The Best Day Ever!

I started out this morning from Sahagún and for the second day in a row as I set out at about 7 a.m., I saw the Spanish youth filing out of the discos and bars from a night of revelling. It brought back memories of when I lived in Salamanca and after a night out, my friend, Lisa, and I would go to this all night snackbar for bocadillos de tortilla de patata and then to the churros and chococlate place. I chatted with them for a awhile and once again realized that the time schedule of the walker on the Caminio in no way coincides with that of any normal Spanish person. Today was probably the most rural or isolated of any of my walks. The route went on the old Calzada Romana, a Roman road. For about 15 miles it passed through fields with no villages, no roads, no cars, really nothing. It was a windy but beautiful day with bright, blue skies, fluffy white clouds, and far off in the distance I could see the snowcapped Picos de Europa mountains. I saw no other walkers all day but enjoyed MOST of the 23 miles. I can´t imagine doing this in the summer-no shade at all--the amount of water you would have to carry would be prohibitively heavy. I was feeling a bit lonesome and was missing my new friends. I´d had an e-mail from Ina and she and Sang Kyoung and Christian were a day ahead of me. She said that they would try to stay in Leon for an extra night so that I could catch up with them there on Easter. The last 4 or 5 miles of these long days are always kind of hard and today as I neared the village, I could see that the fluffy white clouds had changed into dark clouds and rain seemed iminent. The worse part was that I had to walk directly toward the storm. It seemed to be some frozen rain or sleet or something that was comprised of tiny white pellets bouncing off of me. It only lasted a few minutes but was none too fun.
I continued into the village, Mansillas de Mulas, and as I approached the albergue, I saw Sang Kyoung sitting in the window at a café. She and Ina stayed in this town an extra night to wait for me. I couldn´t believe it--I was so happy to see them. And that wasn´t all--they alerted me that Christian stayed and extra night and so did Toby (our German friend) and Kim (from Holland). You cannot imagine how happy I am to be able to spend time with these new friends. Christian is preparing a big dinner for all of us--it should be good--he´s been working on it for hours. I am as happy as a clam that we are all together. The albergue is really nice as well and as the other five were all here last night and had the run of the place. They asked to be moved to the best room where they saved a bed for me. I couldn´t be happier. This day´s walk was unusual as there were two routes to choose from --usually there is just the one. I chose the one that was about a mile longer but reportedly more scenic. This morning, anticipating my arrival, Ina and S.K. went out to the other route to leave messages for me (hearts in orange peel, etc.). They also had my bed decorated with an orange peel heart and had bought me a dark chocolate bar and Hit biscuits which I love. They are calling me to dinner now so I must run. I wish you all the happiness that I have today.