Feets Do Yo Stuff: Day 17, June 21, Carrion de Los Condes to Mortinos

Numbers: 18.49 miles per Garmin GPS; and 44,507 steps, 33 floors, and 370 active minutes per Fitbit. We had planned to do about two miles less than that shown, but our hotel was not in Terradillos per our itinerary, but down the road two miles on The Camino in Moratinos, so we did those miles. It will mean we walk two miles fewer tomorrow. Yippee!! Here is today's Garmin data.

Dave voice

Day 17 on the Camino, Sunday, June 21, Carrion de la Condes to Terradillos

Gonna be warm so we take our Naproxen and exit Carrion early. We are warned that this is a longish (16.7 miles) day with only one town along the way. Bring plenty of water.

The warnings prove true and we amble a great distance without seeing a Starbucks, a Peets, or even a Dunkin Donuts. It’s primitive, but our toe condoms are holding up and Scout’s knee is either no problem or she’s too good of a soldier to admit it. The high point of the early going is how, immediately after an unscheduled trip into the bushes (they don’t tell you in the guide book that people actually pee along the pilgrim’s path! Hard to believe, I know), we resume our trek only to find at least twenty Caminars settled into a picnic area not a hundred feet from the aforementioned activity. Seems like someone had heard our conversation to the effect that an entrepreneur could make a killing selling tepid coffee, warm sodas, stale croissants and expired bananas along the Camino. I opted for the croissant from three or four day’s ago; Scout, the bold one, went for mystery meat on a rotisserie. Ever wonder what happens to weenies after they’ve rolled around on the grill at 7/11 for too long? Yessiree Bob! Straight to the back roads of Spain.

The highlight of our afternoon comes when we realize that our hotel "Just a little outside" of Terradillos is actually two miles away in the equally marginally lovely village of Moratinos. Yes, they’ll pick us up and drive us to the hotel and drive us back to Terradillos (and the Camino, so we don’t cheat on the distance) in the morning, but, what the hey, the hotel in Moratinos is on the Camino, too, only two miles further along. So, why get the pick up and get taken backwards? We opt to hoof it another two miles west to Moratinos, extending our mileage for today and shortening it for tomorrow.

The (only) hotel in Moratinos is at the east end of town, but, since we’ll be exiting to the west tomorrow morning, it’s good know we could throw a nerf ball from the east end of town and hit the west end. Once inside, we see only a bar and a young woman in a low-cut top and "Look-at-my-ass. Please!" shorts spoon feeding an infant. She turns out to be running the hotel.

How to describe the best hotel in Moratinos, Spain? There’s a deck not far from our room with a sign that says "Hot Tub and Cocktail 10€." (We pass on this, unsure how long it’s been since the tub was cleaned out.) Our room has no number, only a name, Fromista. Turns out all the rooms are named for local towns on The Camino. Since we’re on the second floor, we traverse a walkway which includes, along the railing, places (with clothes pins) from which laundry can be quickly sun-dried, the temp being in the mid 80s. We, of course, avail ourselves of this.

The room is okay with a fine view of the hut-tub deck and of the El Camino path into town. There’s a tiny flat screen TV on a wall in the corner and a Costco-sized container of bath gel in the shower. Okay, at least we didn’t have to open ten gel-paks for one shower. No a/c.

There is only one place to eat in town: the hotel we’re in. The desk clerk cutie can make breakfast, lunch, or dinner at any time. "You ask; I make." Turns out the infant she’s feeding isn’t hers. "Too much trouble," she says. It belongs to the owner of the establishment, who is on duty when we mosey down for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The baby was acquired via a surrogate from – wait for it – La Mesa, Califormia! Hey, International Age, or what?

