¿Just.in Laredo?

What exactly is the conversion from kilometers to miles again? Well, either way, we´ve covered 79 kilometers in the past two and a half days...and then slept for eleven hours last night. We´re covering more ground than we exected, so we´re giving ourselves a bit of a break day today. We stayed last night in a nice little pension and devoured a pizza before bed (a great change from frozen pallea and sleeping on separate foam mattresses under a table). As you can tell, the honeymoon is providing all the romance Kerrie ever imagined.

Today, we´ll walk along the beach to Laredo to find the point where pilgrims take a boat across the bay to Sanantoña. That will be about it for today. Hopefully, we´ll be able to wake up a bit earlier tomorrow and cover another day´s worth of ground. Our trail legs are slowly coming along, and the packs are feeling a little lighter each day. We´re also learning not to take the more traditional and scenic route, because there´s a good chance you´ll end up accidentally walking an additional ten kilometers - including a 200m up-and-down. Here´s a few other things we´ve learned so far:

1. Parents in Spain are totally okay with letting their children jump off or rocks into the ocean. It totally looks like a ton of fun, but when it´s 2:30 and you still have 15 km to go, sometimes you have to settle for watching from the sidelines. Don´t worry though. The sidelines aren´t so bad. There´s an amazing view.

2. Blackberries grow in Spain just like they do in Oregon. Invasively. In fact, the northern coast of Spain is in many ways very similar. Tons of fruit trees (what doesn´t grow here?!), lots of rocky coast, foot hills (uggh, say my thighs), and beautiful coast. And the blackberries are just starting to ripen.

3. In some of these towns, people just love pilgrims. They go out of their way to encourage us and help us find the way, find the aubergue (where we sleep in separate beds, sometimes on kitchen floors), and even internet cafes. People have been very kind to us. Yesterday a man even gave us the last two ice cream bars from his freezer. God bless him!!!!! Of course on the other hand, no establishment seems to want to let us use their bathroom, even if we buy something from them. Everything is ¨no funciona¨ Hmmmm.... suspicious.

4. At the end of the day, horizontal feels amazing. My feet hurt so much it´s hard not to cry, but like Dan said, we´re getting more used to it and to the idea that this is our camino and we walk as much or as little as we need to. Santiago will be there when we get there.

5. The prayers everyone wrote and gave us at our wedding receptions are invaluable. They´ve certainly kept me going when I start to feel a little overwhelmed by the road and my emotions. It´s helpful to have something to put my mind on at those times. I´m thankful that you are with us in this way. One thing I have learned at this point is that as we walk the road, we do not walk it alone. You can´t. You´d never make it, not even 79 km. Not even 50 km. And there´s nearly 600 km more to walk. We pull out 5 prayers each day and save them for those times when we need a little something to keep walking towards. And then you walk with us, and that helps. A lot.

6. Eat early. Dinner in Spain consists of little Baguette sandwhiches which never fill Dan up. Grocery stores are a God-send to our health! GO to bed early, too. Pilgrims begin waking at 5 a.m. and it´s much easier to cover ground before 2:30 p.m.

7. We love you all even more than we knew. And we miss you. We´ll keep walking with you here, though, and you keep thinking of us. Our prayers these days are mostly for rest, strength, and rest again. And of course for you. Jeannie and Andy, I hope you are doing well. THinking of you and baby a lot and just waiting for that new life to come.