Miles: 15.34/Steps: 33,587

Todays Selfie:

Early in the morning, I had the choice of taking the street route or the longer river route to get to Carreon de loos Condes. I ended up taking the river route which was 13 miles. It was a quiet and peaceful walk that was mostly flat.

The clouds were amazing to watch today. They changed shape so quickly with the wind. I also really enjoyed watching the birds in the wind. It reminded me of the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a favorite of mine from when I was younger. If you haven’t read it, you should check it out.

I am a super slow walker in comparison to most and Father Mark and Marie caught up to me pretty early. I walked with them for a few hours. Father Mark read meditations, sang psalms and did the rosary while he walked. Most of this was in Latin. It was definitely an experience which made me think of all of the pilgrims who have walked the same steps that I was walking doing something similar.

Along the way Father Mark came a cross a church and asked if he could perform mass in it. He was denied which felt odd. Why wouldn’t a local church want to invite younger travelers in to their church to spread Catholicism. It feels like a lot of these communities and especially the Catholic church in these areas is getting ready to age out. Most of the parishioners are older. Younger people have moved to the larger cities and there are very few younger people who attend mass. In 10 years they will be running out of patrons.

Outside the church was this cool water pump.

We stopped in Villalcazar de Sirga for lunch and Father Mark was able to do mass for a small group of pilgrims in the local church.

Legend states that this statue of Mary has performed many miracles over the years.

Its always a glorious moment when you are within city limits.

Kat and I walked into town together and then met Dee for drinks with a friend. Dee graciously let Kat and I to stay in the apartment Airbnb she rented for the night.

Sadly Dee is having to go home because her plantar fasciitis has flared up but she got these lovely tennis shoes and is making the best of it. We told her she should get a knee bike and push herself along the Camino!

We went to mass to because the church was known for the evening music prayer service for pilgrims. There actually wasn’t much singing but they did do a lovely pilgrim blessing and gave everyone a small paper design which I have in my phone and will keep with me. A patron at church had left her walker off to the side. Dee was being funny and joked that she could use something like this to finish the Camino.

There was a combination farewell dinner for Dee and birthday celebration for Savina that evening. The entire restaurant serenaded Savina (and Kevin as it happened to be his birthday to).