Sorry I skipped a day.  It´s sometimes hard (putting it mildly!)  to find a working computer!  I´ll try to catch up now.  Anyway:
The pilgrims have been stealing the TP.  I´d suspected it for a while, but now I´m sure, because when we arrived in the afternoon at the luxury hotel/albergue in Villafranca there were in  each of the two ladies´room stalls  four rolls of TP stacked on a fancy TP- stacking tower (Tom assures me it was the same in the mens´room) and by the next morning there was not a sheet of TP in any of the stalls!  (And there were not that many pilgrims in the albergue!) In the morning the French lady in the stall next to mine discovered the lack of TP too late so I gave her some of my private stash.  (I never enter a stall without a roll of TP squashed in my pocket).  When I lamented to her the theft of the TP, the French lady, who I guess is more enveloped in the spirit of the Camino than me, disagreed that the TP had been stolen, but believed that it had rolled off according to natural progression. Maybe.  But I´ve caught young theiving pilgrims snatching grapes from the gorgeous purple bunches that hang in the vineyards along the Cammino.  I think to myself,  "Not cool, little pigrim brothers and sisters.  You maybe think you are only taking a few grapes, but it´s stealing all the same from the farmer who raised those grapes by the sweat of his brow and needs every one of them to make a living to support his family.  Instead  you should do as the Scoutmaster and his wife and help yourself to the tons of wild sweet, delicious blackberries that grow everywhere along the Camino. "  Of course, I´ve never said anything to the pilfering pilgrims.  Mainly because my next thought always reminds me that before I try to pluck the grape from my fellow pilgrim´s hand I should dispose of the watermelon in my own hand.  Metaphorically speaking.
On Friday the weather turned from scorching hot to a cold, wiiiinnnndy rain.  We left Villafranca de Montes de Oca and walked 16 km to the town of Ages.  After 12 km we stopped for lunch in San Juan de Ortega, a pilgrim guide watering stop-over town which, as far as we could see, consisted of a church, the municipal albergue, and a little cafe.  So we joined our fellow pilgrim herd for lunch where we had ham and cheese sandwiches on crusty loaves, a diet coke for me and a roll of cookies. The cookies in Spain come in rolls, kind of like giant rolls of pennies. My favorite to date are the lemon creme-filled, but this cafe only had chocolate filled, still we were happy.  Until after paying for our lunch we realized that we were almost our of cash.  I asked the cafe owner if there was a cash machine in town.  He said no, the closest cash machine was in Borgos - a day-and-a half-walk away!  I then asked him if there was a bus from the town to Burgos, but he said no.  So after lunch we continued on in the rain until we blew into Ages where there also was no cash machine or bus to Burgos.  We reviewed our financial situ and concluded that we had enough cash for two beds in the Ages municipal albergue at 9 euros each, a picnic dinner of bread and chesse, or something, enough for breakfast and maybe a light lunch, and two euroes left to write my blog (which the alberugue computer devoured then maliciously delivered nada! Happens ofter here.  Grrr!).  But we lucked out because the first floor of the municipal albergue was a sort of deli/bar, where for 2euros 50 each we were able to get a big slice of potato quiche, a hunk of bread and a side of mild peppers that went very well with the quiche.  The dorm room on the second floor was spotless and spacious with wonderful (gender segregated - always nice!) bathrooms.  The dorm was kind of like a big gym divided into two areas.  Our area had dozens of beds but there were only four other pilgrims there besides us.  I think that night was about my favorite albergue night because we hit it off so well with out dorm mates:  Phillip,  a young German medical engineering student; Andy, a young Londoner and enthusiastic foodie who owns a restaurant and pub called "The Grove" (In case you ever get to London); Jerry another Londoner who´s retired; and Pat, a retired Irishman.  