Part 8 El Camino: Detours, Meltdowns & Staring Strangers
Expect the Unexpected
The Camino stretched on and on. Up a hill down the other side. Around a curve, back the other way. Along the straight away. To the left. To the right. Up another hill down the other hill. Around another curve, back around. Along another straight away. To the left again. To the right again. The farther it went, the slower I walked.
This pilgrimage had turned into a grueling feat. And I had no one but myself to thank for placing me in this insane position. It sounded like such an adventurous idea at the time. Note to self: Do not listen to me in the future.
Stop for lunch, then hit the road again. Places to go, things to do and people to see.
TELL ME THAT IS NOT TRUE!! It can’t be! Hubs and I stood in stunned silence. We stared at the signs in front of us, my mouth gaped open in complete disbelief.
Surely this was a joke! A BAD JOKE.
There wasn’t REALLY a DETOUR… was there??? Oh YES, THERE WAS A DETOUR, and it was for REAL! D-E-T-O-U-R.
As fate would have it, the detour challenged us on the ONLY day we were already scheduled to tread 30 kilometers of turf before nightfall. The detour added at least another six kilometers to our day. Groan!!
My feet and legs had become puffed up and disproportionate from walking a gazillion footsteps across Spain. Had they not been attached to the rest of my body I wouldn’t have known they were mine.
I had tapped out all my own resources for physical, emotional, and mental strength at least two days prior. After that, through prayer and faith, I depended upon God to provide me with the power to keep moving.
Absolutely every step I took was God-powered because I sure wasn’t going anywhere on my own steam.
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock; and the door will be opened to you.
My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
All I had to do was stay connected to my God-power and, somehow I would have everything I needed to navigate my way past the detour to our evening destination. It didn’t take long before I started to get downright peeved about that detour. My mind was filled with a whole onslaught of grumbling, complaining, and griping about the extra distance that was dumped on me. “Why did they do that to the Camino? At least they could’ve left a path open for the pilgrims. That’s REALLY inconsiderate… What jerks!”
I disconnected from my “God-power” and it took less than ten seconds for me to crater.
I fell off the spiritual wagon and landed flat on my butt with a THUD!!!
The tears welled up in my eyes, flooded down my cheeks, and dripped off my nose in splatters. My knees buckled beneath me, forcing me to sit down. I’d had enough. I was spent. I sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed. And then I sobbed some more.
Hubs sat down beside me, “Honey. What’s wrong?”
The snot and tears were sloshing down my face, forming a puddle in front of me. I could hardly talk. Between gulps of air, I snorted out, “I’m NOT a good pilgrim!” Another flood of tears gushed out.
He put his arm around my shoulder, “Of course, you’re a good pilgrim. Why do you think you’re not a good pilgrim?” Hubs was baffled by my self-evaluation.
I sucked in a gulp of air and said the first thing that came to mind, “Because all the other pilgrims are faster than me.” That even sounded nutty to me, and the comment was way off base. The truth be known - I didn’t know why I was losing my stuff. I was just losing it!
“Honey, it doesn’t matter if they walk faster than you. You’re still a good pilgrim. You can’t give up now. You’re almost there. Don’t give up….”
WHOA!!! Who said anything about giving up??! I was simply having a good old-fashioned meltdown!
My head whipped up, and my eyes shot him one of my BATTLE MAIDEN glances! I set the record straight in no uncertain terms, “I’m NOT giving up!! I’m NOT going to stop! I just need to cry… a bit.” That is precisely what I did.
Then I got my act together. I reconnected with God, my power source.
It was a BRUTAL walk to make it to our evening destination. We inched into the hotel just minutes before the sun set for the night. Neither one of us even had one single ounce of energy left.
We flopped onto the bed and awoke the next morning - still fully dressed in the clothing we wore the day before, shoes and all!
Thank goodness! Santiago de Compostela was only 23 km away. Our LAST DAY on the Camino had FINALLY arrived. In the early afternoon, we encountered this sign when we reached the eastern edge of the Santiago de Compostela Airport.
We stood in silence and assessed the situation. We could see that it was only about a mile across, but the road was CLOSED.
The detour would take us South ALL THE WAY down the EAST side of the runways, across to the other side of the airport then North ALL THE WAY back up the WEST side of the runways. It ONLY added an additional 6.4 km/4 miles to our agenda.
One second we were 10.9 km from our destination. All that changed in a heartbeat when, by a twist of fate, another dreaded orange sign with the “D WORD” extended our destination to 17.3 km. Oh well, what difference would six more kilometers make to my elephant-size legs? Zip-all!
One thing for certain! I wasn’t going to become a basket-case again over the “D SIGN”. Been there, done that and all it did was power me down. Nope! Smart cookie here… I hefted one elephant-shaped leg in front of the other and started plodding down the narrow trail around the perimeter of the Santiago de Compostela Airport.
With the airport behind us, we were finally on the home stretch! The surrounding energy seemed to change as we ventured closer to the city. It simply “felt” more urban.
We stopped at the first designated pilgrim rest area to get a drink and put our feet up. The area was a large civic park with picnic benches and a concession area, much different from the quaint rural pilgrim refreshment areas along the Camino. Hubs put his backpack by a picnic table and went to get us something to drink. I sat at the picnic table and contemplated taking my backpack off - after so many miles, it didn’t make any difference to me whether I carried it or not. Truth be known, by that stage of my pilgrimage, I felt like a turtle without its shell if I wasn’t carrying my backpack.
Wow! Get that picture! A turtle without its shell, that has elephant-size legs!
That’s when I noticed HER! A younger woman with long dark hair and piercing dark eyes stood nearby, STARING AT ME. Then a man in an older model car drove up behind her, parked, and flipped the trunk open. He stayed in the car and kept the engine running.
Instinctively my mind went into “Danger, High Alert!” mode. I quickly evaluated the situation and thought, “He’s ready to take off as soon as she throws our backpacks in the trunk of the car.” I did not like the feel of this situation, not one bit!
She continued to STARE AT ME. I STARED BACK AT HER. She STARED AT ME. I STARED AT HER.
While locked in the staring competition with this strange woman, I did a mental inventory of the contents of our backpacks. (Our passports and anything of REAL value were not in them, although losing the backpacks would be inconvenient.)
Come on Hubs! Where are you??? HUBS!!! HURRY UP!!!!! I was trying to “will” him to get back from whatever he was doing. He was taking his sweet time. Sooner or later, this fiasco I was embroiled in had to move one way or the other beyond a staring competition!
Whew! He finally arrived, carrying two bottles of water. I conceded the staring competition, turned to Hubs, and quietly said, “Don’t question me. Just pick up your pack and let’s get out of here. I’ll explain later.”
As we walked away, thankfully without incident, I told him, “I think we were being cased to be robbed.”
Hubs nodded and replied, “I noticed that. It was really weird when that guy drove up in that car and opened the trunk.” We walked a bit farther, then he added, “Too bad, I was really looking forward to taking a rest for a few minutes.”
We walked another seven miles through outlying communities, across a few major intersections with freeway flyovers, and then we followed the Camiño Francés into the old city of Santiago de Compostela.
WE MADE IT!!!
Congratulations Readers! We’ve been on a long journey together. Watch for the next and final episode of the El Camino Series! Buen Camino!
For those readers who are just joining us, the entire El Camino Series is on my substack. Check it out. LoisTB.substack.com And don’t forget to press that Subscribe button.
I am totally amazed that you even contemplated this journey let alone finished it! Wow!!!!