Day 19: The End of an Era | Alex Carruthers

Today marks the end of an era.  Today, we say goodbye to our old friend, Death, and say hello to our new life.  We caught up with our old friend, and after a while, we finally realized why he was an "old" friend.  He is just a stick in the mud and has a morbid personality.  It was time for us to say goodbye.  And I think he was ready to let us go.  He had done the work he needed to do on us.

The Meseta was all about reflection - not necessarily about deep philosophical things or extreme religious thoughts or talking about your life all the time.  It's just all about reflection.  You can think about anything, about whatever you want.  Just let your mind wander.  Sometimes I think about what I'm going to say in the blog, sometimes random memories like me trying to zip-line across my neighbor's yard and nearly breaking my leg because of my friend's incompetency.  These are my favorite because then I start laughing on the walk.  You look up at the Meseta and you just see nothing.  It's all flat fields for miles and miles.  After a while, the beauty of it gets old.  It's still beautiful, but it's mundane and so we let our minds wander to get through the days.  It clears the head and makes it easier to get through the day whether it is hot or pouring rain,

I will miss the Meseta because of its easy terrain, but I am ready for the new views to come and the mountains to climb.

Last night our showers were booty.  That's just the only way to put it.  The pressure was booty and there was not hot water.  After a long days walk, that makes morale low - or for Murray and I we usually just start laughing at how absurd the shower pressure was.  So tonight we have finally gotten to treat ourselves to a private accommodation.  A night free of the snorers and the other pilgrims.  Vamanos los perros.

We had befriended a Brazilian couple a while ago and had not seen them since Naverrete.  We thought our Brazilian days were over.  But today on the Way, we ran into them and it was like a little reunion.  We got to walk with them for about 2 hours into Astorga, and so this was big for our morale.  They are a lot of fun to talk to.  They had told us that in Leon there was a Korean girl with a hurt foot next door to them, and she was really sad because she would not see Craig again.  We had befriended Craig and have not seen him since Estella.  But it sounds like he is the heartbreaker of the Way.  On some level, you just have to respect it.

10 days to Santiago if all goes according to plan.



Pictured below is Astorga in the background as we are finally seeing Mountains for the first time in 10 days.

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