We talked and laughed (Who´d have thought that blisters, aching knees and shin splints could make for such lively and entertaing conversation!) into the wee hours, ´til almost 9:30 pm!  Then the next morning it was up for the cafe´s breakfast:  a large plate containing a giant croissant, a thick slice of bread, a sweet rolls and a chocolate croissant, (always a carb-a-rama around here!) orange juice, coffee for Tom and tea for me.  Then it was out once more into the windy rain.  Destination:  Burgos and a cash machine.  More to follow!  In the meantime, I wish you all a day full of good, good things.  Love, Patti 8)

Yesterday was a short day, we walked only 11 km from Belorado to the town of Villafranca Montes de Oca, which is kind of too bad, because for some reason the sun decided today to quit being a demon, hung up its devil horns for a while, and even allowed a nice cool breeze to blow.  But we reliquished the pleasant weather anyway because we read that in Villafranca there was a luxury hotel, San Anton Abad,  that set aside a section for  pilgrims to spend the night, and we definitely wanted to check it out. The site of the  hotel and parts of the current building date back to 1377, when it was built as a  hospital for pilgrims and the poor.  San Anton Abad turned out to be probably the most upscale accomodations we´ll enjoy on the Camino.  For 5 euros we could have shared bunkbeds in a very big 20-person room or for 8 euros we could have shared bunkbeds in a very big 8-person room, but we sprung for the "luxury suite":  for 10 euros we got to sleep in non-bunk beds in a long room lined with non-bunk beds. It was a pretty, sunny room, the walls hung with floral paintings, very pleasant. Each bed was in its own semi-cubicle with a bedside table.  Since Daddy and I are married the hospitaliero gave us a two-bed cubicle, which gave us the impression of having our own private room.  Sort of.   Outside our room there was a big glassed-in sitting room with tables and chairs that looked out over a terrace, a church stteple and the mountains in the distance. Even the clothesline area was pleasant, located on a big meadow behind the hotel.  The lobby of the hotel was just beautiful, done in stone and pink and yellow stucco and stonework with a big stone fireplace, a skylight for the ceiling coats of arms hung on the wall, heavy burgundy curtains and pieces of Spanish folk art all around.  There were giant floral arrangements and out on the terrace there was a peahen (a girl peacock) strutting aroung. Thereś also a big painted screen behind the reception desk that depicted a baroque musical evening.  So you can imagine all of us pilgrims milling around the lobby and the sitting area, "ooo-ing" and "ahhh-ing".   The hotelś pilgrim  was a little pricier than usual, butr the food was sumptuous.  I wanted to try the garlic soup since I seen it on so many menus but couldn conceive of  the concept of garlic soup.  Having tried it here I concluded that garlic soup is, in deed, a concept better left unconceived. For my next course I had meat-stuffed eggplant with the ubiquitous french fries - very good- and for dessert, my usual favorite, rice pudding with cinnamon.  Tom had the salad, baked fish with fries, and ice cream.  He really liked his meal, and the other pilgrims we talked to gave their meals rave reviews. The bread was the best we´ve hjad so far. So I fivweOne exception:  the womenś shower stalls (the bathrooms actually weren´t  coed for a change!) left something to be desired on a number of levels, but then the water was hot and plentiful, so whatś to kvech about? But hereś the quandry:  The town of Villafranca Montes de Oca is hands down the pits-iest place we´ve seen in Spain so far!  Besides the hotel the town basically consists of a highway with about two feet of sidewalk on either side, a kind of rough truck stop ( used the menś room there.  The ladies' room was occupied and I didn´t want to hang around in there, so I zipped into the menś.  Why not?  Theyŕe both the same.  Except that the menś room really smelled like a menś room.  Maybe the ladies room did, too.), a grocery store, and a beautiful church that also appears to be centuries old.  And thatś about it.  Which begs the question:  who comes to the luxury hotel part of the hotel?  One of the mysteries of the Camino.  Have a beautiful sunny day, but may the sun where you are not be as hot as the sun on the Camino!  Love, Patti 8)

