The Crack of the Camino.

SO, Mags calls the comraderie, the fun and people after a tough day... The Crack of the Camino.
There is so much "crack"in this town, Burgos, that you can't walk through it.
Kyle's first question in every town is "is it legal to walk around town while drinking a beer.
Burgos is one very big street party. On every street.

Tomorrow early going to hopfully make it to Hornillos.Its the dreaded Meseta.
So, lately..Kyle forgot his walking stick. We both tried finding it. We lost a little time and walked in the opposite direction, but in the end I'm more rested and Kyle is back on his Camino.
So do you think its a sin to soak my feet in the bide. Not sure how to spell it,but its very nice to have.

Economically, there is NO sign of failing economy here. Everyone is well dressed. Lots of construction and babies everywhere. Maybe they think they'll procreate their way out of economic disaster.
No sign of Moa and Mom, the Swedish mom and pretty daughter. I did see the French Guy with his burrow. Even that donkey slid in the mud, I know, I was following his tracks.
There is a Dutch bro and sis. He was commenting on how a pesln must be stupid if theyhave problems like blisters, etc. Three days later he sits next to us and shows his swollen ankle. He can't figure out why it hurts.

The two big Dutch women are gone, done.
No sign of Ray the big American.

Hope to see Vanessa, the tall very white, sweet girl from Ireland.

Group of American students, like 19 of thm, should be passing me tomorrow.

I'm sure to run out of Advil.
Day before yesterday we saw a Itallian Guy in nothing but a bright yellow speedo. The Japonese, on the other hand are covered from eyeball to toenail

We met another. 4amercans in sjpdp. They said they've Bennett friends for 27 years. Tom, who's gay and feeling guilty, Terry an Derek, a couple. That don't sociallize much an Pam, who maybe doesn't know that Tom is gay. They should be showing up soon too.

More soon, check my Facebook page for photos. I still haven't figured out how to do it here from my phone. Bacquet Trefort. On Facebook

Compede for Blisters...

Compeed for blisters, Supports on both knees, Ointment for my hip, then wake up with Strepp throat! Thank god for Amoxi.. Well its amazing how far you can get on a 15 minute bus ride. We stayed in a Parador last night for a good rest. My feet are better, my knees are better, my hip is ok on level ground, I´m almost over the strepp.

I think i´ll make it. Leena called from london and offered to book a massage for me at the hotel. They didny have the service available, but the thought was enough to make me feel better.

Kyle and I are going to have to backtrack a little today, but we´ll catch up later. More on this manyana.

Ciao

Logrono today.

GWe are sitting in the sun.
We are taking a break today. Damian-o and Mags are leaving today. They only had10days. Well miss them. Moa and mom are a tough couple of meatballs. Annalee, the Sedish weather reporter, I think we lost. Maybe s hell shows up later d own the road.
Ray the big American we haven't seen either. Lots of people or not going the whole way.. We still have a long ways to go.

We are done with th e rain finally, only problem is now very hot sun and no shade. At least there is no more mud. Problem is my pack is heavier with all the rain gear.
.
For food we get great deals. Normally 3coursea with beer or wine. All for about 10euros. Somedays are better than others. I'm eating 3times a day. Lots of bino bianco.

So did I tell you about the French girls? So Kyle is right behind me and these 2 girls ask Kyle where they can get "tampon". His face..oh... His says I don't know, so they think he doesn't know the word so they start hand signals. He practically stopped breathing. Finally, they're see that I am getting my passports stamp(tampon in French ) so they were satisfied. It took Kyle a few minutes to get over it.

"Did You See Jesus?´"

"Did you see Jesus?" said Damion, and then Mags said " Oh ya, he was there this morn´in, help´n people. He was ware´in sandals" Kyle and I said "no we didnt see him. Then they said "Oh yeah, he was there, helpin people on with their backpacks; He¨s from Canada; You didnt see him!"

These are the people we are seeing, meeting. Like every other time in our lives some people are just easier to get close to.

So, we have Ray, the big American, Ive heard raised menonite, with the massive pack; we have not seen him.

Then, Damion-o(as we just recently started calling him) and Mags who are from Ireland. When Kyle was explaning why he thought it would be cool to work for Google in Dublin because they have Beer Fridays, Damion said ¨"Only Fridays? What about the other days? Thats Fvghv/d up. Screw Google! Who would want to work there?

