Thursday, July 7, 2011

Good Speed Is Your Speed

You can't do the Camino wrong.

It doesn't matter how fast you walk...


___________________
[Above: Graffiti along the Camino de Santiago, and me, dozing at Cee, Spain, on the next-to-last day of the pilgrimage (photo by Annika)]

...if you carry the "wrong" backpack
[Pamplona: Me sewing a Star Trek patch (made by Art Sparker) onto my external-frame backpack---which a Spanish guy later declared only fit for Boy Scouts--and Mz tossing grapes to catch in her mouth, waiting for the bus to the beginning of the trail in Roncesvalles]

...what you eat [Fried egg sandwich and beer, here.]

...or if your bed is comfortable.
[Not.]

If you keep going, you'll get somewhere.
Maybe to where you thought you were going.

You'll probably be happy,
ABOVE: bink (who took most of the pix here), me, and Marz at the fishing port of Finisterre, Spain.

...but maybe you'll also be sad that you can't walk any farther.


ABOVE: Me ^ (can you see me?) at the End of the World, handing to the ocean-going winds the ashes of the words I'd carried across Spain. Photo by Eeva.

Not to worry. The Camino never really ends.
____________________

Today is a happy day.
Marz (below, left) is arriving on the Greyhound bus, to visit or maybe even move here.


Yesterday I took my old backpack to Steeple People Thrift Store. The Spanish guy was right to be dubious--it was far less comfortable than everyone else's modern internal frame packs. Further, a strap broke and I walked with a lopsided pack the last couple weeks.

Nevertheless I felt sad to part with it,
but as I was dropping it off, I overheard workers in the back pricing a bicycle at $25. Marz will need transportation, so I ducked into the workers' area and nabbed it for her.
It's just an old 3-speed, but it'll do for this flat terrain.

Now I have to go finish putting away my stuff so Marz has a place to put hers.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey_-I wish I'd known re the Marz thang...we have a ton of old bikes I think in our garage given the girls over the years. Suitable for a taller-framed gal as she appears to be. Kaya's movin' out in August , if she and friends get the ap't they want. So there may or may not be a variety of give-away useful stuff from our household, should she need stuff.
AH, veriword is "mativen" which sounds like a Finnish word for something tho do with Catholic stuff and Camino..just makin' it all up. Speaing of Finnish stuff, i ate little bites of herring tonight for supper and thought of you, dear.

bink said...

Fun to see the pix put into a story. Keep going...

Annika said...

I laughed myself silly at the photo of you on the bed. That forlorn, dishevelled expression, the hard-looking matress, and the looong row of socks...it begs to be made into a macro!

Other than that, I'm so grateful for having been part of the walk. If that makes sense.