Day IX: Caldes del Reina -> Cruces; 16.2mi.

🛏:

21€ (and well worth it), Hotel O’Cruceiro

We got off to a late start this morning, even later than we had planned. I don’t think either of us really minded much, until it started raining again and we started wishing we had started earlier so we could be finished earlier.

But we hadn’t, and we wouldn’t be, so we did the only thing we could do and pressed on.

It rained on and off all morning, resulting in a lot of stopping and re-starting to adjust our wardrobes accordingly. Because, as a friend here worded accurately: “it rains more inside of the jacket than outside of it.” My rain-jacket is the worst smelling article of clothing I have here.

As we walked along in the bi-polar weather, my friend pointed out what appeared to be a school in the distance. We were almost passed it when a man popped his head out of a window and said “Buen Camino! Where are you from?!” We answered, somewhat alarmed, and he asked if we had a moment to come inside of his kindergarten classroom. As we did so, he explained it was one of the students 4th birthdays and he wondered if we would each be willing to sing him happy birthday in our native languages. We gladly agreed.

During the half-hour we spent with those children and their incredible teacher, we ate cake and heard story after story about the encounters these students have had with our fellow pilgrims – the countries they have heard of, the lessons they have been taught, the serendipitous moments. The teacher referred to the window he beckoned us from as the “magic window.”

“This is a tiny village,” he said, “but the camino brings us the world.”

We left with tears in our eyes and an extra pep in our step.

One thing I contemplated a lot today was the change from summer to cooler days that we have been witnessing all around us this past week. From the coastal sunshine to the dreary days walking through the fermenting grape vineyards, change is evident.

The last time I did a camino was in the transition that sits between the cooler weather and warmer days. I remember a good friend from Norway saying on the last night that his favorite thing about the camino was “walking from winter into spring.” I remember thinking, “same; Literally and figuratively.” And here I sit again in this multi-layered shift. It feels poetic and perfect and important. (Side note: that friend from Norway will be finishing a different camino route on the exact same day as us and we will be getting dinner with him in Santiago that night. We didn’t know this until after the trip was booked, what a small world).

I finished out the day by revisiting the playlist I made after my camino last year – all of the songs that felt particularly relevant lyrically, made me feel something important, or have a strong memory attached. It was an incredible experience listening and remembering why each song was there. This camino was so short I only have a song or two that really elicit specific memories, but after twenty-eight days I developed quite a list. Here it is,

🎶:

Miranda Lambert, I’ve Got Wheels: “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 .. And when I find a place to rest, I stay just long enough to catch my breath.”

Ben Rector, Fear: “I remembered who I was when I learned to dance with the fear I had been running from.” | This was another staple album. I’m obsessed with Ben Rector. My current favorite is If You Can Hear Me.

Shane Smith & the Saints, Feather in the Wind: “When this road gets long, I try to sing a song that reminds me of times I’ve lived.” | This song has the best beat for walking to.

Joy Williams: Before I Sleep, “I’ve got miles and miles to go before I sleep, before I can feel anything, before I’m free. I’ve got miles and miles and miles until the dark gives way to dawn, until the winter can’t hold on. I’ll crawl until I can walk, until I run.” | I miss the Civil Wars, but she’s killing it with her solo work. This song was relevant on many levels, to me. I remember thinking counting down the miles as I listened to it.

The Highwaymen, Luckenbach Texas: This song found a home on my playlist because one day I was walking along with my from-Tennessee, now lives in Germany, friend and we discovered a similar taste in music. We put this song on and scream-sang it together down the trail and I will always think of that moment when I hear this, from now on.

Mat Kearney, Renaissance: “This is my winding road, this is my way back home, this is the narrow door you know that I will walk through. // Spent my life this far on castles made of sand.” | Obviously Mat Kearney had to show up somewhere here. This is one of my all time favorites by him.

Flatland Cavalry, Missing You: I think it’s safe to say Flatland Cavalry was my favorite band at the time of the camino last year. I remember texting my sister in April, from the trail, asking if she would commit to going to their show with me in August. We did. They’re great walking music and everything else music, too.

The Goo Goo Dolls, Sympathy: “.. stranger than your sympathy and all the thoughts you stole from me. I’m not sure where I belong, nowhere’s home and I’m all wrong. And I wasn’t all the things I tried to make believe I was. And I wouldn’t be the one to kneel before the dreams I once had – all the talk and all the lies were all the empty things disguised as me.” | Forever obsessed with this song and this band.

Aaron Watson: Bluebonnets (Julia’s Song): “Pack light, love heavy.” | My mantra ever since I heard this song for the first time.