Then, Annalee, the Swedish weather reporter who also turned 50 this year. she wants to go to Perpignan. Maybe the same time as us. I think shes hurting too.

The Swedish people got their luggage. Mother and daughter. I like them both. Daughter is Moa and mother is Kaisha. Not sure about spelling. Very cool. Pretty girl and cool mom.

For Linda and Kyle, We have covered like 40 miles over mountain in rain and lots of mud. We walked our asses off, literally, to make it in time for the wine tour. The importer said that they close at 3,30 so we were in Obanos by 1,30. Only to find that they thought it "would be difficult today, could we come at 8am tommorrow?". My feet will show them difficult to do today. Oh well, lots of wine in the world.

So I skipped ahead. Yesterday, I hurt so bad. I didnt want to walk but there was no choice. We headed for Pamplona. Kyle was having a hard time slowing down for me. I was having a hard time rolling over in my sleeping bag! My hip hurt so bad that it was hard to make my leg take a step. We split up, Kyle went ahead to book us a place to sleep. I struggled; really struggled. Then I was marching in the mud bog that is "the camino" and an old Spanish guy with his wife in tow yelled up to me from below. in Spanish of course, but he was older and i was raised to respect my elders, so I understood him to say something like "stupid girl, come down from there! get down here closer to the river and off that muudy hillside" So I sat on my ass and slid down the hillside and followed him and his wife until I saw the yellow camino arrows there next to the river on dry level ground. I followed my own camino all the way to Pamplona, My feet hurt because i have blisters between my toes. Actually it feels like i have a testicule between my little toe and the next on both feet. Its better today.

So

all for now, someone is waiting for the only computer. my bunk, is ready and we do another 12 miles in the am.

Q. So. How do They say ¨"Switchback" in France?

A. They dont! It is all staight up or straight down. Well, we made the 27km yesterday only to find, again, ·no room at the inn·. We were beat, me more than Kyle.

We arrived in Roncesvalles at about 6pm, got our stamps in passports, and were offered a table for 2 or we could join another 2 at a table for 4. I said, no problem, we´ll join the couple already seated. They are Irish, like from Ireland, and their names are Damion and Mags, although when they say her name you think they are saying MIKES. Just a wee bit of an accent. So they are cool, I`ve invited them to Idaho, told them all about all of you, well, maybe not everything. They said that these last 2 days were really sheet and maybe they would just come to Idaho and let Franck cook for them and they could just really take it easy, and i wouldnt even know because id still be killing myself out here in the fyucding rain-

We met another nice boy from Calif.. he is a big boy, i think 27 or so and working on his phd, his name is Ray. His mom sewed a pocket into his t shirt for his valuables. He´s a good strong maybe 300lb. His bag weighs at least 40lb. I am pretty sure he´s minimizing the weight. A nasty little french guy told him he was "stupid". He is a sweet boy whos family is worried about him, over here, all alone, he has extra blankets, who knows maybe a microwave in there. All I know is that I worried about him all day. He made it the whole 27km in the rain with a backpack that makes lonnni´s green monster look like a childhood pet.

Also a Swedish weather reporter, I took her pic but cant get it on here yet,

In all, we made it, it was quite difficult. I am glad i didnt take my whole pack. Kyle seems fine, ok, maybe sore a bit, but he could for sure go faster than me. I hate that uphill, and i mean uphill. and only when you think its gonna be ok, ... down hill on a muddy, rocky, like big slippery rocks, rainy slope that seems to go on forever when my legs are already so tired.

Today, we were quite ready to take a bus because of the rain et al, in the end we decided that we better get going. My hip hurt from the uphill yesterday, and my knee from the downhill. Zee Americans were suprised to see us here in such speed. We walked/limped 20 km. I had a bad time on the uphill and Kyle found me a stick. It actually helped. Lots of Advil. and at night lots of Red Wine. speaking of which. i lucked out tonight and sat at dinner with 2 young french girls. Very "nice·, from Paris, they sang their prayer before they ate. LOng short... They didn´t drink wine. So, 3 people at the table, 1 person(moi)drinking wine=no problem. The Albergue (Zadika)that ·WE· made reservations at I think is good. Clean, i sprayed for bugs anyway. Not too mant cots in a room. This Computer,And a foot massage thing under the pc desk. Spanish keyboard is easier than French or German.

Tommorrow, Pamplona, dont know where.

Notes; Sorry Bill but the pedometer said that I walked 9km yesterday. I had to leave it behind, the bastard.

