Day 13: The Ole Baker's Dozen | Alex Carruthers

People have been asking me “Alex, what goes through your head on a day-to-day basis,” and the answer is simple.  In order to keep each foot going in front of the other, I imagine my man Marc “Big Spain” Gasol at Santiago greeting us with a sign saying “Memphis Pilgrims, you did it!”  I expect our entrance to Santiago to be nothing short of this.

Today, we greeted Death with open arms.  We have officially entered the second stage of the Camino de Santiago: Death.  The first stage was life – it had many ups and downs (definitely some downs).  The second stage is death – it’s really called the Meseta because it is so flat and mundane.  The weak skip it, but the Memphis pilgrims greet Death like an old friend.  The third stage is re-birth.  I guess this part is where we become much better people?  Haven’t figured it out completely.

We walked 34 kilometers to Fromista and plan on walking 35 tomorrow.  The flat terrain makes it easy to walk on, but that doesn’t stop our feet from hurting and being sore. Prayers for rest and energy and a buen camino are much appreciated/needed.

The alburgue we are staying at tonight is not exactly what one might describe as “prime real estate.”  We are right beside a beautiful railroad in the middle of nowhere.  Despite the subpar location, the beds are nice, the showers are nice, the service is nice, the people are nice, and most importantly…the wifi works.  So it’s actually a great place to be staying at.  They fed us well.

One thing that has been a common occurrence on the Camino de Santiago has been bikers/people going east (the opposite direction than us).  We are not quite sure what they are doing.  The leading hypothesis is that they once thought they were too good of people so they started in Santiago and are hoping that it will have the reverse effect?  I don’t know.  It’s definitely something to chew on for the next couple of days.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

About The Memphis Pilgrims

Image
Hello, our names are Alex Carruthers and Murray Morrison.  We are from Memphis, TN, and attend the University of Georgia (go dawgs) and Vanderbilt University (anchor down), respectively.  Alex is a sophomore in college, and Murray is a freshman.  We have created this blog so that anyone (probably just our families) can keep up with our trip in Spain as we walk the Camino de Santiago. ​ ​ Our plan is to complete the walk in 30 days (this estimation is slightly ambitious and does not take into account break days and injuries) so be praying that we will be able to finish it.  We have chosen to do the Camino Frances, which is the most popular route to Santiago de Compostela.  The head of the trail is in St. Jean, France, and on the first day we travel over the Pyrenees Mountains.  We will pass through cities like Pamplona (Hemingway's favorite city) and Burgos. ​ We are very  excited about this journey we are about to embark upon.  It is going to be a trip to remember for a li
Read more

Day 18: Prison Break | Murray Morrison

Image
This is a monster post so strap in. The meseta has thrown a lot at us. But we had never seen anything like this before. Our albergue tried to keep pilgrims from doing the only thing we know: walking. This morning as we attempted to head out into the streets of Leon, we were stopped in our steps at a locked albergue door. We tried to open it any way we could, and even our Korean friend who did not seem to trust our attempts started trying the door right after us. Of course, he had no more success than us. We then heard that the only exit to the albergue would be unlocked at 6:30. It was currently 5:45. There was no thought to sit idle for 45 minutes. We immediately searched for an escape from this prison-like alburgue.  A high-end hotel is next to the albergue, and so we squeezed through a nook in the fence to get to the hotel’s back patio. Then we walked inside to escape from the front. The albergue had considered this route.  It too was locked. We then spot the hotel elev
Read more

Day 30: The End | Murray Morrison

Image
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
Read more