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Sorry it's been so long folks but internet has been spotty and I have been exhausted at the end of everyday. Today is Friday and tomorrow I go to Madrid to get Avis. Yay!!!!
I am in Ponferrada now. Here's what I have been doing since last post.
September 26
I made it to Moratinos where I stayed with a wonderful couple named Rebekah and Patrick Scott. Before I came to Spain, I did a lot of reading to prepare for the Camino. One excellent resource for the Camino I found is an internet forum at www.caminodesantiago.me.
One of the forum regulars is Rebekah and I always found her posts to be very kind spirited as well as informative. I began following her blog at www.moratinoslife.blogspot.com and I decided to try to visit her  at the "Peaceable Kingdom" when I was walking the Meseta. So I sent her an email and was graciously invited to spend the night at the Peaceable, as she calls it. Well I had a great visit. They were wonderful hosts, excellent cooks, and it was a delightful time. Please check out her blog and order one of her books from Amazon, THE MOORISH WHORE. Great title, great book and I have an autographed copy!

The Peaceable

Paddy

Rebekah

One of many rescued dogs and cats

September 27
Paddy fixed scrambled eggs and toast for me at 5:30 in the morning and wished me "Buen Camino" as I left  walking towards Leon. This is some of what I saw.

The Camino ran alongside the road like this for what seemed like a hundred miles.Very boring.

And one special word of thanks.The Advent 5 O'CLOCK Band really carried me across the Meseta and have been a great source of comfort to me during some very low times on this journey.Thanks, guys and gals. You're the best!

September 28 Leon!

I checked into hostal and explored the cathedral. The stained glass was amazing and I think that it might have more than St. John's.

This is a beautiful statue of Mary while pregnant with Jesus.

Carved wooden door

Whatever's going on here is not good (unless you're one of Satan's minions):

September 29 & 30

These next two days , I walked from Leon to Villadangos then San Justo along anuninteresting roadway but as I left Leon I took a photo of the pension where Martin Sheen treated his friends to a plush room in the movie "The Way".

Not bad!

October 1

I walked from San Justo through Astorga to Rabanal. It rained off and on all day which is a royal

pain in in the drain. For much of the day, I was accompanied by Alberto from Madrid who is a very nice man and on his 3rd Camino.

Alberto and I carried on long conversations in Spanish of which I understood about half of what he said but I would nod graciously and occasionally interject comments like "It's wet" or"My feet hurt." Alberto was very patient and kind.

When we got to Rabanal Alberto went to ground in an albergue while I sought out the Posadas de Gaspar on Jon Dailey's recommendation but was unable to get a suitable room. I found an agreeable hostal close by and crashed there. I was told that some Gregorian monks were having a chant session in the church so I went to observe. The chants were nice but they needed more monks. They only had three or four. But coming out of church who should I see but Rick and Christina from Boston. We went to Gaspar's for supper where I was introduced to John and Loren from Asheville,N.C. and Mike from London. I had a huge steak with guess what? Right! French fries.

October 2- Cruz de Ferro

Today was a big, big day for me. The Cruz de Ferro is a spot on the Camino where pilgrims have traditionally left a rock at the foot of an iron cross atop a wooden pole at the highest point on the Camino Frances. The rock can represent a burden , a prayer for healing, an offering, really the rock can represent whatever the person wants it to represent.

It was an honor for me to carry a number of rocks for my family and for friends. I carried a rock in loving memory of my cousin,Jim Hamlett, who left us too soon. I carried rocks for people struggling with addictions, for someone needing discernment, and for someone with cancer in his sinuses. I carried rocks for people and family members with other serious health problems. But I want to talk about three rocks in particular.

First of all, a Cursillo prayer partner gave me a piece of the Berlin Wall she got while in Berlin on business one time. I confided to several Germans around my age that I had a piece of the Berlin Wall to place at the foot of the Cross of Christ at the Cruz de Ferro and they were visibly moved. They knew so well how the Berlin Wall had separated the free from the oppressed. I well remember the Cold War and the fear of Communism and of being thrilled by Ronald Reagan's speech in Berlin where he thundered "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" I remember reading about Pope John Paul II in 1979 addressing a crowd of over a million Poles who had been chanting "We want God, we want God!" Pope John Paul raised his arm with his palm toward the crowd and said in a loud voice "Receive the Holy Spirit!". And they did and the Berlin Wall came down.
I believe that the Cross symbolizes freedom on many levels and in many ways and I believe that the principle of individual liberty on which my country is founded is directly traceable to the Cross of Christ. So prayer partner, it was a true honor to carry for you that symbol of oppression to place at the foot of the Cross of perfect freedom. Receive the Holy Spirit.

Secondly, I carried a beautiful rock for my friend, Clif Dixon. It was given to Clif by John Paul III Musselman. (I'm not sure about how to spell Musselman, so pardon me JP III if I screwed it up) The rock has lots of little pieces of quartz imbedded in a smooth granite river stone from an Alaskan river. JP told Clif the little pieces of quartz represented all the hundreds of friends Clif has who love him and were praying for him. At first I carried Clifford's rock with the hope of a miracle for our friend. But later it came to represent for me the grief that I and all of the sparkling friends and family of Clif shared. As I placed his rock at the foot of the Cross I prayed that God would relieve our grief and grant us gratitude for the privilege of having known him and for having loved him and for having been loved by him. It was an honor to carry Clif's rock. He gives and takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

And lastly, I placed a rock at the foot of the Cross for my cousin Oliver. Oliver and I share the the inherited grace of being born into a wonderfully loving family. My father had six sisters and Oliver's grandmother,Grace,was my father's older sister. Not having any brothers or sisters of my own, growing up my Haynes and Trotman cousins were like my siblings and Oliver was like my little brother. Some years ago , Oliver contracted an illness that has left him unable to walk without a walker and it has been heartbreaking for everyone who loves him which includes everyone who knows him. But it has also been inspirational to see the courage, strength,  grace and good humor with which Oliver has faced his affliction. As I placed Oliver's rock at the foot of the Cross, my prayer was to St. James, Santiago, to intercede with his cousin, Jesus, to heal my cousin Oliver of his affliction. And, just to be safe, I made a direct appeal as well. Oliver, I love you, and it was an honor to carry your rock.

