, or trying to avoid discomfort in thinking about stopping. Sometimes, it´s really, really hard to tell. So I just kept up that internal dialogue with God ("I really don´t want to just use you as my personal Santa Clause to make my life easy, but I really do want to walk this thing and would be most grateful if you would bring some healing to this leg and let me continue walking prayers for my friends. But I´m not trying to bargain, here..." You know that dialogue.) And suddenly the pain just began to smooth out. It didn´t disappear, but I stopped wondering whether I was making things worse, and really felt like I could manage to keep going if I just allowed myself the time to walk slowly and gently.
So we did it, and I really felt wonderful about that. We found the albergue, cleaned up, did laundry, and I´m pretty confident that I can walk again tomorrow. My leg is feeling much better, for some reason--although I´m going to just take it the day at the time.
Marty, Emlyn and I went to a grocery store to get supplies to make a simple dinner, and when we returned we discovered a police officer at the albergue. (This one is much smaller than yesterday´s.) Someone stole a camera that was charging in the front area--the same way Niles´ phone was stolen last night. Not a great feeling, and we´re all keeping a much closer watch on our stuff.
Spent time after dinner playing cribbage with the family, and it was wonderful to just sit and laugh together. Niles is coming to terms with the fact that he has to replace his phone and will be pretty much out of touch for a couple of weeks, and I´m coming to terms with the fact that it´s a daily thing whether I walk or bus. Guess we´re learning to take things as they come. Which was, if I remember correctly, a big part of the point.
So yeah, not a bad day.
Peace!
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