Day 19 Camino de Santiago July 24 Carrion

Carrion  July 24    Day 19

 I spent the last night in the old but refurbished train station of Fromista,  with two Americans... from Arizona.  The male had contracted Guardia, which is a intestinal infection.  Not pretty.  He thinks he got it from petting a dog.  His girl friend works with a vet and said that he will be okay.  Still, kinda scary.   

    This is the sign of the town, “Fromistra” on the train depot.

      Boss - uh... Fernando, I want to compliment you on hanging not only the sign, but also the light.  However, there is one question I have... Why in the world did you hang the light on top of the sign??

   

Now here is a sight for sore eyes!  There is no greater love on this Earth.  Dogs are truly God’s greatest creation.  Total love!  I can honestly say that Bucky is the one creature that gave me more love than I gave.  He is amazing.  

     The church in the town of Fromista is not huge but it is so pretty.  Any brick mason would be proud of it.  I like these small churches which they call “Ermitas”.  It usually costs a Euro or two and they record where you are from.  The man running this Ermita had all of 8 customers for the entire day, and yet was using a calculator to figure out the daily take.  Whoa!!

  The trail today, (wait...did I forget a segway there???) was through alfalfa fields and for the most part hot as the dickens.  I don’t know how hot Dickens was, but he must have been a real stud because it was a “bloody” hot.  If I didn't have to cross a ravine to get in the spray, I would have.  As it turned out, I didn't have to because the spray came across the road!  Just like rain!!!

     The trail split and pelegrinos could walk to the left along the road, or they could walk to the right along a river and through countryside.  Same distance so I took the river walk.   A real no brainer!     I reached a teeny, tiny, no account village, which I don’t think they even bothered to name, and there was a man cracking almonds in the "town square".  As I neared him, he gathered his nuts... wait...he gathered THE nuts, and gave them to me. Delicioso!  Then he had me crack them.  Must be some Peregrino ritual.  I like rituals that you can eat!!  

     

   

   Then he took my credencia, which is a type of passport that all hotels/auberges stamp when you stay in them, and he wrote a message in it.  I hope God can read Spanish better than me, but I think is says, Have a good walk and may God protect you!  

    

He saw that I had a cane that was too short for me and that my backpack is heavy and he, Pepe, said, “Momentito!” and hobbled to his car and gave me his cane that had the word, “Pepe” scrawled on it.  When I say that his name was Pepe, I assume his name was Pepe, or I guess it could be that he stole if from some Pelegrino named, Pepe....  but that seems so anti-Camino.    People like Pepe, truly make the Camino special.  It's odd, because at first, I want to just say, "No thanks!" as he's walking toward me with a hammer and saying, "come here", but because soooooo many people have been so giving along the way, I have finally started to trust them.    However, just to be safe, I always have one hand on my can of mace.... 

    The trail rejoined the other trail and followed the road for the next 6 or 7 kilometers.  Just before the rejoining, we went through fields that were completely taken over by either artichoke or thistles.  I don’t know the artichoke plant very well but it seemed strange to have a whole field of thistles???

   In another town that I stopped for lunch I saw a statue, which turned out to be of the old mayor.  Apparently he was such a good guy to the pilgrims that they made a statue of him in front of his bar.  Or... call me skeptical... but this is really the mayor after being Twilight Zoned.  

  

In one of the churches in Carrion, the organ had some strange painting on it.  Blow up the picture, and if you can, figure out what this is all about, I’ll be amazed.  It's in the bottom right hand corner.  Apparently, some refurbisher went rogue!!

Happiness is like a butterfly.
The more you chase it, the more it eludes you.
But if you turn your attention to other things,
It comes and sits softly on your shoulder.
 - Henry David Thoreau