Though we started out from Granon yesterday morning with great expectations, we had to throw in the towel - the very sweaty towel - after 15 hot, hot, km and stop for the night in the town of Belorando.  This town seemed a bit run-down, but it is one of the pilgrim guide watering stops, so I´d guess there´s plenty of pilgrim business to help the town along.  We stayed at a really nice family- run albergue called ¨Cuatros Cantones" where for 9 euros including breakfast we stayed in a very spacious, airy  third floor loft with white stucco walls, exposed timber beams, and a skylight, where we shared the 18-bed room with only 10 people.  The showers were spotless and the commodes well-stocked with TP (not always a given, especially in the municipal albergues.).  The overall decor was very traditional Spanish, the stairways and halls done withpretty  Spanish tiles, bright yellow stucco walls, and in the landings there were wood credenzas and wooden dish cabinets holding colorful dishes and vases.  It was a very nice place. The family cooked a pilgrim meal  for us, 7.50 euros, good but , we decided, not the best we´ve had.  For starters I broke my vow to stick with the salad (Tom had the salad - I guess we´re back in tuna country.  Marianne:  canned tuna.  With oil.) I opened with the paella mainly because I´d decided that while I was in Spain I´d eat paella, but I´ve come to realize that my own rice casserole is as good as or better than  any paella I´ve eaten here, so now I´m kind of over the paella.  But other than that we really liked this place.  Oh, and for 3 euros they did our laundry for us, a servide that always warms my heart.  Anyway, as for our day on the trail yesterday:  Dad´s knee was thankfully, better.  Now the ¨Only Rock On the Dirt Lot¨story  has become the ¨Pit Bull Bite¨ story of the Camino.  (Tom was bitten by a pit bull a few months ago.  Believe me, a malicious  pit bull  is way worst than a malicious rock!).  Any time Tom stopped to talk to one of his pilgrim friends (and he has lots -as you can imagine,  his personality seems to transcend culture and language!) he showed them his ripped pants and bandaged knee and told his story.  Everyone was sympathetic, we pilgrims always sympathize with each other and try to help each other´s hurts in any way we can.  I guess we all know that any of us might be the one who´s hurting next time.  It amazes me, all the pilgrims who are working their way along the Camino in spite of physical ailments:  everything from arthritic knees to Cystic Fibrosis to good old fashioned old age.  But as you walk along whenever a pilgrim passes you they smile and give you a "Buen Camino¨, and you ¨Buen Camino" them right back.  "Buen Camino" is the Camino version of "Have a Nice Day". Even the people in the towns often stop and smile and offer us a "Buen Camino¨, and even the children do, too.  (I wonder if they´re taught from a young age that that´s what you say to the pilgrims?).  Anyway,I guess  when you´re hearing "Have a Nice Day" all day long, you kind of can´t help having one.  Add to that the beautiful natural wonders all around you, especially when you´re at the crest of a mountain and the panorama opens up all around you:  mountains, fields, vineyards, and the piilgrims walking ahead of you look so small against this backdrop.  "And I think to myself:  it´s a wonderful world."  May there be something wonderful in your world today.  Love, Patti 8)

Just a quick NB to try and keep the confusion to a minimum:  yesterday´s post should have started  "So, yesterday morning", not ¨this morning".  Because I was actually writing about the day before.  I´m usually writing about the day before. 
