Home Sweet Home!

 

I got into Portland on September 11 and Joe picked me up in Vancouver, Washington at my son's house the next morning. 

I am SO happy to be home!

I spent all day yesterday in my garden. It was glorious! It's like a big old jungle!  I harvested tomatoes, carrots and onions. I harvested onion seed, celery seed, and parsley seed. I'm picking blackberries to make pancake syrup tomorrow. We've got some canteloupes that made it - and the golden raspberries are going nuts. The last of the green beans need to be canned - so much work to do - but it's work I love. 

I was shocked to see two boxes of Asian pears in the fridge. They came off our little tree that I planted last year. After I bought it on sale for $13 I realized it had about 5 varieties of pear grafted on it. This year we got those two boxes of asian pears and 2 Comice pears that are still on the tree.   Those pears are SO crisp and sweet!  I'm really happy!

My fig tree is exploding with figs - none are ripe yet but I noticed the figs on the trees in Spain weren't ripe yet either so I guess it's just too early.  I'm going to freeze dry them for winter.  I love figs!

I spent 3 hours at the Emergency Room last night. I just couldn't breathe. Every time I breathe deeply I start coughing. It's crazy. I feel like there's an elephant on my chest.  Joe's car is broken and he has a dental appointment in Portland and is using my car, and since Joe was going to be gone for 2 days I was afraid I'd have issues while I had no way to get to the hospital, so I had him take me to the ER.

Not being able to catch my breath is one reason I came home early from Spain. It really worries me. However, ALL of my tests came out not just normal, but great. My bloodwork, the EKG, and chest x-ray all showed nothing wrong.

I don't understand how that can be because I've been having this breathing issue for months now and it seems to be getting worse. My doctor gave me a referral for pulmonary tests - I have to call and make the appointment tomorrow. If that shows nothing, next I'm going to ask to see an allergist. The only left I can think of is maybe it is mold in the house. I do notice a lot of mold in the kitchen sink, garbage disposal and dish washer. I'm always having to clean out the filter on the dish washer. And it seems when we turn on the air conditioner my coughing gets worse. So I don't know... it's a mystery and a frustrating one. 

I know there is SOMETHING wrong. 
I just don't know what.

At any rate, I'm home and happy to be here. 
Joe just took off for Portland. I'm doing a load or two of laundry, then resting for a couple of days. I think I'll binge-watch Wednesday. 

Ok that's it.

Life is good!

Annie

September 11

September 11 has not been a happy day for me so far.

My father and my brother died in a plane crash on September 11. It was a plane that my son and I were supposed to be on. I had a dream the plane was going to crash and refused to go. My father was so angry! But he and my brother died, and my son and I lived.

I’ve had a feeling in my gut for the last few days that I just needed to get home, that something just wasn’t right. I didn’t really associate it with the date until after I changed my reservations to go home and realized I had booked my flight on 9/11. What in the hell was I thinking?! I guess I wasn’t thinking at all. So here I am at the airport waiting for a flight and praying it will be protected and I’ll set my feet safely on the ground in Portland, Oregon tonight. And this time when I say, “I don’t think I will fly again,” I really think I mean it. Terra firma.

Then to top off the creepy feeling, the airline would not let me check in online. I was told I needed to do it at the airport. So I arrived at the airport this morning three hours ahead of time and good thing I did. For some reason, they couldn’t print out my boarding pass. An hour later, after swearing to some guy on the other end of the customer service member’s phone that I would follow all the rules and that I would obey the stewards and crew, my pass was finally printed out (???). What a strange thing to happen. Has somebody been using my name to fly?

It has been a very tough week emotionally. First, the young woman Irynya Zarutska who was stabbed on the train for absolutely no reason at all by a man who had been turned loose by judges, 14 times for violent crime. In my opinion, those judges should do jail time for this murder. She came here to escape the war in her own country only to be stabbed to death on a train on her way home from work.

Then my cousin sent me a video and told me Charlie Kirk had been assassinated. What in the world is happening?

And not only that but Democrats are rejoicing and refusing to have a moment of prayer for his soul and his family. I’m embarrassed I ever was a member of the Democratic Party. They have evolved into something that is unrecognizable as human.

