Day 27  Astorga to Foncebadón, Spain   October 18, 2022

In spite of being alone in my room, I didn’t get to sleep until after midnight.  I was thinking about my route today; how far I could go, what would the climb be like at the end, could I make it, etc.  and as it turned out I did just fine and the “hill” at the end wasn’t a problem.  I did 25.8 km-

I tried to think of an intention for the day and all that came up was the idea of service and so I wondered how I am with service to others. I volunteer a little bit at the BUH foundation but I hate making phone calls asking for money. I also bartender at the Dekker centre but not during the summer because I’m not going to come in from the lake in the evenings to do that and the programming is limited anyway. I thought about working at the food bank but that would cut into my working time and then golfing time. So I came to the conclusion that I really don’t do much as far as service to others. I do help Jane when I am visiting and so far my parents are doing OK and don’t  need me to do much for them so I was a bit stuck on how I can increase my service to others. Maybe I’ll contemplate that for a few days.

I stopped at least every hour to stretch and I made sure I drank lots of water too.  I had a few pangs in my left foot in my fourth toe and the ball of my foot but that’s all.  I’m getting used to this torture!

My first stop was for water at the village fountain-

What a godsend these are and what a lovely village.  It looked brand new!

Carrying on-

I came to Santa Catalina de Somoza which I remember very well from my bicycle trip.  As you come over the hill, you see an archway formed by leaves and the steeple of the church in the background. I had to stop for a coffee-

There are a lot of stones again so the fences and houses are made of them.  So is the path and stones are hard on the feet-

Just past the village was a man selling trinkets and walking poles-

Carrying on-

Not everyone makes it-

In El Ganso, I was so looking forward to visiting The Cowboy Bar but it closed the end of September for the season-

Another steeple with stork nest-

Rabanal del Camino was possibly going to be my final stop.  I stopped for lunch - now that’s a burger!

After being refueled, a stretch and a rest, I was ready to carry on.  As I said, I was worried about the climb but it was a piece of cake.  It’s also supposed to rain tomorrow, about 3/4 of an inch so I thought the further I can go today in the sunshine, the better.  Along the way up-

I’m staying at Albergue El Convento de Foncebadón-

I’m looking forward to carrying on tomorrow.  I’m feeling really good and sort of enjoying myself.  I hope it doesn’t rain like “they” say it’s going to!