Anyway, we thought that yesterday was going to turn out to be just one of those days on the Camino, a day you just have to write off.  But then the end of the day gave us some nice surprises.  The day started out fine, or so we thought.  We ate breakfast in Azofra.  Tom had a big slice of potato quiche and another big chocolate croissant and a cafe solo (that´s a strong black expresso - Tom´s become a real fan).  All I had was a croissant and tea- not enough, first big mistake.  But all was going well, very well, in fact the first 15 km´s just flew by, we were burning up the Camino!  Then outside the town of Santo Domingo we crossed a dirt lot where Tom, in his words,  "found the only rock in the lot."  He fell, I about had a heaart attack, but he was all right.  He did get a cut on his knee, tore the heck out of his pants, and was covered with dirt, including the clean laundry pinned to his backpack to dry in the sun.  (That´s usually how we dry our laundry.)  The only fortunate thing was that da few minutes later we came to a water fountain outside a red cross building, and one of the workers came out and gave Tom a package of bandages!   By then it was 2:00pm and I was ready to eat the cobblestones off the streets of Santo Domingo, but I won´t go into how one mistake led to another and before we knew it we were far out of the town and any possibility of buying food.  We found a sad old park overrun with weeds and cigarette buts and rotted-out picnic tables and a non-working water fountain.  In the panic of the moment I´d forgotten to refill my water in Santo Domingo, so now we´d have to travel on half-water rations for the next 6 hot, sunny kilometers.  But we sat for a few minutes anyway and gobbled up some left-over snacks we had (our good-old ham  rice cakes) then pushed on.  By the time we reached the next town, Granon, I was so weak and achy, I was ready to drop.  Tom was doing a bit better than me, but we were both truely straggling along.  As we entered the town, though, Tom said, ¨this seems like a friendly town.¨ It was true.  The town immediately had a nice feel to it, probably because the streets were rather wide and there was a big open square on the right and an old, old stone church on the left. We came to an älbergue¨sign that looked like it had been painted by Peter Max, the Yellow Submarine artist.  We went inside and the place looked like an art gallery, with half-brick, half painted plaster walls, artwork or photos on the walls.  The name of the palce was Casa de los Sonrisas (House of Smiles).  The place did make me smile, it felt so, I don´t know, nice, special, or something, inside.  The owner, pretty young guy, I,d say in his late thirties, maybe,  told us that he wasn´t a registered albergue, that he didn´t even have a Camino passport stamp, and that he only had one bathroom.  I didn´t care, I wanted to stay there.  The place was a big old rambling house, art everywhere you looked, photos, art sculptures, enviroments, everywhere you looked, bedrooms here, there and everywhere.  He put us up on the third floor in a little room that was probably a big walk-in closet at one time,  but now hel just one bunk bed, so we had our own private room.  Then the owner told us that he´d have a home-cooked meal for us and he´d fix us breakfast, too.  All this not for a price, but for whatever donation we cared to give! . There were about another dozen piligrims there besides us, mostly French, though there were a few Spanish and Dutch as well.  The meal was awesome, about the best we´ve had on the Camino (and we´ve had some pretty good meals!).  Grilled zuchini, thick, delicious lentil soup, pasta with tomatoes, red peppers and mushrooms, and saffron rice. After dinner we alled washed our own dishes and cleaned the table.  It wasn´t required, I think we all just felt like we should.  Anyway,  The arty albergue in the little town of Granon is hands down my favorite, Tom says, if not his favorite, it goes down as his most interesting one - but best meal.  Anyway, we left the guy 50 euros. You can look up this albergue on facebook:  Casa De Los Sonrisas.  Maybe there will be some photos of it.  We hope to cover at least 15km today to the town of Belorado, but if we´re feeling super-enegetic maybe we´ll smoke 27km to the town of Villafranca MOntes De Oca, a motherlode of available albergues.  Marianne:  One of these times I intend to write about a typical day waqlaking along the Camino, but I haven´t had time yet - compute time is so limted.  But one of these times maybe I wall.  A wonderful day to all!  Love, Patti 8)

