Friday, May 3, 2024
Before I get started on today, I have to say a few words about last night.
As I said, it was the hardest day of hiking we’ve had, and when we got to the albergue we were beat. So I was there processing passports and getting us all registered when suddenly I see out of the corner of my eye Ian flying from the couch onto this ottoman thing in the middle of the room. After an awkward and clearly hard fall he tried to play it cool, but he was in serious pain in his shoulder. He told me he thinks it popped out and back in, and I believe him on that. It’s the same shoulder he fell on when he fell out of bed. When we asked what happened he kept saying he couldn’t remember. Then today, almost 24 hrs later he finally fessed up. He thought the ottoman was padded but it was actually just hard wood covered with material. He was doing a Superman from the couch to that thing and landed full on on his shoulder.
Betty and I also needed some time to decompress last night, so we left the kids with pizzas and we went to get hamburgers. It was really needed.
This morning we knew we had just a short walk to Camponaraya, so we slept in a bit. Then we had a nice pleasant walk to Ponferrada, where we stopped at a pharmacy and got some medicine for River’s constipation. Then we stopped in front of the castle for a while, and then Kimball and I went to get some new shoes for him. His poor shoes just didn’t do well with all the rocks yesterday.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the right shoes for him, so we just moved on. After some supermarket lunch in a park we left Ponferrada behind. It was a nice little city and lots of people stopped to take pictures of us and ask us about our family.
In the evening Betty and I walked to the store with some nice Americans who say they have been aware of us since before Astorga. I think we are quite a sight.
Dinner was awesome. It was just pre-made salads and chips and guacamole and hummus, but we had such a fun time laughing about the crazy experiences we have had on this trip.
One topic of conversation was showers. We talked about all of the factors that go into making a great shower.
Temperature
Temperature stability
Water Pressure
Spray radius
A private changing area
Cleanliness
A detachable head with good stability and positioning
A rack to put toiletries
Lights that will stay on for the whole shower
Constant stream of water (no turning off every ten seconds).
This is the ten star system.
Our shower tonight was a 7/10. Pretty good.
Tomorrow we’ve got another short day planned, and it’s a good thing because I’m exhausted.
