Good news everyone! Keith is feeling much better and is back in action. Today he successfully made his way from Frómista to Villamentero de Campos after a short train ride back to the Camino path from Palencia. His first two days back on the Camino will be shorter ones then he’ll have a longer haul on Thursday. He was also pleased to report that his backpack rode better today and that maybe he’s finally found a configuration that’s going to work for him.

Yesterday was his last day in Palencia and he spent it eating Whoppers at Burger King (the McDonald’s was elusive) and visiting the Palencia Cathedral in all its glory. He looked happier and healthier (even if his self-portraits need a little work–see below), was well-rested, and felt fine after touring around Palencia—which was his preparedness test.

The Palencia Cathedral had its own museum that had 16th century tapestries that looked really fresh–the colors were really bright on them; an El Greco; and a favorite for him (because “it was odd and my mind holds little things in it better”) was a painting that when you look at it straight-on it looks like a smear–not like anything–but in a box at the side there is an eyehole and when looking through it from the edge on there is a portrait of King Carlos. The cathedral itself had excellent architecture that he said he thought I’d really like. (No doubt :) )

The cathedral tour was given by a nun and he couldn’t understand what she was saying with exception of a few words here and there, but there was a woman who had gone to school in the states and she kindly translated some details for him. Her husband was wearing a UW (University of Washington—for those of you that might confuse that with Wyoming or Wisconsin or something) t-shirt because the woman’s sister had gone there. (Small world!)

All the walking around made him hungry and when he went in search of Burger King and found it–it turned out that it wasn’t opening for another half hour! Thankfully it was on the edge of a nice park that is on the Pisuerga River. So he walked in the park for half an hour and came back to find it still wasn’t open! He caught himself wondering how many hungry Americans they get like this—waiting and thinking, “Come on man! Open the door!” Once they finally did open, he said it was great.

Today’s Camino trek went well, but the weather was cool and windy. It was the first time on the whole trip that he had to put on his fleece. Part of the day the wind blew straight at his face, and then eventually it was hitting him from the side. It was almost strong enough to push him off the path into the big old ditch, but only almost. It also rained off and on, but only a slight patter—no big deal. Towards the end of today’s hike he thought “now it’s going to rain!” and put on his raingear but, of course, it didn’t do anything. Putting on the gear was a bust, but better safe than drenched.

I was really happy to hear that he forced himself to stop for lunch today at a hotel where he had “some sort of odd beef soup with dumplings–it was ok”, a salad with iceberg lettuce and tomato pieces, and some kind of little hamburgers. They weren’t actually hamburgers but were still pretty good. He got to speak English for a while with an older German woman who was there and that was the only person he really talked to the whole day. There just wasn’t much traffic on the path he’d taken—which was an alternate side route for a few kilometers, but with a much-needed lodging break that the main path just did not have soon enough for tonight.

Once in Villamentero de Campos he discovered that the lodging we’d reserved for him was virtually deserted (and contrary to all the documentation did NOT have WiFi). After he checked in he didn’t even see the staff when he went downstairs in the evening to check things out. So he ventured over to the nearby albergue which has a 24-bed hostel, some individual cabins, and even some teepees, but most importantly it had a bar! He thought he’d get himself some human interaction there since it was feeling a little lonely around there. Sadly the bar was pretty deserted, too, but he treated himself to a beer anyway. The bartender gave him a small bowl of nuts and when Keith dropped a couple on the floor as he was sitting down, “this little dog that had greeted me at the door snarfed them down and sat staring at me expectantly for a long time. Obviously it was that dog’s job to snarf up the peanuts from the floor.”

The serving bar was about four and a half feet wide. There were 2 speakers which were screwed into the wall with nothing to cover them and the whole wall was covered with graffiti people had inked with felt-tip pens. There was no lighting or anything and it started to get dark while he was there. During his visit three Spanish people came in individually. He figured it was probably the only bar in town. The music was ok, though, they were playing REM and one song he heard was “I’ll Take the Rain.” I’m thinking he should LEAVE the rain myself.