So we started off this morning from Navarrete, sticks blazing, ready to burn up the 23 km to our next destination of Azofra.  All was going well until we were on the other side of the town of Najera, about 5.8 km from Azofra.  Short story short, there was a fork in the road and we took the wrong prong.  We walked up a steep red dirt road for abut 40 minutes until the road ended at the top of the mountain outside the isolated house of a sympthetic Spaniard who told us what we by now knew - that this wasn´t the road to Santiago!  So we made our way back down the mountain and it was close to 7 pm when we finally came dragging into Azofra, exhausting and covered in sweat mixed with the red dirt of the region of La Rioja.  We continued dragging through the town, passing our fellow pilgrims who, clean and settled in, were eating dinner in the cafes.  They cheered us on and were happy that these two lone stragglers had finally made it.  When we reached the town´s 60-bed municipal mega-albergue all the beds were taken so we were taken down the block to the over-flow building where we shared a room with two Spanish retired firemen.  They spoke no English but with my sketchy Spanish we were able to carry on a conversation.  They were from a small town on the southern coast of Spain, near Africa and close to the town of Marbella.  They were cousins, born in the same house in the same bed sixteen days apart.  They told me they did everything together and now that they were 60 years old they were doing doing the Camino as an expression of their faith.  ONe of them warned me that he was a really bad snorrer and he wasn´t kidding.  It was like sleeping next to a John Deere riding mower all night long!  They were really nice.  The main campus of the albergue was really pretty with a courtyard with a fountain shaped like a pineapple, café tables and, of course, dirty boots lines up outside the door.  Pilgriims never wear our boots inside the albergues.  There were also the standard clothelines strung around the courtyard with hung with pilgrim laundry.  Inside the reception área of the albergue there was a big dining hal with long tables, a well-stocked kitchen, and a 1-euro washiing machine!  (You know I headed for that bad boy!).  There were lots of young people (in their 20´s & 30´s.  The younger folks tend to go to the municipal albergues because they are cheaper, 6 to 8 euros per bed.  This one cost 7 euros each)  and many of them had bought food and were fixing comunal meals.  It reminded me of a college campus, lots of kids eating together in the dining hall or our in the courtyard, talking, laughing, overcoming the language barrier.  I did have one issue with the albergue:  the bathrooms in our building were not my ideal.  There were enough of them, but none of the showers or pottys had real doors.  They had these short sort of salóon swinging doors that didn´t lock. ( And they were co-ed).  No one peeked, of course.  I´ve never yet come across a pilgrim who lacked respect.  We´re all in the same boat, right?  Or, as my aunt Mary used to say, Ïn this hive we´re all alive, let´s keep it sweet as honey.¨ The drain was blocked in the shower stall that Tom used so he stood in several inches of wáter and then the wáter flowed out under the saloón door and onto the bathroom floor.  But that´s why we wear flip-flops int the bathrooms, right?  By the time we got clean and washed and hung our laundry it was 8:30 but we walked back into town for our 10-euro pilgrim meal.  I´ve sworn off pasta - for now, and Tom´s sworn off wine - for now, so we both had the (tunaless!) salad for starters, followed by the house specialty, a chicken leg cooked in beer (yummy)with french fries.  I dipped the fries in the chicken juice - better tan kétchup!  For dessert we both had the vanilla pudding.  At the albergue we ran into a couple of our bunkmates from Zubiri, the two sunny South African sisters, Linky and Innish.  It seems that when you again run into a fellow pilgrim with whom you´ve connected you feel so glad, like you´re seeing an old friend.  I could exegize a bit more on this subject, but my computer time is again up, so I´ll just wish you all a wonderful and happy day!  Love, Patti 8) 

Ran out of computer time yesterday (won´teven go into the problems I´ve been having trying to find a halfway working computer in these parts! - Let´s just say it´s kind of like being on an advanced scavenger hunt where you don´t  have a map).  Anyway, I did wnat to write a bit more about the town of Viana.  So, to take up where Ieft off, besides the two albergues and the 16 matresses in the parish hall, therewere also a couple  of private pensiones and even a nice hotel where a few pilgrims spent a Camino whatever night.  I´m guessing this is because this  town  appears to be a touristy little place as well.  Apparently Viana has  been a pilgrim stopver since the12th century. It´s a beautiful town with narrow cobblestone streets between tall old buildings.  There´s the remains of a castle and a magnificent cathedral built in the 13th century in which are enterred the remains of Cesare Borgia.  ( you know, Cesare Borgia? Brother of Lucretia Borgia?  Two  of the children of the Spanish Borgia Pope Alexander VI played by Jeremy Irons on the HBO series?) Anyway, he´s buried in this town.  Of the two available albergues in the town (not counting the 16 matresses) Tom and I opted for the big, new modern one where there were plenty of showers (yay!) a washer (double yay!) and a sort of working computer (triple yay!).  