Yiruma, River Flows In You: This song makes me tear up at least every other time I listen to it. It always seems to show up in my life at really important times. The first time I heard it was when a good friend played it on the piano in the dorm I lived in in Seattle. The second was six years later in a hostel in Glenwood Springs.

George Strait, Desperately: I had a day last year when I spent an hour or two thinking about how I stumbled upon loving country music so much (because those are the sorts of things you do when you walk 500 miles). I wrote a whole blog about it, but in short, I inherited a Tim McGraw CD & the George Strait CD this song is on when my uncle passed away. They were my first taste of real country and I love(d) this song particularly.

John Mayer, You’re Gonna Live Forever In Me: “Life is full of sweet mistakes and love is an honest one we make.” | This album was on repeat in December 2017, what I consider to be the hardest month I’ve ever endured on this planet. This simple song is a really big song for me. There were pieces of my divorce journey that I know other people viewed as dismissive and easy on my part, and although I’ve come to a much healthier place with how much I care about the perceptions of others, it was the heaviest experience of my life and it was neither of those things.

Billy Strings, Salty Sheep: A good friend introduced me to this guy shortly before my trip and I downloaded his whole album. The first time I heard this song was on the second day walking up, up, up the Pyrenees Mountains – the best walking tunes.

Sheryl Crow, If it Makes You Happy: (then why the hell are you so sad?)

Ashley Monroe, The Blade: This song is about how the exact same experience can be felt so differently by each of the people involved. | “You caught it by the handle, I caught it my the blade.”

Eddie Vedder, Society: “Society, you’re a crazy breed. Hope you’re not lonely without me.” | I bonded with a friend from Israel and another from Slovenia last camino and we listened to and sang along to this song as we walked along. It’s relatable and relevant and Chris McCandless vibes are always a little stronger on ventures like this. Into the Wild is my favorite book and a story I find intriguing on so many levels.

Nichole Nordeman, The Unmaking: “Before each ending, there must be an ending; sitting in the rubble, I can see the stars.”

& Beautiful Day (U2 cover).

I have a deep love and appreciation for Nichole Nordeman. I first heard her voice at the funeral of the uncle I mentioned earlier and it wrapped around my heart. Despite the winding, twisted faith journey I’ve been on of late, I always gravitate back to her and her words. She makes sense to me, when other things don’t. I’ve experienced a heart-breaking amount of ostracism, abandonment and hypocrisy at the hands of people in a community that proclaims it is safe and accepting. (I blame no one in particular and hold no ill feelings, but), those places and people don’t feel safe to me anymore, but her music always does.

Dixie Chicks, Let Him Fly: “You must always know how long to stay and when to go.”

The Fray, Happiness: A good friend reached out to me during my camino last year and informed me she would be getting a tattoo with lyrics from this song. I had forgotten about it and this album, I was thankful for the prompt to revisit it. | “(Happiness has a violent roar). Happiness is like the old man told me: look for it and you’ll never find it. But let it go, live your life and leave it and then one day you’ll wake up and she’ll be home. Home.”

Tyler Childers, Tattoos: “The past is fading over time, but it’s still hanging on for life.”

Alison Krauss, Gravity: “All the answers that I started with turned out questions in the end. The years roll on by and just like the sky, the road never ends. And the people who love me as me, ‘when are you coming back to town?’ And I answer, quite frankly, ‘when they stop building roads.'”

Reckless Kelly, Wicked Twisted Road: “My first love was a wicked twisted road. // My first love was an angry painful song, I wanted one so bad I went and did everything wrong.” | There’s always been something about this song I’ve loved. I’ll be honest, it’s the only song by this band I really care for. But I’m absolutely obsessed with everything about it.

Sam Outlaw, Everybody’s Looking for Home: This was a strong theme song for me last trek. It’s one of my favorite reminders and perspectives. | “How has the road been lately? .. and are you looking for answers just to say you asked?”

The Beatles, Here Comes the Sun.

Thomas Rhett, The Day You Stop Looking Back: “The day that you stop looking back, you’re going to find that the future sure beats the hell out of the past.”

William Clark Green, Sticks & Stones: I turn William Clark Green on all the time when I hike, big fan. He’s one of my favorites to see live, too. | “Yeah you believe what you want to believe, you think that you know, but you don’t know me.”

Fleetwood Mac, Landslide: “And I’m getting older, too.” | When I was trapped in London by mistake on the way here, I watched a Fleetwood Mac documentary on television at my hotel before falling asleep. I love this band. And I have memories of my dad and my uncle enjoying their documentaries, so it felt a little more like home on a day that strayed from the plan so drastically.