July 5: Los Arcos to Logroño

Another hurdle managed today; we covered about 17.5 miles over several ups and downs, and still got into Lograño before 2:30 We left this morning about 6:30 again, and travelled pretty fast through the day. It went much better than we thought it might, although tonight I´m pretty exhausted, even with a small nap. My feet are hurting quite a bit, but I´m hoping the more consistent dosing with anti-inflammatories with help.

Which reminds me, today I went into a pharmacy by myself and was able to purchase asperin, ibuprofin, shampoo, bandaids and sunblock. It´s much more impressive when you realize that very little is actually out on shelves; I had to ask for all this stuff, or figure out how to communicate what I needed. I was pretty darn proud of myself, to be honest.

Walked a good part of the day with two sisters from Quebec. I talked quite a bit with Sara, who is doing the Camino for the first time with her older sister, who has done it before. Sara decided to do this just about a week and a half before they left. (Ah, to be 18 again!) After a bit of getting to know each other, I asked her (after she mentioned that people in Quebec don´t really go to church) if she would mind telling me what she thought the problem with church was. She said, "They just tell people what to do, how to live. They come to a couple and say, ´Why don´t you have kids yet? Why don´t you have more kids?´ The church just tells people what to do without really knowing very much about people´s lives.´" She was very respectful sharing all this, and felt very comfortable being quite honest, which I appreciated. I haven´t met any young people yet who are involved in a faith community, and only a few of the adults. Interesting....

The weather continues to be beautiful, and this albergue is very nice, although we´re in a room with many beds again this evening. When we come in from the hike, we´re usually completely exhausted, but there seems to be a routine we´ve fallen into. First is get a cold drink. Then check in and get our credential stamped, and find out where our beds are. Then we shower, change into the clean clothes (which we may have been carrying tied to the outside of our packs if they weren´t dry when we started out in the morning), and take the clothes we were wearing down to be washed. This is usually in an outside laundry area, although now and then there are washing machines and dryers. Most often, tho, we wash by hand. If we´re lucky, there´s a clothes wringer, otherwise we just wring stuff out by hand and find space on the laundry lines to hang things up. One of the advantages of starting early and getting in early is that you get your laundry hung up while there´s still plenty of sun, so maybe it will be dry in the morning.

After hanging out the laundry, we usually go back to the room for a short rest or nap. Many restaurants don´t open until 7:00 or later--which is interesting when you´re trying to get to bed at 8:30 or 9:00. Many times we find a place that serves a "pilgrim menu," usually a pasta salad of some type, veal or chicken, a dessert (maybe flan or ice cream) and wine. We can usually get this for about 10 0r 11 euro. (The bed in the algergue is usually between 4 and 6 euro each per night, with a simple breakfast of bread, jam and coffe an additional 2 euro.)

For lunch, we either buy baguettes and cheese, or stop along the way for sandwiches. Today I had a fried egg, ham and cheese sandwich--pretty much heaven on a plate.

Often, as I walk, I have specific prayers on my mind. Today I walked prayers of joy and blessing for my colleague Mark and his (happening almost as I write this, I think!) now-wife Jen, celebrating their wedding. At the same time, I walked prayers of comfort for the good friend of a good friend. I don´t actually know Sean, who lost his beloved wife yesterday, but I walked prayers of healing for him and his two daughters anyway, and for my friend Maurice ministering to his friend´s grief from across an ocean.

How rich, and painful, and wondrous, and fragile our lives are--and how much we need the prayers of each other in so many different ways. Sara, in her conversation, shared her desire that people would just simply learn to love and care for each other. We do that pretty easily and naturally on the Camino; what is it that makes it so difficult elsewhere in our lives?

Tomorrow we are walking almost 20 miles, with the first 2/3 of it uphill. Not too steep a climb, I hope, but still, our guide book tells us to plan on 8 1/2 hours--not counting rest breaks. Anybody up reading this--we´ll appreciate your prayers!

Thanks for your encouragment, and blessings from the Camino!