For 10 euros We ended up shaeing an 8-person room with three friendly Australians in their mid-60´s, though when we woke up there was a young Russian kid sleeping in one of the beds - he´d come in s late (probably around 9 pm!) that none of us heard him.  We had our pilgrim dinner in a little restaurant where the tables were on the sidewalks  as well as in the narrow little street, so that when a car came down thestreet we had to hustle to move the tables out of the way!   For his first course Tom ordered the salad with tuna (all the salads include tuna.  If I say we ordered a salad, just assume that itincluded tuna).  I started with spaghetti topped with shrimp, mussles and octopus.  For our next course we bth ordered the pork filets with fries.  For dessert Tom had the fruit salad and I had the rice pudding (can´t resist those carbs!).  I can´t vouch for thequality of the wine, but Tom finished almost the whole bottle!  (He said it was  really good).  Next day we headed off towards Navarrete with a lunch stop in the big city of Logrono where we ate our usual park bench lunch, a loaf of fresh bread from the bakery, cheese, and the biggest honking pastries we can find.  I usually buy some chips fr a side but in Logrno I found some rice cakes.  ON the package it said,¨"Jamon" - ham.  I figured that must be a brand name, or somthing; surely they didn´t make ham-flavored rice cakes? But  surely they did! The Spanish are such meat lovers that even the rice cakes don´t get off the hook!  So we continued on to Navarrete where we found such a charming little albergue for 8 euros each.  Th ehospitaliero  was a really nice young guy -they  all are, really, but this guy seemed to especially be filled with the spirit of the Camino.  There was only one room with 18 beds, all full, but it was such a big, bright, light room that it didn´t seem over- crowded.  The town of Navarrete itself seemed tl have seen better times - looked s run down and sad.  We did find a pilgrim meal, though, and  for 9 euros tom started with the salad,I had the pasta bolognese (of course!) and we had pork chops and baked potatoes for our second course.  For dessert Tom had a pear and a fresh fig ( now he´s a new fan of fresh figs) and I had the rice pudding.  This morning we set off for the town of Aforza but we couldn´t find a cafe opened so we followed our noses to the bakery where the baker came fromback to wait on us with flour stil on his hands.  Tom had a huge chocolate-filled croissant and I had my ideal breakfast, a huge pecan-topped cream-filled croissant and a diet coke.  So,  all sugared-up, caffeined-up, and fizzed-up, I was ready to once again take on the Camino!  Two Caminos!  Three Caminos!  I wish you all a sweet day flled with good energy! Patti 8)

Yesterday there was bed anxiety on the Camino.  That happens when there is a large herd of pilgrims heading for a town where there may not be enough beds for everyone.  The main problem was the heat.  Tom & I headed out from Los Arcos with the herd (or I should say behind the herd, since the hospitaliero of the small albergue where we stayed didn´t really care what time we left, whereas in the big municipal albergues the pilgrims are shooed out at 8:00 am) and decided to follow to the next guidebook stop,  Logrono, a big city and capital of the Spanish state of La Rioja (By the by, Miguel, you´re right the name of the town we stayed in the other night is Viana), since we were a little spooked by our not-lonely lonley albergue experience the night before.  But after walking for a while we all started to sweat and wilt and change our minds about walking all the way to Logrono.  But the second problem was that there are only two stops with facilities between Los Arcos and Logrono:  the first, Torres Del _Rio, is only a few km´s beyond Los Arcos, and the second is the town of Viana, which is about 6 km´s before Logrono.  So everyone, us included, was deciding to stop at Viana.  The third problem was that, according to the guide books, there´s only one 54-bed albergue at Viana with 16 additional mattresses available to be set out on the floor of the parish hall if needed for piilgrim overflow.  So the question being asked all up and down the Camino was, "Where are you stopping?"  And the answer was invariably, "Viana".  I was feeling the bed anxiety myself.  I walked for a few moments with two middle-aged Irish ladies.  One asked me where I was staying, and when I answered "Viana", she said , "Not many beds there!"  and hurried away with her companion.  Bed runners, I thought.  A bed runner is a pilgrim who rushes to the next albergue to be sure to snag a bed.  A few miles later  we came across the Irish ladies sitting under one of the few shade trees along the way, sweating like crazy and fanning themselves with their hats.  "It´s too hot,"  one of them said, and  I agreed sympathetically.  It really was to hot for us old folks to be doing this, but here were were, doing it!  As it turned out, there really was no need for any of us to have feared for a bed.  Because as it turned out there was a big, new, spotlessly clean albergue in the town, probably built since the latest edition of the guidebooks, so we all ended up getting a bed.  Another good day on the Camino!
