Day XVII: Reliegos -> León; 15.5mi (+ 2ish more wandering around the town looking for an open / available place to stay).

🛏:6€. (This place ended up being the best. We asked the kind gentleman in charge of things to point us in the right direction of a local bar and he ended up instantly stopping what he was doing and walking us the entire way there).

🍴:This is what a typical breakfast looks like here. Usually we wake up and hit the trail before cafes in our current town are open, so we stop for breakfast in the first town we pass through. Most places do some kind of incredibly reasonable combination meal with fresh orange juice + coffee / tea / hot chocolate + a pastry / breakfast sandwich / “tortilla” (that quiche looking thing towards the back of this photo. It’s essentially an omelet pie with eggs and potatoes and sometimes meat. Suuper good!).

We trekked into León, our last “big city” before Santiago, today by way of KFC. We couldn’t help it and thanks to the present language barrier we ended up with every type of potato on the menu. (If I’m being honest this even happens to me without language barriers .. I was at a diner in Seattle with some friends last summer and our waiter misunderstood my order and brought me a baked potato with hash browns. And then a random reporter asked to interview us about “diner culture” and that’s how the tale of my potato mishap ended up in Seattle Weekly). 🤷🏼‍♀️

🎒:All I initially intended to bring on this trip jewelry-wise was a single pair of earrings. I mentioned this to a close friend who asked what I still needed for my trip and she brought me approximately five hundred options. We narrowed it down to six. Then my friends mom gave me the pictured “choose joy” necklace. And upon learning the symbolism of the scallop shell in el Camino (short version: it’s a metaphor for all of the different routes leading to one place and used as a trail marker along the entire way), my own mother gave me what she called “one of her favorite necklaces” the day before I left. I didn’t need to bring any of them, but it’s been a nice treat adding variety to my repetitive wardrobe (and bonus, they match my gold duct taped toes).

🎧:

“.. sometimes these wings get a little heavy. I can’t stay between the lines but I’m rocking steady. When I can’t fly, I start to fall, but I’ve got wheels I’m rolling on ..” (I’ve Got Wheels)

Miranda was the first country artist I discovered entirely on my own. I heard ‘New Strings’ for the first time scanning through radio channels on my MP3 player when I was supposed to be sleeping. I’ve been obsessed ever since.

This particular album is incredible and raw and sentimental to me for a million reasons.