Day 2 - On the Road to Zubiri

 We begin with two final photos from Roncesvalles yesterday:

 Dinner with 100 other pilgrims, great company. Onward to Zubiri.

 Hold on a minute! The last sign we saw said 765 kilometers!!

We didn't let a little rain bother us. Mostly farm country today.

Are we starting to look like pilgrims yet?

 Mike Taylor, king of the hill...

the trail...

and the bridge!

Of course, it's fairly clear here who is the tallest.

Mike, ever the public servant, took to the bushes to "kill weeds."

Old, craggy, worn-down, rain-soaked and moss-covered.

(The tree, too.)

 After 13.2 miles and a steep descent, Zubiri is lookin' fine. 

A warm shower and cold drink never tasted so good!

A couple more stories from Dave:

One little town today had rain gutters flowing down the street. They looked like the gutters in Brigham City, reminding me of happy days with my grandparents. Mike said they reminded him of his grandparents, too, who lived in Bear River. We had a nice time talking about our roots while we walked in the rain. (Too bad we didn't have a couple of balsam boats to float down the "stream"...or even two big leaves!) No matter how far we travel in life, those childhood joys stay with us.

We have seen Didi three or four times in our first two days, always outside his car wherever the Camino crosses a road, waiting. The first time was yesterday, way up near the top of the Pyrenees, on a narrow mountain road. The second was down near the bottom, at another road crossing. The third time we ran across him, Mike finally asked what he was waiting for. He explained that he had met a woman from Australia while walking the Camino a number of years ago. They became fast friends and have stayed in touch over the years. She wanted to walk it again with her 19-year-old granddaughter but was concerned about whether she could manage the pilgrimage now that she is in her 60s. Didi, though quite a bit younger, had developed a bad back and couldn't walk the distance any more. He offered to meet them at each crossing from St. Jean to Pamplona, just to make sure they were doing okay. Friends––watching out for each other on the Camino.

From yesterday: We met Livia climbing a steep path in the Pyrenees, just before the Virgin Mary statue. She had two backpacks: a large one on her back and a medium one she was hugging in front. She struggled under the weight, so we asked if we could help carry the load. Livia was grateful, explaining that the airlines had lost her luggage. She had bought the medium pack as a replacement, with enough clothes and supplies to get her by. Her hike started in France, and when the woman from the airlines learned what Livia was doing, she promised to find her luggage and get it to her along the way. Encouraged by the kind airline employee to go on with her pilgrimage, Livia did just that. As it happens, the luggage had never even left Los Angeles! The airline woman called Livia long distance, on her day off, to arrange delivery in St. Jean Pied de Port. Lots of extra effort by that employee to help Livia! Livia later saw us some distance off the trail, at the Virgin Mary statue. Without being asked, she hiked the extra steps out of her way to take a picture with both of us in it. Another great example of Camino camaraderie. It was also an interesting commentary on the extra burdens we sometimes carry and how they come to be there, often entirely unplanned and through no fault of our own. Sometimes we don't even realize they are there, or at least how heavy they are, until someone offers to help us carry them. How much lighter the load is when we bear one another's burdens. 

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