We order the usual salad (only not as good), beef stew (pretty good) and, for desert, a banana. Okay, and a good bottle of Spanish red. While we’re waiting for our meal, which arrives with suspicious speed, we note no other patrons in the hotel dining area except a Swede Skyping friends back home. After a half hour or so, he finishes, packs up, and leaves. Ah, the life of a hotelier. The owner ambles over to make nice while we’re eating and explains the sign on the wall which advises that, during a low traffic part of the year, the hotel is part of the "Ruta (Route) del Terror." A local man in the theater arts world and a woman from Baltimore teamed up to convince the single-father owner of this small hotel that it would make sense to decorate several of the rooms all Freddie Krueger, Dracula, etc. during the slow season. Have we mentioned that Moratinos is way, way off the beaten path and that the only slightly big slightly nearby city (Leon) has a population of only 130,000?

It goes without saying that we wish this fellow, his child, and his clerk all the best. We bought a bottle of wine from him and paid 7€. Doubt he paid more than 1€, but, what the hell? Statistics show that June, July and August are the busiest months for Caminars, but most of us bought the Brierly guide book which suggested spending the night in Terradillos, a scant 2 miles away, so, how is this guy going to make a go of it? The odds don’t look good. We spent a quiet night in Castrojeriz in a converted home that had ten guest rooms on seven floors and which had cost something like 750,000 € to acquire and renovate. We paid 69€ for a single room during high season. Even assuming the place was full and the other guests paid more, how can that possibly result in breakeven? Who knows? Guess it’s true that old accountants just lose their balance.

Injury report: (SPOILER ALERT: Bad Language Ahead!!! STOP NOW IF YOU’VE NEVER HEARD THE WORD THAt FOLLOWS!!!) Fuck you injuries, aches, and pains! We’re doing great! Well, pretty much okay! Well, not bad for old people! Well, we’ll see how it all feels in the morning.

Deb/Scout voice

First, Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! And, sorry to repeat some of what Dave has said in a less interesting way, but hey, we write separately until I do the old cut and paste. :-)

This morning was a low point for me. My knee bugged me for the first few miles and I wondered how I would make it today, let alone for 16 more days. Physically, despite little aches and pains, I'm sure I could put one foot in front of another. But, the idea of waking up each morning, dragging my sorry body out of bed, and spending hours and hours doing it was overwhelming. Then, after about an hour and around 3 miles, things turned...the knee pain settled into something hardly noticeable, my mental attitude changed, and each segment of today's walk seemed ok, as did the ability to do this for two plus weeks more. That's how quickly things can change. Those of you who participate in endurance sports - especially ultra-running, triathlons, etc. know about highs and lows, and not to make decisions based on how you feel at any given moment. Well, I'm feeling pretty "ok" now.....I won't comment on what awaits me in the days to come. The negative Deb may show up again.

Moratinos: This is the "hotel" where we are staying tonight: Hostal Moratinos in Moratinos with a population of 30. I don't even think it has an albergue. And, when we asked if there was a supermercado (grocery store), we got a horse laugh.

Of course, it was booked through booking.com because it had a good rating and the place where we were going to stop two miles earlier apparently didn't have anything on booking.com except the albergues. Its population was about 100. This place is a gem. It's three years old and in the months where peregrino traffic is light (October through March), the owner converts it to a haunted house and even puts on plays. Rooms are still available and each has a theme (Freddie Keuger, Dracula, etc.). He does this with a man and woman fom Baltimore...how cool is that? Whether he can make any money though is doubtful. :-( Here's the link to Ruta Del Terror (the name of the hotel in those months). Maybe you can visit and help him stay in business. One last thing. When the owner found out we were from San Diego, he told us that he used a woman in the San Diego area (La Mesa) as a surrogate for his daughter (18 months old) and she was born in Grossmont Hospitial. Yes, the world is small.

Terrain not very interesting today...lots of dry wheat, and flat. Watched my feet a lot on the "Roman Road." Yes, it may have lasted 2,000 years, but that doesn't mean the rocks are set into the sand.

So, I didn't take many pictures today, but here are a few. I've also changed the settings on my phone/camera to a much lesser number of pixels for ease in uploading.