¨When We Were Pilgrims...

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The new phrase we now use is ¨When we were pilgrims...¨Amazing what a difference a few hours makes in assessing where one is on the experience spectrum!

Our old phrase, courtesy of our theatrical Lynne Rose, was ¨We´re walking. We´re walking. We´re talking.¨It was reflective of what would happen on a film set, her old domain with husband David as First Assistant Director. As the tape rolled, instructions flowed to the extras and all involved. Jim took the line to heart and so often, after a small cafe solo or a cortado (espresso and a dash of hot milk), he would shout out the instructions. We would pick up our relatively small packs and put shoe leather back to dusty trail. And, yes, we were walking and we sure were talking.

It is now about 140 kilometres later for most of us (Brad and John snuck in an extra ten kms so that they could say they started from Samos area while the rest of us, despite logging some miles beforehand, could only claim pilgrimage from Sarria). The journey has surpised some of us. Injured are Brad, one of our early strong walkers, who had to come in using both my poles - the thoughtful birthday gift from my family. Lynne was using one, I the other. Brad needed both to support his two very battered Achilles tendons the rest of the way home. It slowed all of us and made us doubly grateful for our health. Julia was probably the worst off and we cry for her. Her knee surgery of five months ago was doubtless not fully healed and her stubborn nature did her in. She tearfully had to finally give up the trail. Her custom knee brace had rubbed her skin raw, the Advil was not touching the pain and her knee had swollen up like a bad balloon. We said a very sorrowful goodbye to her today as her husband wheeled her about in a wheelchair. We are all very concerned for her and added her to our many prayer requests.

Our numbers are starting to dwindle. We said goodbye to Tina from Texas, the only stranger in our midst, last night. She was an interesting duck. In the US Army Reserve as a Lieutenant Colonel for fun, a paralegal consulting ER nurse by day, and a farmer of sorts along with it all. She stood up one breakfast and proudly said ¨Yáll, I have an announcement to make. Ah am a new mama. Two of my girls gave birth to little babies last night¨. She was referring to sheep. Those ¨little rascals¨will give her much pleasure until slaughter season hits. John and Julia left this morning, Jim and Linda leave at dawn tomorrow, Brad mid-day, and those left will be me, Sandi and Lynne - and, all of us will be leaving Spain on the 31st.

There will be many stories from this trip. One we will always call ¨The Manipulator¨, as Julia called him. During a wonderful picnic in a park near the Samos monastery, we watched a woman hug a tree at length, then turn and hug it backwards. Okay, we thought, a little odd but there you go. Capturing the earths energy or something - who really knows and by the way it is her business. Now, the only judgement was that a couple of the women thought a good bra fitting would do this woman a lot of good, but I digress. The more startling view, as we turned from our wine, salad and cheese, was of a man in his early sixties with his pants around his ankles and his butt towards us. Oh. Julia says this seems to happen around her a lot and we are not going to ask too many questions. Anyway, the fellow hiked up his trousers, picked up his custom walking stick and proceeded through our picnic with a hearty ¨Hola¨. We, being polite Canadians, had replied Hola in return. Well, darned if this man did not dog our many steps. His stick was spotted outside an albergue, where one can get a pilgrim´s passport stamped or sleep for the night. He followed Linda and Lynne for a time and conversed with them (They think he might be Dutch). While he payed Lynne little heed, he seemed very interested in our nice and wonderful Linda - bless us one and all - until she managed to use her photography talents as a valid excuse to linger over a small photo or another in the hope that he would then carry on without her company. But, darned if Julia and John did not see him again in Santiago at their very fancy hotel - all spiffed up and looking much more polished than the first time Julia ever, well, laid eyes on him. At least, his pants were belted.

My feet survived the trip pretty well. I was worried beforehand having had issues with my left foot in the past. Apart from a couple of blisters, all was well. But, when I reported said blisters, Sandi immediately blurted out ¨But WHAT are WE going to do!?!?!¨ It became a tagline for our trip. Often, the words, ¨But What are WE going to do!!??¨would emerge at any appropriate, or even inappropriate moment. It always cracked us up. I don´t think Sandi has laughed this hard for so long and at such goofy stuff as on this trip. We all take the mickey out of one another and parroting her classic line back to her always makes those assembled guffaw yet again. We have had a great comraderie as we cared for each other, worried about one another´s well-being and also teased each other when a good teasing was in order.

There is so much to write and maybe I will do more when I get back home. Since I started composing this blog, I have had bad news from England.

At this point, the prognosis is not good about my mother in law and I am cutting short the vacation part of the trip to get to London tomorrow. It is not the right time for me to be telling you about the amazing time we have had but trust that it was a worthwhile trip and I would encourage any of you to strap on your best boots and have a bash at it.

Nancy

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Comments

[Leah and Ray]

Thanks again.
Hi Lynne and Nancy, Thanks so much for sending along the wonderful comments about your trip happenings. Congratulations on completing your mission. I can't wait to hear more stories from Lynne when she gets home. Loads of love, Leah and Ray