Day 22 – Stepping on to Sahagun

Dave, walking away from Calzadillo after breakfast.

Hobbits, anyone?

Catching up to Tanys with her sprained ankle.

She is walking so much better today after some

PT and acupuncture last night. Good to see this

improvement in her spirits and her injury!

Entering the first town. What's it named??

Mike is singing it loud and clear so all our

grandkids can hear: "Ledigo, let it go..."

Leaving Ledigos, aka "Let it go's."

Sadly, we are not Frozen.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

Wide open field with, guess what?

Wheat, baby!

A bunker complex in the middle of Moratinos. 

Entering the county of El Camino de Santiago.

Can you hear this little stream?

The waters look so clear and clean.

Just outside of Sahagun is this cool park with

a bridge, church, benches, and green grass.

Here's the bridge with water flowing beneath.

Ermita Virgen del Puente (Our Lady of the Bridge)

 used to house pilgrims in the 12th century.

This tiny chapel with Romanesque foundations

 is near a shady poplar grove by the river.

One of two interesting statues at Rio Valderaduey.

The other one. Not sure who it is...maybe just

the representation of a crusader?

Dave, exiting the park, headed for Sahagun.

∞§∞

In Palancia, near Sahagun, a small tree stands as a memorial to the Reverend Phillip Wren, a Methodist minister/pilgrim from England who died there on May 2013. He had walked The Way several times, later indicating that he hoped to finish out his time on earth by walking it once more. Unlike Reverend Wren, we don't have the desire to finish out our lives on the Camino, but we do hope to make them better by what we learn.

A story about Mike from Dave:

This cute pair (below) are Rhain and Nick. She's of Irish descent and explained that no one ever says her name correctly. After a bit of coaching, I proved her wrong (Ray-in). The two were high school friends who now attend college in Vermont, near family. Nick studies computer programming. Rain is transferring to Texas A&M next semester on a full-ride equestrian scholarship...horse jumping and all! Only about 8 NCAA schools have equestrian teams and competition, so she must have serious skills. Sadly, Rhain broke her hip a while ago and still limps a bit, causing some pain in her knee. (Hence, the wrap.) But here's the kicker: Did you know that our own Mikey had a horse and did competitive jumping as a youngster? At least, he did until one time when the horse stopped, but Mike still managed to clear the obstacle by himself and land on his head! That explains a lot, doesn't it? Anyway, Mike had a good chat with Rhain about their shared experiences horsing around. These kids are not married, but they seem pretty tight. It was fun to hang with them for a while.

Another story from Dave, with a couple of assists from Mike:

We had noticed these cute kids walking past our breakfast location yesterday. That afternoon, we sat next to them at a rest area. Julia was a cute, friendly girl from DC who had transferred to a school in Boston and wanted to walk the Camino. When Mike said he was from Utah, she said her brother worked for an Orem, Utah rehab for troubled kids. He loved working there, and when we told her we were trying to raise money for suicide prevention and the National Alliance for Mental Illness, she lit up and said her brother wants to work for NAMI in the field of mental health. Pretty neat.

The two guys from Germany were Garret and Maltae, fun young guys we've run into several times. We asked when they started at St. Jean, and they sheepishly named the same day we started. Guess they are on the "old guy" pace. Both were a bit embarrassed that it was taking them so long, because they had to go home in the middle of June. The two didn't get nearly as far as they had planned, due to some blister and ankle issues that slowed them up. They also confessed they were having too much fun stopping and talking with everyone along the way. We see people of all ages on the Camino, but we notice that most are kind and caring and young at heart. 

We walked 13.7 miles today, but we have

a rest day tomorrow and time to recoup

before we travel on to El Burgo Ranero.

Buen Camino.

Click below to support suicide prevention

and mental health, the causes Mike and Dave 

are championing with their walk.