Villar de Mazarife to Astorga

Gotta make this one uber-quick because I´m getting someone else´s leftover 13 minutes and then they´re going to lock me down.

I know I say this almost every day, but WHAT a day. Last night, I went to sleep on the deck...had the thickest wool blanket over me and it felt like camping with a mattress...cold face, incredibly warm under the blanket...kept tucking it under me as fingers of cold crept in here and there. It was very nice. Below me, in the dining area, a very competent guitar player from I-don´t-know-where was ROCKING the American classic rock canon with an equally talented American girl singing along...it was awesome. Proud Mary, We Can Work It Out, all of ´em. Nice.

Woke up before Skip today and wasn´t about to wake him up...because he would´ve made me GET up. As it was, it was ten till 7 when he finally poked me. Ha ha haaaa...got my sleep in. =) We were on the road by 7:30 and hit HARD a 6k, ramrod straight asphault road. Busted a total of 9k in under two hours before I stopped for tea, and was there a full fifteen minutes before Skip rolled in for his morning cerveza. The first run of the day is always the easiest...if I could get him to cool his heels before we started, I could go a long way without stopping. Each time we stop, it´s harder to start again, and by afternoon, it´s damn near impossible.

We hit Hospital de Órbigo for lunch. Someone posted a few days ago, advising me to skip from León to Hospital because it was by the road and noisy and boring. Not so. Whoever it was took the alternate route by the highway. We go through the fields when there´s a choice between the two. As Skip said the other day, ¨I didn´t come here to walk beside a highway.¨ Today´s scenery was breathtaking...beautiful green fields, pale blue mountains in the distance, farmhouses, John Deere tractors...very, very nice. Occasionally the yellow streak of a faroff sunflower field. Gorgeous.

Hospital de Órbigo is a nice little town, with a beautiful, long bridge with 20 arches. The translated legend to go with it in the guidebook makes NO sense...perhaps I have a future taking translations and making them into sensible English...so I´ll have to research it when I get home.

After Hospital, a lot of up and rolling hills. Our midafternoon ice cream stop, with 11k to go, was almost impossible to start again from. But we had to do it. Soon after it (it has an impossibly long name...I think Sanitibañar de Valdeiglesias?) there was a shrine-like setup and had an outfitted peregrino statue and a table and lots of rock formations done by pilgrims. There was an awesome passage on the table, laminated and left there, by Eckhart Tolle and I felt compelled to stop and copy the whole thing down...which got me 20 minutes behind Skip and worried him so much he came back looking for me, till four Italians who had passed me told him I was okay.

The remaining road was nice and scenic, but hot and difficult, too. We made it to the cross at San Toribio and had a panorama of the Astorga valley and the mountains we´re heading into tomorrow. It was beautiful...but again, we had 29k behind us and 5 to go. The last hour and a half almost did us both in. At one point I started hollering at arrows again that led us far wide of the cathedral where I knew the albergue to be, so I usurped them and followed my nose and we made it here.

We split up...he had to hunt a mailbox where he´d mailed himself something, and I went wandering through the cathedral and the museum. The museums were disappointing (perhaps I was just tired) but the cathedral inside was impressive...very, VERY tall with beautiful stonework.

I am SO SICK of crucifixes. Baby Jesus, Dead Jesus, Baby Jesus, dead Jesus. SICK OF IT!!!

So we had dinner at this fancy.looking restaurant with a peregrino menu. We were nearly snoozing into our plates, we were so knackered. Exhausted beyond all movement. We finished, and we were just sipping our beers, and all of a sudden, Skip goes, ¨OH. MY. GODDDDDD....¨ I look up.

CHRISTA!!!

She jumped the train and came to find us. Hated being alone. So she´s here now. Skip was beside himself. I was overjoyed. So now we are three again. We´re thrilled. She was still shaking from excitement and relief ten minutes after she arrived. I thought I didn´t have enough energy to blog tonight but knew I had to after her reappearance.

Two minutes left. Let me say this. I am DONE with 30k days. No more. We did 34 today...almost 22 miles. It´s too much. Too painful, too costly, too short-tempered at the end of the day. NO MORE. Santiago in about 9 days. Time is getting short now and I´m dragging my feet...I don´t want it to end.

Must post. Out of time. Love you all. MORE COMMENTS!!!