¨This is it. All day.¨

And that was what Catie had to say 3 minutes into day 1 as we walked out of Leon before the sun had even greeted us.

It was soooo wonderful to see Catie and Michael at the train station- I couldn´t help but practically run to them. We wandered around the plaza in Leon which surrounded the cathedral and enjoyed a dinner and San Juan while listening to all of the adventures I missed out on the first 2 weeks. They had a hotel with a room that barely fit 3 twin sized beds in it and I experienced my first hand washing of clothes. We were asleep by 10:00PM (1PM Spokane time) which was not a problem since I´d only had horrible cat naps for the previous 35 hours.

Day 1 started out around 5:45AM. I bought Catie a book that details La Camino de Santiago day by day and from here out, we´re following it pretty religiously. Yesterdays agenda was around 14 miles and I was definitely skipping and clapping for the first few miles... Catie and Michael laughed as they knew what laid ahead for me. Actually, one of our first discussions broke the Camino down into 5 stages (think of the 5 stages of grief, if you will).
*Stage one is the honeymoon stage: the pilgrim is excited to finally be doing the camino, and feels that life couldn´t be better. They may even be seen skipping and clapping down the trail..... Catie and Michael informed me this last 1.5-2 days. I think they may be right.
*Stage two is the remorse stage: to quote Catie ¨why am i doing this?¨You begin to question why in the world you think hiking 15-20 miles per day in 90 degree weather would be fun and you wonder why those at home say they´re jealous of your ¨vacation.¨ I slowly slid into this stage around mile 17 today as it began to pour and dust kept flying in my eye. This is also the blister stage. My left pinkie toe entered around mile 10 today.
*Stage three is the rock bottom stage: self explanatory. Refer to Catie and Michael´s blog day 3 till day 13. My left pinkie toe made a running towards this one at mile 14 today.
*Stage four is the appreciation stage!! I can´t wait for this stage! Catie and Michael claim to be here and you can tell.. they enjoy what they´re doing and realize that we all are so lucky to be doing something that so many people can´t, for whatever reason. So many of the pilgrims we´ve met said that they´ve been wanting to do this their entire life... we feel blessed that we´re able to enjoy such an amazing experience now.
*Stage five is the celebration stage, and can only be experienced when you see Santiago in the distance.

So back to the walking... yesterday was pretty flat and not too exciting for landscape. We walked through the city for the first few miles and then stopped in the next town for a coffee con leche. The weather was wonderful- it was slightly chilly in the morning and never got too warm. About half of our walk was on paved road, moving out of a cars path every few minutes. The other half was on trails with dirt and rocks (may be compared to the Kim William trail sometimes). There is almost always a pilgrim in sight, in front of or behind you. I think the highlight of the walk yesterday for all three of us was when we stood questioning which path we wanted to take, and started one direction in a very hesitant matter. Suddenly, a priest in a white robe came running at us yelling ¨peregrino!!¨ He kindly pointed us in the right direction. Oddly, Catie had just been telling me that whatever you needed on the camino presented itself in the oddest manner, even if you didn´t realize you needed it. We felt a priest prodiving us direction was fairly appropriate for the journey we´re on.

We stayed in an albeurge (which is a hostel but only for pilgrims) last night in Mazarife. There were probably 60 other people staying with us. We spent the afternoon- since we arrived in Mazarife at noon- partaking in siesta, exploring the tiny town in which we saw less than 2 locals and enjoying a beer/glass of wine with our new friend and new pilgrim Tony from Australia. We decided to enjoy the pelegrino dinner last night, which is when the albeurge makes the dinner for everyone. It was kind of spendy (9 euro) but totally worth it! We had a salad, bread (Catie made me eat as much bread as I could, as she explained you never take any food for granted here.. I think I´m gonna like this life style!), wine and paella. Paella is a traditional spicy spanish dish consisting of rice and vegetables. It was fantastic! The company was more fantastic though- Catie and Michael have met amazing people on this trip so far. Last night we sat next to a couple from Germany that started the Camino in 2002, completed so many miles and restarted yesterday in Leon. Across the table was a solo pilgrim from Belgium that has been walking for almost 9 weeks... he will complete 2000km total in the trip. And on the other side was an MD and a catholic priest from Australia (Tony). Tony will turn 75 the day he arrives in Santiago. Amazing.

Today was a long day. We landed in Astorga after almost 19 miles!!! Catie and Michael are a tough act to follow... they´re like robots after doing this for 2 weeks. Today was one of the longest days they´ve had also, maybe the longest yet. We earned our breakfast this morning, walking 9 miles before sitting for a break. We entered Hospital de Ortega and saw a jousting courtyard (I´ve decided to name it a courtyard) and a medieval festival. It really felt like a Spanish little town! We stopped on the trail for bread, cheese and mussels for lunch right when it started to rain. Unfortunately, it never really ceased for the remaining 8 miles. It was only a drizzle, but began to down pour for just a few minutes. We took cover under a store (luckily we were close to a town).. and then completed the last 2 miles with soggy shoes to make it to Astorga. The scenery was a lot prettier today, with more hills and foliage. It´s interesting the conversations you choose to have when you walk for 8 hours- Catie and I have had numerous sessions where we´re laughing so hard we´re practically crying and poor Michael just has to roll his eyes. Feels like we´re back in Steve´s class all over again :)

Going to wander around this town and check out the gorgeous cathedral. Thankfully tomorrow is a shorter day, only about 13 miles. Can´t believe in two days we´ve walked from Moscow to Lewiston (minus the grade)! Thanks for all the thoughts and wishes for safe travel- getting out of Spokane was the worst part! Mom- Thanks for sitting next to me while I was on the phone with United for an hour at 4AM! Hope you are all well, happy, and blister free.

Buen Camino!