What kind of cowards shoot an opponent instead of engaging an intelligent discourse? It just makes me sick to my stomach. The world is becoming something I can’t understand or even recognize.

I’ll be glad to get home. I think I’ll just crawl into my bed and pull the covers up over my head.

Sadly,

Annie

Logroño

I had a nice day in Logroño. I slept in later than usual and then went to town to waste some time.

I started by browsing the local market where you could buy a whole piglet, if you needed one

I also found bacalau there and wished I had a truck to carry it all home in. If you don’t know what bacalau is, it is dried salted codfish, and Portuguese people love it. They say there’s 365 ways to cook it. It reminded me I have some in my freezer at home, but it’s difficult to get in the United States, unless you are on the east coast. I sent this photo to my son Cameron, and his reply was “Yum!”

I knew that I wanted to have lunch at Taberna del Tio Blas and I knew that I wanted to order their delicious chuleta. They did not serve until 1 PM so I did not eat breakfast and just waited.

To waste a little more time, I went to the museum.

Examples of ancient glass always fascinates me. It’s amazing that it has survived!

These dice are just like the ones we used today. Yahtzee anyone?

Ancient pilgrims didn’t have giant shells on their backpacks. This little pilgrim shell is about the size of a 50 cent piece

I was pretty hungry by the time 1 PM rolled around. It was worth the wait!

I’m salivating just looking at it again. I couldn’t eat many of the fries because I filled up on the steak. And those roasted peppers were perfect! I grew some of the green ones in my garden this year from a package of seed that I bought in Santiago. I hope when I get home, they are still producing.

Speaking of home, I take a bus to Madrid tomorrow and spend one night in a little hotel near the airport so I can fly out the next morning. I’m really happy to be going home!

I’ll have to figure out how to get from Portland back to Dallas because Joe’s car is not working. He may have it fixed by then, but he has to be in Portland on the 15th and I don’t want to ask him to drive twice in one week. That drive is awfully hard and his car has been acting up.

I get in really late, almost midnight, so I think I will catch a Lyft and spend the night at my son’s in Vancouver because he is out of town - and try to catch the train back to Salem the next day if I’m not too tired.

That’s all for now

Love,

Annie

Heading Home

For the last three days, I’ve had a nagging feeling that I need to go home.

I can’t quite explain it, it’s just a gut instinct. I have felt very unsettled. And if I’m being honest, I’m not getting what I expected to get out of walking the Camino this year. It is different. It is not what I need.

And so I made a decision last night to change my flight and head home. I took the bus this morning to Logroño where I will spend two nights near the bus station. I bought my ticket to Madrid airport for Wednesday morning. I managed to book a room near the airport Wednesday night and they have a shuttle and can take me to the airport Thursday morning.

I feel oddly relieved.

Joe did tell me last night that our very good friend and neighbor had a stroke yesterday. He wondered if that could have something to do with the feeling I was having, but I don’t believe so.

It’s something else.

I have been having trouble breathing. Every time I take a deep breath, I start coughing, and it concerns me. Something isn’t right. I need to be home. I have listened to these gut feelings my entire life. They have never steered me wrong.

And so I fly out of Madrid Thursday morning.

I’m looking forward to my bed and my bathtub and my garden. This has been a fun adventure, but what I’ve learned is there’s no place like home.

Love,

Annie

Luquin to Los Arcos

When I begin walking this morning around 7:15 AM, the party was still going on in town!

It was a fairly flat and beautiful 10 kilometer walk through harvested wheat fields and a few vineyards today. The first thing I passed was this little family chapel so I took a peek inside.

There are many brambles full of fruit all along the pathways. In case you didn’t know, the bramble is the genetic parent of our big fat juicy blackberries. The bramble berries are very tiny, about the size of a large pea, but they are very sweet. I managed to get a handful for breakfast.

A pilgrim walking ahead of me

Ruins of an old house

I could see this big huge building at the top of the hill in the distance and I wasn’t sure what it was. Upon enlarging it, it looks like it could be a church. I’m going to ask around and see if anyone knows.

