It’s time to go!

I woke up at 4 AM, an hour before our alarm. Most of it was that Christmas morning feeling of excitement, but the fact that a fellow Albergue inhabitant was packing up for his very early morning flight home also played a part as did the fact that the plastic mattress and pillow covers our place uses in the Camino-wide fight against bedbugs makes for a hot and sweaty night.

So I’m up and packed and drinking vending machine coffee and pastry before walking our last 10.3 km and waiting until 5 to finish getting ready since nothing in Santiago will be open before 7.

As I pack up for my last stage of the Camino, I’ll finish with a list of things I’ve left behind — intentionally, unintentionally, and aspirationally:
Left behind intentionally:
—a pair of walking shoes
—9 pairs of socks
—a pair of “fancy” after hike sandals
—three boxes of Nun Cookies

Left behind unintentionally:
—my newer, nicer sunshirt (never made it off the clothesline in Lédigos)
—my custom anti-teeth grinding mouth guard (left on a bathroom counter in Atapuerca…I’ve been texting our host there and am hoping he kept his promise to mail it to Santiago. We’ll find out soon…)
—my tin of body wash/shampoo bar (forgotten in Vega de Valcarce, where we made pasta with the Germans)

What I hope I’ve left behind:
-self-doubt
-guilt and shame
-my tendency to keep going till I drop
-comparing myself to others

Next stop:Santiago
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