The Memphis Pilgrims

We have a confession. We told a little white lie in the last post. We told y’all we were going to take 2 days to get to Finisterre (trans. “end of the world”), but we had already booked our accommodation in Finisterre for last night. Confidence is key. The plan was to get there last night, so we would have a night to watch the sunset at the end of the world. And the Memphis Pilgrims execute their plans. So against our better judgement, we headed out yesterday morning for our 90 km half road, half mountain biking trek. We only brought the essentials, which included the clothes we were wearing, tooth paste and toothbrushes, phone chargers, and phones. My computer did not make the cut, which is why we did not post yesterday. Alex though believed his crocs were a necessity, so he strapped them on the end of his bike. What a sight that was. At one point during the ride, we were passed by a guy in a biking suit and biking shoes who looked like this wasn’t his first rodeo. I was ou

We have arrived, St. James.  To the land of Milk and Honey.  The Promised Land.  The Paradise City where the grass is green and the girls are pretty.  The Big Dawg.  The Grande Perro.  The Walk of St. James, Sant Yago.  The Santiago de Compestella.  We have arrived. We have arrived. There were times on this trip when I thought Santiago was not a real place.  These times included about all of the days.  But it is most definitely real.  Today, we walked a pure 20 kilometers.  It was one of our easiest days, and it was needed.  Our albergue (our final albergue) was a great one to end on.  It had good showers and good beds, which is really all you care about.  Yes, there was one last symphony, and we both luckily had our ear plugs to block out some of the beautiful, natural music. Last night’s dinner was one of my favorites.  We ordered veal, fries, and salad, and when they served our food, they also brought out a searing cast iron skillet.  We were very confused, so we played it

Chomp, chomp. We were the hungry hippos today. We continuously took small bites at our long road meter by meter. We have had a joke along the Camino that Santiago has a lot of friends that protect him from your Memphis Pilgrims. The meters have done a good job defending Santiago. We aren’t gonna lie. It’s been a tough and testing month, but Santiago seems to be running short on friends now with only 20,000 “friends” left. Last night as Alex and I were preparing to lay down to sleep, we see our French friend in our same albergue. He always brightens our day because when we see him on the walk, he always yells in excitement and exclaims something in French. We started yelling back eventually and giving him thumbs up. This time though when he sees us he doesn’t yell, but instead, he walks over and gives each of us one of his cookies. It sealed our friendship. We may never see this man again, and we don’t even speak the same language, but he is our friend for a lifetime. Today’s w

Last night, we treated ourselves to one last private accommodation before we (hopefully) arrive to the Promised Land.  The place had a stellar view, but they very much overcharged us for laundry.  But it was worth the beauty sleep before our joy walk of 28 kilometers to Melide, Spain.  Melide is 53 kilometers from Santiago.  53 fat ones.  53.  That seems minuscule compared to the monster 800 we had to do 26 days ago. Today's walk consisted of going through lots of shaded trails by trees, and walking through several small towns, and walking past several cattle ranches.  Those don't smell great, as the cattle do not quite know how to use toilets.  However, we did get to see a shepherd herding his cattle with his dogs, and that was just a cool sight to see. At breakfast, we talked to a guy from Austin, Texas, and he said "Oh y'all are those Nashville guys" when we told him we were from Tennessee.  It kind of sounded like people had been talking about us, whi

Clean. That’s something we haven’t been in a while. We have embraced the meaning of Camino clean. I have 2 pairs of clothes, and we do laundry every 4th or 5th day because many of the albegues do not have washing machines and because we are lazy. Mostly because we are lazy actually. So if you do the math, there is more days than clean pairs of clothes. Compared to some of our Camino counterparts, we are “clean”, which says a lot. We have grown to like this nomadic style of cleanliness. It’s all we know now. Yesterday night, when we were sitting down to enjoy our pilgrim meal, our old friend Claus came up to say hello. We were caught off guard because we had not seen him in over a week and did not expect to see him again. He even noticed Alex growing out his beard. We didn’t know whether seeing him or him noticing Alex’s beard was the greater Camino miracle. During dinner, we sat next to two English brothers from Liverpool. One was on the search for some Camino love while his b

Buenos dias, Americanos y buenos tardes, Espania.  Day 25 is officially in the books as we had a cool 23 kilometer joy walk from Triacastella to Barbadelo.  Last night, we treated ourselves to a private accommodation, and it was well worth it because we also received a complimentary breakfast and slept-in to 7.  Felt like one of those crazy college kids sleeping in so late.  But overall, phenomenal service, Casa David. Bravo. On our morning walk, we ran into a man named Paul from Florida.  As we started talking, he shared with us that a few years ago he completed the last 100 kilometers starting in Saria and he thought it was pretty easy, so he wanted to do the whole thing.  The following year, he started from St. Jean, and said “this isn’t so damn easy”, and he had to throw the flag because he blew out his knee.  So he has done the Camino in a couple of legs, and he is on his final leg today finishing in Saria. We got to talking, and I told him that I go to the University of