trapped into the backpack and laced up my Teva hiking boots, paid the hotel bill and proceeded to walk in the dark at 6 am. First 3 songs on my ipod were Midnight Rider by Willie, Country Road by James Taylor, and In Numbers We Survive by The O’s. It was a good musical start to this journey! Super excited was I!  Thank God for iPhone maps and curse them just the same! The 56 mile walk to Logrono was underway! Looked like a straight shot. Mostly paved sidewalk out of the city while following the Camino Shell that coincided with my iPhone map, who obviously thought i was a slow moving car. Unfortunately, I was on the auto/bicycle route that took me up out of the Basin of Pamplona!!! Imagine backpacking the highways in Big Bend National Park! After 16 miles of this strenuous, backbreaking #@%? the road finally started to decline shifting the pain from calves to hamstrings. Man. What am I? I tell ya what I’m not! I’m not 18 anymore! I’m a 39 year old stuck in a 65 year old’s body! Drinking beer everyday for a year isn’t good training for this!
At the bottom of the decline (about 3 miles long) I found a vacant bus bench! I was done! Done i tell you! This is no way to mourn your wife. Maybe it’s a ticket to join her! This was around 12:30 pm when I plopped down on the bus bench. There was NO WAY I would survive this. Apparently I climbed Alto del Pedron which means Hill of Forgiveness! Well, today I paid for every sin I committed since I was a teen! God consider my penance paid, please?
No bus came. I put my pack back on and I climb a little more to a little village called Obanos. The first bar/restaurant I see I went in and dismantled. After 45 minutes of RnR and a conversation with a local in my best broken-Spanish (and my free translator app), I realized I wasn’t on the “Walking Path”.
Rejuvenated I got 2 bags of chips, a glass of vino and 2 waters to go. I was back on my way! Supposedly, you have to follow the little yellow arrows along with the “Camino shell” that marks the walking way! Three kilometers later I was in Puenta La Reina. I saw a small hotel the minute the path ended and I got a room. I passed out at about 2 pm. It’s now 6pm and I just woke up. What? No hot tub? Guess an extremely scolding bath will have to due to soak my throbbing legs and back.
I’m now out exploring the city a little without my pack, having a beer and some food and getting ready for a much easier walk tomorrow. I think tomorrow I will reach Logrono.
On a spiritual front, I listen to this Joyce Meyers daily devotional by audio every mid-morning. February 20th just happened to be about mourning a tragedy…hmmm. It was a great 5 minute devotional based around Psalm 30:5. Very inspirational. But after the hike from Hades I realized that distraction from physical pain works to forget too!
I feel you here with me Lindy and I won’t quit looking for Peace and Understanding, and I won’t quit this walk till I find it.
Thank you folks for indulging my rumblings. Gets lonely out here when you only speak-da-english!