Peace and a good night´s sleep to all.  Patti 8)

 Yesterday we took our first Camino cheat.  There are a number of way pilgrims occasionally cheat on the Camiino:  by hiring someone to transport their backpacks to the next town; by hopping a bus between towns; by staying in a hotel instead of an albergue (that´s what Martin Sheen and his friends did in ¨The Way¨", but I don´t call any of that Camino cheating.   I call it Camino whatever it takes - ing.  So here´s how our Cammino whatever went down:  We started out from Lorca and after hauling 18 km over the Pyreness in the blazing hot sun we arrived in the little village of Villamayor de Monjardin exhausted, sweat cascading from every pore, smelling like Old MacDonald´s farm on a hot, hot day, to find that the albergue was...FULL! Full of old folks who were apparently on to our Lonely Camino plan!  (So much for that plan!)  It was almost 6 pm and the next town, Los Arcos, was 13 km away.  The hospitaliero, a nice Dutchman, was very sympathetic, but there wasn´teven room for nother matress on the floor.  He offered us the use of his facilities and a pad upon which we could sleep outside the albergue.  On the concrete.  There were already three women who were going to do this, two Americans and a Candian,  and they seemed quite cheerful about the situation.  In fact one of them, an American who appeared in her 70´s, seemed downright excited over the prospect, said it was going to be a fun slumber party and that she was glad we´d be joing her.  I must have looked pretty distressed, though, because one white-haired pilgrim insisted that I take  his bed and said that he wouldn´t mind sleeping outside.  Of course I insisted otherwise.  The hospitaliero laid out our options for us:  we could either walk the 13 km to Los Arcos or sleep on a pad outside.  Or, he joked, he could call a taxi to come from Los Arcos and take us  back there.  Whenhe said ¨taxi¨my eyes lit up like a Christmas Tree and I heard heavenly harps playing.  Now, I think that Tom would have been find with sleeping outside on a pad on the concrete.  A scout is tough.  But the scoutmaster´s wife is not, so we took the taxi.  The Candian, a woman in her 50´s named Ellie decided to ditch the slumber party and cast her lot with us.  Los Arcos is one of the big pilgrim herd watering holes, so we figured we´d be in for a night in a pilgrim warehouse, but that was all right with us.   But then our bad luck turned into good luck:  it turned out that the taxi driver,s wife ran a small albergue on the other side of Los Arcos, on the outskirts of town.  So after our 20 euro taxi ride we stayed at the wife´s albergue for 10 euros each.  It was such a nice little place in the back of the family´s house with a courtyard and a big lawn.  For 3 euros the wife washed our clothes while tom, Ellie and I went out for dinner .  Dinner in Los Arcos:  there´s a big catherdral in Los and across the couryard from the cathedral was a row of restaurants and the courtyard in front of the cathedral was filled with little tables with unbrellas where the restaurants served dinner  and where we saw a number of our fellow pilgrims.  We wanted to order the pilgrim meal but the waiter suggested that the paella was better than the pilgrim meal so that´s what we ordered.  There was a mass in the cathedral at 8:00 and many of the pilgrims left the courtyard tables to go to mass.  Tom really wanted to go, too, but since we hadn´t yet been served he wasn´t able to.  But all was well that ended well and tonight we are settled into our albergue in the town of Vania after an 18 km walk.  My computer time is up so I need to run, but I wish a won

Yesterday we burned up another 20 km between Utergy and the town of Lorca, where we stayed at the neatest little albergue - I'd say our favorite so far except that we say that about every albergue we stay in - except for the one in Zubiri with the no-stall showers. But  even from Zubiri we brought some good memories.  Our fellow pilgrims were so nice and on our way out of the town we stopped for breakfast at a cafe/bbakery where we each had  a big slice of potato quiche and a bomba de crema - a cream bomb - a doughnut filled with a ton of custard! My kind of bomb!  Anyway, the albergue in Lorca was so pretty, the decor was I guess traditional Spanish style, all done in colorful tiles and stone walls.  The little dining room looked like a Spanish cave, kind of dark, stone walls and wooden tables.  And the dinner was the usual sumptuous meal - for 9.90 euros we had pasta covered with tasty tomato sauce covered with  cheese, then a roast chicken leg with french fries, an ice cream bar for dessert.  The endless bread and wine are standard.  As for our sleeping quarters, we had a choice - for 8 euroes we could share the dorms with our fellow pilgrims - there were about eight there besides us -  men in one room, women in another.  Or for 10 euros we could have a private room with our own bathroom and shower.  Guess which one we went for!  We laughed when we say our >private room> .  It was a beautiful loft with wood panelling - and eight bunk beds!  The hospitaliero told us to sleep where we wanted.  So we did! Anyway, we have the secret to finding these small nice albergues, given to us by some veteran pilgrims>  don't follow the guide book!  The guide books lay out the route and they have you stopping for the night in the cities and big towns where you'll sleep in a pilgrim warehouse and be whisked out by 8 in the morning to start moving with the herd.  But if you stop in the little villages between the big pilgrim watering holes, you'll find the small, half-empty albergues where the hospitaliers are laid back and don't care what time you leave in the morning because there isn't much cleaning up to do.  I'm thinking about writing an alternative guide to the Camino.  I'm thinking of calling it The Lonley Albergue , or  The Not-A-People-Person's Guide Too The Camino.  Think I could pick up a following? A wonderful day to all!  Patti 8)

Every grocery store and cafe sells Cornettos and I vow that before I leave Spain I´m going to eat one in honor of ¨The Cornetto Trilogy".  (You non-fine film buffs can google "The Cornetto Trilogy").  But I can´t help but wonder if there´s a relationship between the plentitude of Cornettos and the plentitude of zombies and robots (as per "The Cornetto Trilogy) along the Camino today.  Zombies and robots with backpacks, hiking boots and walking sticks.  And I must admit I´m in their number, though at this point I ´m not sure whether I´m a zombie or a robot.  I feel like a robot zombie.  But we met a German pilgrim who is on his third Camino and he says that in another week or so we´ll be doing much better.  He says that there are three parts to the Camino:  the first part is the physical part, where you struggle with the physical challenge of climbing up and down rugged mountains mile after mile, day after day; the second part is the mental part, when you walk across the Meseta, the desert land, and have to cope with the mental struggle of walking for miles across seemingly endless empty spaces (It´ll be a heck of a  mental struggle for me if I can´t find a tree or bush to go behind every now and then!); and the third part is the spiritual part ,when you start to find  spiritual meaning on the Camino.  I think I should wait  until the third part of the Camino to eat my Cornetto as a victory celebration for having made it across the first two parts.  On the other hand, maybe I should eat my Cornetto today to celbrate having made it over the 20 km hike  from Villava through Pamplona again then up and down a steep, windy, rocky mountain to the town of Uterga.  But we struck gold again with the albergue here, it´s the cutest little place, 10 euros a night, and has only 18 pilgrim beds.  We also ran into our little friend Maria and her daughter Clara here, it was a happy reunion - and it turns out she had the camera charger  adapter that I left behind in the albergue in Espinal!  So now I have an extra one to lose.  Anyway , the meal in the Uterga albergues was  phenominal.  There are always options for every course, but I chose to start with a huge bowl of spahgetti with a delicious sauce which I scarfed down,  next I went for a plate of also delicious beef stew with french fries which I also polished off, then an ice cream sundae for dessert, which, of course, I finished to the last spoonful. Then there was the standard basket of bread and the wine (though I always opt for the water, but Tom and the other pilgrims did great justice to the wine!).  As I ploughed through each course I kept saying, "I can´t believe I´m eating all this!"  One thing for sure, even with all this walking I´m not going to lose a pound!  In fact, I feel like I could go for that Cornetto now!  A happy day to all!