On the way

Graffiti

There it is

Clif's rock

Oliver's rock

At the foot

After the C de F, I walked with Alberto again to a little town named

 Riegos and stopped at a pension. Alberto kept going. 

October 3

 Walked to Ponferrada and am ensconced in Hotel El Castillo were I am enjoying not walking.

Meseta cont'd

September 25-
After such a sumptuous cena of paella I was expecting an equally delicious breakfast but was only offered toast and jelly and strong black coffee. I started hoofing it at 8 in my boots but soon my blisters reasserted themselves which meant that I had to switch back to Crocs. Thus attired I walked, walked, walked until I arrived in Carrión de los Condes which translates to "Rotten food of the Buzzards". Sort of like "Fleahop, Alabama".
I got a room at a hostal and after a siesta started looking for a supermercado when I encountered Rolf the nice German youngster I walked with last week. He had been down for a couple of days with tendonitis so now I have caught up with him.This happens a lot.
Revictualed (if there's such a word) I set about to take some shots of Buzzard Food and ran into Patricia and her friend Xavier who had I had met several days earlier. Patricia had given me a cookie in sympathy for my blistered feet and they invited me to join them at a pilgrims mass that was about to start. I was very moved by the service. I could understand almost all of it because it is so close to ours. It made me very homesick for St.John's and my church family. And I very very much miss Eucharist.

My festooned hat

Santiago

Our Lady of the Nice Rack

I don't care who you are - that's funny

That's me converting to Catholicism

Actually I am receiving a pilgrim blessing

September 24

I left Itero at 8 and was back on the plains of the Meseta walking, walking, walking. Soon I started being besieged by biting black flies. (Unintentional alliteration) I kept using my left hand walking stick to relieve pressure on my right foot and used the right one to wave away the flies. This created a weird syncopated walk that got me thinking weird thoughts. I imagined that I was being plagued by the flies like Pharaoh was plagued for keeping the Hebrews in bondage. And I thought what if God is trying to tell me that I am holding someone or something in bondage and I had to set it free?

So I first thought of Scout the wonder dog and his companion River. Granted our dogs are the closest things I have to slaves, but as far as I am concerned,they are going to stay slaves. You can just keep those flies coming, Lord, if that's who you have in mind.

Then I thought of my children and that maybe I had sort of enslaved them with my expectations for their lives. If so, then children you are hereby manumitted from the chains of my expectations. Of course I retain the right to lecture and give advice, but you are free to not listen and to ignore my admonitions (which would be much to your subsequent chagrin, I might add).

Maybe I've tried to enslave Avis with my unreasonable demands...wait a minute. What unreasonable demands?   She's the one with the unreasonable demands. (Just kidding, honey! Ha-ha!)

Then I got a really strange thought. What if I am trying to enslave God? Haven't I tried to bend him to my will rather than to discern His?

Anyway these are the thoughts I got on the Meseta until I turned on my IPod to take my mind off my blisters.

Here are some shots of the walk yesterday where I met a smelly German who was very nice and friendly, where I walked up a steeep hill, and finally made it to a wonderful hostal where the dueña cooked fabulous paella.

That is Castrojerez in the distance.

Closer

The ridge beyond - gulp!

Looking back to Castrojerez from the top of the ridge

Larry Kurtz and Don And Debbie Schmidt from Kansas.

Larry observed that one of the benefits of the Camino was that he knew what it would be like to get old because at the end of every day he felt like he was eighty five.

You are almost caught up with me, dear readers!

September 21 etc.

September 21 - Burgos is a great city and I hope to return some day to really see the sights. I stayed in the municipal albergue which was very clean and well equipped. There were 16 bunk beds on my floor and 6 floors in the building. I heard from some other pilgrims that a 60 something man died in his sleep last week  in an albergue in Logroño. Two other pilgrims were killed by a truck just before they got to Santiago and a drunk Aussie broke both legs when he tried to climb back into his albergue and fell from the third story. All this may well be Camino lore I don't know.
Here are shots going into the city and the cathedral where El Cid is buried.

Santiago Peregrino

Santiago Matamoros

September 22- Up at 5:45 and walking out of Burgos in the dark by 7. Many pilgrims walking with me. Met an Irishman named Bernie who was walking with his father and an entourage of about 6 other youngsters. Bernie is very funny. I appreciate having all these comedians of the Camino sent to keep me laughing. Today I walked 21 miles through the Meseta which is the high plains area of Spain. When I finally got to Hotanas I said Hosanas and got a private room and crashed.

September 23 - Left Hotanas at 8 and only walked about 12 miles to Itero a little town and stayed at a cute little albergue. I shared a room with Larry who had just retired from the Navy. I was so tired I only ate some fruit and went to bed.

Folks, you have almost caught up with me. Tomorrow you will.