Day 26 – Villar de Mazarife to Astorga
32k – 524k to date
Big day today, a long trek to get to where I wanted to be tonight. The landscape today changed drastically, this morning was all corn fields and good corn. Apparently, there is a valley there with good water and decent land. I also saw one dairy that seemed to be government owned as it had district signs and a fence that no individual would spend money putting up. I also saw one private dairy, but both were enclosed, so there were no pictures that showed anything good.
As I passed through the last village midway today, the other side started up a hill and all the sudden I was out of farming country and back into the hills before the mountain tomorrow. The trail for 8k of the last 11k was on Roman road and my feet are still screaming at me, even two hours later. The pounding your feet take are the one bad thing about this trail.
Yesterday, a talked about eating, but I failed to mention the eating habits of various pilgrims. I will use last night as an example, first the dainty French woman that sat across from me scarfed down her food, grabbed the bread to swab the plate and even used her fingers to scrape the last of the chocolate from the desert plate. She also stole a couple of extra bread slices for later. Then there was the Danish businessman that very slowly ate every bite of his food, but did so in a way that seemed refined, except after the first and second course, he would also grab a piece of bread, tear it and swabbed the salad bowl and the plate. He used his fork to scrape the chocolate. Additionally, there were two younger girls who very politely ate most of their salad, ate almost all of the paella (which was good) and slowly ate the dessert while caring on a conversation across the table. The only thing about them is that they did use the bread to swab the paella plate. There is something challenging about having that bread on the table all the time, people can’t help but use it for cleaning their plate. All meals are similar, but during the day in the bars, when people are in a hurry, the table habits get a little worse….. Where do I fall in the table manners group? I hope mom taught me right and I try to maintain some manners, plus, a few years ago, I decided to always try, to keep a little bit on the plate, that helps maintain the bread use at a decent level. I guess being a pilgrim removes some of those table manners if you are not careful.
I am about to go find an evening meal, but I will remember what mom said “keep your elbows off the table!” Have we ever figured out why we can’t put our elbows on the table?
Changing gears, please keep Greg and Clarissa Rhodes and their children in your prayers. Also keep Howard and Belinda in those prayers. Greg had a troubling medical report and they are pursuing further tests. Howard and Belinda have been special people in our lives and we want to support them during this time. Life is a precious gift from God and we are never guaranteed a set time here.
Our lives are a challenge, whether trying to walk a few miles or trying to understand God’s path for our lives.
2 Corinthians 4:18