Swiss army knife so good. Mindy´s tips, walk backwards has saved us both.

Its late and everyone os sleeping, i need to get my bag out, quietly and slleep too. i hope i dont make too much noise looking for the Advil.

we are in Zubiri.

So, at random.....

Such a big world,such a tiny keyboard. My cell phone.

We stayed today in SJPDP. We didn't have much choice, I called ahead to Orrison to find that there were no beds left. So in the morning we do the whole enchilada 27km in one day. I however have opted to send my pack ahead by " Burro Express ". Ill take all the emergency stuff in a small loaner bag, and im wearing almost everthing, I just save about 7lbs bysendig my sleeping bag,pack and extra undies ahead. The rain is non stop, it's uphill,the river is flooding the city,and I think about 15miles on a muddy uphill slope is enough. Hey, I dont have THAT many sins.

Bought some magnesium tablets,and some spray for bedbugs today. You should have seen the American girl when she asked Kyle what's the spray for, to hear"for the bed bugs"! We are not taking chances. Not sure sheknows about the possible attacks.

There is Swedish mother and daughter with lost luggage. Bummer the airline will cover 100$,but they dont want to buy anything because they don't want to carry it. There is an American kid who's bag weighs over 35lbs. Scary!


So there are people who do this walk that they call the runners. They dont actually run they just walk so fast and so far. We met one,a woman from Argentina. She walks 40-65km per day. She sent her bag by Burrito Express too.

So to avoid being stuck, I've decided that we need to make reservations more than one day in advance when possible. So we "should " be in Roncesvalles tomorrow, then Zubiri on Sat, 19th, then Pamplona (web cam) on Sunday the 20th, then Obanos on Monday for a tour of the vinyard of Septentrion. Not sure I spelled that right, looks different on a Tom Thumb keyboard. It is good Spanish red. Nice texture. If you have not tried it, then get ye to le coq.

I will sign off now. Ill finish my Marcillac (for my health) and sleep for tomorrows strength. Hopefully we,pl be in Roncesvalles by 3 or 4pm.

Thanks for the comments, I haven't figured out how to respond yet.

Table of Travelers From Around the World.

We just had dinner with a large table of pilgrims, from Sweden to Buenos Airies to Germany to Virginia. Only one Frenchman. Luckily the most common language was English. Kyle will sleep there tonight and I have a room at a B and B. Noone actually knew what we were eating, but it was good and we were hungry.

The weather is so bad, Kyle and I are the only ones walking tomorrow. They are all waiting for something; lost luggage, the rest of the group, so we will be ahead of them at least for a day.

Not sure where the next pc will be, and it takes so much longer with the foreign keyboard.

Notes; Exoficio shirt very good, patagonia panties-garbage, swiss army knife great, mamott windbreaker awesome, shoes to ealy to tell.

Tommorrow- Orrisson

first stamp in the passport

so we are here in SJPDP after a day of busses and trains. Just a note the keyboard is in french, so if there are any errors it is because the letters are not where they should be. We have a dinner reservation in a few minutes so i,ll come back when i have more time. We hqve been rained on all day and could use a warm meal.

weather reporting

Today is Kyles birthday, I think he forgot. He's on a train from Paris to Figeac. I'm at the Amsterdam airport. It's terrible to pass all the duty free stores and know that I cant buy anything because I dont want to carry it through 3 countries. Bummer. It is cold in this airport. But next week it will probably seem like a warm refuge....

So, dont tell Kyle but I just checked the weather through the first week. St Jean Pied de Port, Orrisson, Roncesvalles, Pamplona. Rain, Rain, and more rain! We have black garbage bags as rain suits for our back packs. We each bought a good rain jacket, but neither of us bought rain pants.

More from France. For now I need to get to my gate.

One Last - Stateside Blog Post - and.....

Pedicure, night of sleeping between really good sheets, glass of Champagne with Lonni, driving my car, listen to a Cd without worrying about batteries, full size keyboard, check my kids on facebook, silk blouse, normal underwear, full carafe of hot coffee already made when I wake up, walk barefoot indoors, food from Le Coq Rouge, smiles from the awesome people I work with, television in bed...Ben and Jerry's Napoleon Dynamite..., cute shoes,

and kisses from Franck.


For a While Anyway!

It's a lot to give up! I hope I make it.

Thanks for all the support. I finally got my bag to 15lbs. I think I'm ready.