I got into Los Arcos about 11 AM. I had a café con leche with some friends and then checked into my hotel room. It is hot and muggy today and I was hoping to have air conditioning but instead, I have this curious ceiling fan. I’ve never seen anything like it. You can’t see it until you turn it on. It’s hiding underneath the light and when you turn it on the fan blades spread out and go around and the dang thing works pretty good. I think I’ll look for one of these for my bedroom when I get home.

After a shower and a quick change of clothes, I headed to Hotel Monaco, where their restaurant has a nice, although expensive, meal. I haven’t had a full meal in a few days so it was worth the extra euros. I had a beautiful tomato and onion salad, and a nice fat steak!

After dinner, I went over to visit the church and take some photos. Mass was just ending, which explains why no one else was in the restaurant with me because the people poured out and they all headed over to Monaco. Lol!! I was happy to have beaten the rush.

Here are some photos of the inside of the church. If you’re not Catholic, it’s good to remind you that just a couple of generations ago people were not literate and so one of the reasons there are so many evocative statues and paintings in the Catholic churches is because this is how people learned the Bible stories because they could not read. The gold you see is not real gold. It’s gold paint, I imagine to symbolize the richness of heaven.

I have to say it’s very impressive Pay attention to the little men whose mouths open at the bottom of the giant pipe organ.

A sorrowful mother Mary, as she stands over A very realistic deadJesus in his glass casket.

Every corner of this church is painted walls and ceilings.

Slay that dragon!

This is Santiago, or Saint James in English.

Tomorrow, I will take the bus to Logroño for two days. It’s one of our favorite places and I’m looking forward to it.

More from there

Love,

Annie

Villatuerta to Luquin 15 k

Today I started right at sunrise. I stopped in Estella for a café con leche and the lady had these carnivorous plants hanging above her cash register.

They were called monkey jars and they were there to catch flies.

Soon I passed Irache and the famous wine fountain. I don’t care for wine anyway, but even if I did 8:30 in the morning seemed awfully early However, there were people in line to get their free wine

About 1 km after Irache, I entered the forest trail that would lead me to Luquin. It really was a lovely trail, and I could see people waaaay on the other side of the highway walking in the sun. I was happy to be in the shade most of the day.

Once I came out of the forest, the views were spectacular. Then there was the never-ending climb and then descent to the Fountain of the Enemies, where the water was so bad that even the guy trying to grow a garden couldn’t get beans to grow. I forgot to take a photo, but it was pretty pitiful.

Just as it was beginning to get too hot to walk, I finally entered Luquin, where I found myself in the middle of a four-day local festival.

The Albergue where I am staying is called Casa Tiago. It’s a sweet place with a lot of charm.

Since I got here first, I got a single bed by a window, which is really nice. Thank goodness the lady who kept me awake all night snoring has decided to go into a different room - so hopefully tonight I’ll get some sleep! Honestly, I think those people that snore so loud should think about getting a private room instead of keeping everyone in the dorm awake.

I had some chicken and fries at the bar and now I’m going to lay down and take a nap and pray that this party is over by midnight. 🤪

Tomorrow I have a private room in Los Arcos. Hallelujah!

Love,

Annie

Cirauqui to Villatuerta

Today I walked the road to Lorca then sat at the bar for about two hours having breakfast and watching pilgrims walk past.

I wanted to start with tomato on toast, but he didn’t have that - so he went out into the garden and picked some tomatoes and we smashed them up with olive oil and salt and put them on fresh bread. It was just as good. And then there was the wonderful fresh squeezed orange juice!

From Lorca, the walk to Villatuerta was only about 4.5 kilometers. I found a shady spot by the river and sat and waited for the albergue to open. Once I was checked in, I walked up a killer hill to the supermarket and I picked up some pasta and meat and half a melon. I cooked and shared dinner with another pilgrim.

I think I’ve decided to take it easy this trip. I’m hiring backpack transport tomorrow and once I get to Los Arcos, I have a private room. I’m going to sit down and figure out a schedule with shorter stages. I’m having fun, but I realized I don’t have the stamina I had even two or three years ago and I don’t want to hurt myself.

Today’s walk was mostly about the colors of autumn on the Camino

It’s beautiful, but very much different from spring.

I saw someone camping in a field.

My albergue and a few new friends.

Tomorrow I walk to Estella, then Luquin to sleep at Casa Tiago. It will be my longest day yet.

Love,

Annie