We return to Tio Pepe's. Rainer and I are in the cafe-bar-reception desk and I drop my 7 Euro sunglasses and they break into two pieces. My third pair is now gone. I pick them up and put the two pieces on the bar. I order a small beer and head to my room to get a ziplock bag, I need ice and I need it now. I am facing a twenty mile walk tomorrow which is looking more and more impossible with each step I take and I'm not wearing a 23 pound backpack.
I return, limping more than ever when the woman behind the counter says "no" when I ask for ice while holding out the zip lock. Then she disappears but soon returns with a frozen ice pack. With Rainer interpreting she tells me to sit and to tie the Ice pack to my leg with the towel. I do and it feels great. But will it be enough?
She then goes into the back room returns with the Spanish version of super glue and proceeds to fix my sunglasses. She puts them behind the counter and says, "mañana". Amazing.
I sit there for the next two hours and every twenty minutes like clock work without saying a word, Loli (pronounced Low-lee) brings me another frozen ice pack. When its time to close she hands me another ice pack and a small box with a tube of cream in it and tells me "tonight and mañana". I do as she instructs.
I apply the cream twice during the night because I can't sleep. I must leave early to have any chance to finish twenty miles. I only hope I can walk. Limping twenty miles does not sound like a good option.
When I go to breakfast Loli is on duty and brings me an ice pack and cafe con-leche. I'm not sure how it will hold up but I think I have a chance. I would have had no chance without Loli. She is my most recent blessing.
As I prepare to leave she wishes me Buen Camino, hands me another ice pack and tells me to put it in the ice at the next hotel (her young assistant interprets) and use it again and then gives me the cream, a card she has signed and written something on and makes the sign of the cross. I now know I can make it. These people are nice!
I could have stayed at the Albergue because it was already paid for but the truth is the comfort of a private room with a bath and the added value of having a much better chance of having access to the ice I so desperately need right now is critical. The price does not matter because I have no doubt that the value of this expense or fee is indisputable. "Price only matters in the absence of value". I believe it, I have preached it in the business for more than thirty years.
Just one month ago I played in a small event to help raise some money for a young guy and afterwards I was having a glass of wine with a friend from the Club, Rudy. The conversation is about sales and I share with Rudy my "price only matters in the absence of value" belief and he just loves it. He writes it down as if he just discovered electricity.
Rudy gets it because he is a very talented salesmen. He could sell snow blowers in Miami! Price only matters in the absence of value and the small price I paid to make the change which brought me to Loli saved my Camino. I can't put a price on that!
It is 8:30 and I start. It's cold. Not chilly its cold. There is a breeze as I start and I am not limping like I was at the end of yesterday. This will be a long day. I will walk and limp alone on my way to Astorga. My first stop will be about four miles from the starting point where I will get something to eat. I will need more than just the usual morning carb fix.
My first two miles are along side a road. The path is narrow and with my leg still very sore I must be very carful today, even more than any other day because one miss step on a stone and I will turn an ankle and be done for. Add to the fact that I just don't know how the leg will hold up on the longest walking day of my Camino.
I make it to the cafe, Rainer is sitting outside having a little breakfast. I join him. We will walk apart because my pace will be very controlled . We will meet for dinner. Dinner will be late because with a walk of twenty miles I have no idea how long it will take. Perhaps ten hours, assuming all goes well? I don't know I have never walked this far before in a single session with 23 pounds on two good legs and today I only have one.
I have an omelette and a cafe, a water and a diet coke. I finish breakfast with Swiss dark chocolate. I also buy an orange for later and an extra bottle of water. There will be a few other chances for water but I have to be sure I have enough. The weight will just have to be dealt with.
The landscape is exactly the same as the last three days. I could take a picture today and post it as four days ago and it would not matter. There will be very few pictures taken today. The real reason for a lack of interest in the scenery is the trail and the rocks and stones. They are everywhere . My poles will get a good workout today. I will spend the next six hours staring at the ground trying to avoid that one rock which will turn an ankle and create a nightmare.
I have only seen a few pilgrims today but with only one or two exceptions everyone is wounded. I pass a woman limping badly with poles in hand but no backpack. She must have sent the backpack ahead with a donkey service. She is a trooper. I am passing her and I just tell her to hang in there and she thanks me and I move on.
I'm doing ok and my leg is starting to feel the effects of the long walk. I do come close on several rocks but I avoid a big mistake. I have no idea how far I am from Astorga but I know that with each step I am getting closer.
One thing I am doing is concentrating on listening to my walk. It's strange but with the poles smashing into the ground I can take my mind off the discomfort. I'm listening to my Camino. With each step the poles record the journey. Sounds strange but it is helping.
I finally see a sign which tells me I am about four miles from Astorga. I'm going to make it but I am limping more noticeably, there are hills today and they are all tougher than they should be, especially downhill . I make it to the city. I should have about a mile to go. My leg is now worse than at anytime in the last two days. I am moving like that young woman I saw hours ago. I see a sign for my hotel, I am close.
The last challenge, 84 stairs to the top where the hotel is waiting. I know it's 84 because I count them. It's another way of just not focusing on what I am feeling. I make it and enter the hotel. I dump the backpack and present my passport. I am at the wrong hotel!
There are two hotels with nearly identical names. The young guy at the desk tells me it happens often . I can see by the look on his face that he can tell I don't have a lot of energy left to go much more. Good news the hotel I am in is just a five minute walk. A five minute walk is like another two miles for me right now. He shows me on a small map where I need to go.
It is a short walk. I made it! Eight and a half hours of walking and limping and I will soon be able to shower, rest and most importantly get ice!
That's it for now. Tomorrow is just thirteen and a half miles. I hope I can recover. Wish me luck.
Wow!! I wish you luck!! Jill
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