10/3 Sahagun to Leon

We had a great ride today (other than getting lost a little – more on that later). 35 miles of mostly flat or gentle hills and very little in the way of wind. The Camino here follows a very quiet paved road and we were able to ride it for 95% of the day (104% if you count the “lost miles”) It was cool and overcast but Camille peddled like a champ (which she is) and she was even able to ride AND TALK today!

Sometimes things seem really good just for what they aren’t. For instance, today wasn’t yesterday. Yesterday I had a pit in my stomach before the day even started just anticipating what was ahead. Just this once, and just for the record, I would like to say, “I was, unfortunately, 100% right”. It’s a strange humiliation to want to help someone and be so unable to. In a pastoral care class in seminary called CPE they talk about a ministry of presence. Sometimes all you can do is just be with someone. You can’t push, you can’t pull (and apparently you shouldn’t sing or talk – so much for misery loving company!)

Camille wrote about the kind rescue yesterday. If this were a boxing match I would say she was taking it on the chin by the wind and the bike but she stayed on her feet (“Adrianne, Adrianne” – that’s a Rocky reference). Everyone who rides bike knows something about “those days” where the weather just beats you. In this case the beating was compounded by a bike that doesn’t exactly fit either. It’s a little like getting a decent pair of shoes when you don’t have any. Doesn’t matter if the shoe fits too well, it’s still an upgrade and it’s all you have. In this case Camille’s bike wasn’t so well suited to her size but she made it work and the pain in her shoulders and the persistent numbness in the ulnar nerve (ring and pinkie) distribution should go away eventually. The PTSD may take a little longer. Anyone know a good counselor?

Today, as they say, was a new day and we did have a great ride to Leon, even accounting for getting lost a little. After arriving in Leon (finally) we checked into a really nice hotel (when was the last time you were giddy about a hotel?) and turned in the bikes. Across the street from the bike drop was a fair of sorts filled with food trucks, and tents and music. In Spain most places close from about 2-5 but we found a couple trucks functioning and enjoyed wandering the park listening to music.

Our plans are changing (again). Man, the Camino really is like life sometimes! The next 7-10 days call for rain EVERY DAY. Did I mention yesterday was tough? If there was some enduring purpose or benefit to slogging through another miserable 10 days we would but absent that purpose it seems.., well, dumb.

We plan to stay in Leon for another day and explore this beautiful city a bit. Saturday we will take a train down south to the coast and stay for 5 days or so in Cádiz. After 5 days of careful application of sunscreen and perhaps some wandering (“Not all who wander are lost” – Gandalf, LOTR) and reading we will take a train BACK to Santiago de Compostela and spend a couple days there before boarding a third train for Madrid, then home. Whew! (Unless our plans change)

While riding today I thought quite a bit about “success and failure”. I will be a little embarrassed to tell my 5 year old grandson, Ezra, that we weren’t able to walk ALL the way across Spain like we planned. He won’t blink, but it feels like I am letting him down. Maybe it isn’t such a bad thing for him to hear (on whatever level) that his grandpa and grandma had a plan but it didn’t work out? What I thought about riding today is that if our purpose was to follow the Camino to Santiago, well then we failed. If our purpose, however, was to use the Camino as a path and an experience together, then we are still on track, just not the path we might have planned.

Among the many experiences of the Camino is recurrent disorientation. Not being sure where we are going to be staying in a night or two is disorienting. Not being sure if we can GET to the place we plan to stay engenders some anxiety and disorientation. At the grocery store I have to watch others to see how they buy a piece of fruit, or loaf of bread, or ask a clerk which product is “butter”? We have met so many kind people, but when I don’t speak the language there is further alienation and disorientation.

The word “orientation” is a relatively new word in English (not even 150 years old!) but it essentially means to be guided by a fixed point (like a compass). When we are in “our world” the things we know, the familiar (from the word for family) orient us. We have mentioned in previous posts the development of the keen eye for the Camino signs to orient us, or the pilgrims on the road ahead. Heading into town we got lost for a few miles (up a hill of course!) but after we turned around and made out way back to the trail there is a kind of euphoria to see the Camino signs and know we are “re-oriented”.

So, I know this a long post, and probably more a testament to the limitations of a mind still processing this experience, but what the experience of the Camino really spoke to me about today was how grateful I am for the blessings of a stable and “familiar” orientation. I am so grateful for all those things and people in my life that become “family” and orienting (even if one of them doesn’t want me to sing while I bike – or, well, ever for that matter*). So, here’s where it would be easy to start in on a sermon about orientation… you can take it from here but I hope you have enough orientation, a point that is fixed, which allows you to endure, and maybe even welcome a little disorientation because you always know how to find your way home.

To be fair, it does seem to me some of the people I know and love have a sense of adventure and a tolerance for disorientation. Perhaps, if that is true, it is because that is what they have known? I certainly find a figurative stable footing to be preferable and maybe like today was a great ride because it wasn’t yesterday, what I do have, and what I do believe I know, is enriched when I experience some of disorientation. I’ll have to think more about that, but if you’ve been following along with us you know what’s next: