Friday, September 10, 2010

What goes up must come down. . .Roncevalles to Larrasoaña and beyond

I first off want to apologize for a kind of negative post from last night.  It was a very tough first day with the rain and the climb and I was pretty exhausted and licking my wounds.

Today was a very nice day.  We travelled from Roncevalles to Larrasoaña, completing another stage, but since everything in Larrasoaña was closed for a feast day, still not sure who´s, we decided to keep going.  Almost the entire journey from Roncevalles was downhill and, while having it´s own challenges, was better than the 4000ft climb.  We made pretty good time and had very much a on-the-frontier kind of attitude, not seeing much in our way.  But, by the end of our stage into Larrasoáña, we were not feeling that we were going to be able to make it another 12km to the next recommended stop after completing the stage.  Well, we lucked out.  A man in Larrasoaña asked if we needed a ride closer to Pamplona and, although I kind of feel bad about it now since many other pilgrims made it here on foot, we accepted his offer.  It turned out well, though, because he is without work right now and we did offer to give him retribution for his help.

We made most of the journey with a friend that we met yesterday on the latter part of the trip into Roncevalles.  His name is Yost and is from Holland (isnt that vierd?).  He is a great guy and was very interesting to talk to.  By the end of the journey to Larrasoaña, he had a blister that was bigger than any I have ever seen.  He decided to forego the rest of the trip towards Pamplona and tend to the blister.  It kind of stinks to lose him because he was great company and fun to hang out with.  I think that God had him come with us for a reason and I ask all who might be reading this to pray for him.  He is a fallen away Catholic who has experienced a ton of turmoil in his life, from a brother committing suicide, an alcoholic mother, and other things.  I talked to him a lot today about some of the things he "had against" the Church, and he is where a lot of Catholics are today--"ok, this is what the church teaches, but somebody tell me why!"  Please pray for him.

Well, I am about to head out to dinner with some of the guys.  Pray that we can continue on the way and not succomb to too much pain :-) All part of the Camino, right? If millions have done it before us in hair-shirts with maybe no shoes, I think we can make it.  Know that you are all in my prayers.


Paul

Not our spirits of course, but the elevation.  We made it last night to Roncevalles as mentioned in the previous post

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