Allen, Nathan, and the Road to Santiago

A brief update before we tackle the mountains and the storm that is slowly growing outside.

The last three days of riding have been straight across the Meseta from Burgos where the sun first smiled upon us to Leon, which is an amazing city and deserves another visit, but that is for another time.

The weather has been beautiful, the sun continued to smile down on us and both our troubles and the miles poured off our backs. Allen and his kneee came to terms and we sped across the Meseta at a pace that made Nathan very happy!

We ran into Antonio and his retired Sweedish Sailor friend who did not drink water, but rather he drank what he called gasoline, a red wine and cola mix that had sustained him 7,000 kilometers and 5 months on the road...it made our stomachs a bit queasy.

Frits appeared again at a roadside cafe in Burgo Ranero, and he convinced us to stay the night at a very nice hostal there. We don´t remember much of that night in Burgo Ranero, we were drinking with Fritz, and 2 other Hollanders. The beer and the laughter flowed freely, one of the Hollanders fixed Nathan´s back wheel for the price of a small glass of beer, and as we sat down to dinner, Frits realized that he wasn´t handling his vino too well and called it a night.

Allen wants to thank Natasha for an inspiring conversation.

From Leon, our destination was Hospital de Obrigo, as it was still early in the day. We left Leon and the Wind reared its ugly head...the next 31 kilometers went by very slowly, the wind roared, Nathan roared back at the wind, and we arrived in Hospital de Obrigo in time to watch the sun set over the puente (bridge) de obrigo.

Little did we know that it was the last sunset we would see, today, the 21st, the storms have returned, we are currently in Astorga about to tackle the 1st of two days of mountains, the rain is holding back thus far, but the wind is also holding back our progress...

And now...Frits...

I´m happy that I meet two lovely and friendly guys from L.A and Santa Barbara. I am from Holland a little town with only 1500 people. We have talking a lot and drinking and of course cycling.
I apreaciate the inspiration to cycle camino.

Pictured here is Antonio, the 71yr old Italian Priest direct from Rome. Antonio cycled from Rome, over the alps, through France, and across spain before he had a heart attack 1 week before we met him. Antonio, not to be restricted by the ways of man hooked himself up to a heart monitor and continued on his way. You could say that Antonio was still rolling, both his wheels and his cigarettes one after another...

Once we entered Burgos our focus immediately went to refueling, and trying to prepare for the next day´s ride, when, a miracle occurred, we discovered that despite the trouble we had getting to St. Jean in the beginning of the trip, we had managed to build in an extra day for our journey to Santiago, which would allow for a much needed day of rest, revitalizing our spirits, our bodies, and our bikes. We found a hotel, maybe not the pilgrim´s way, but necessary, and we slept the deepest sleep yet. When we awoke, we no longer sought revalation, it sought us, and what we discovered about ourselves will last us a lifetime, but this we cannot put into words.

We woke up in Santo Domingo and took our time getting ready as it was again cold, windy, and raining. We did some laundry, and enjoyed a leasurely breakfast, but on this morning our spirits were tired, our bodies were in pain, and Rocinante was wounded. This day marked our lowest point in the trip, truly our cross to carry from Santo Domingo to Burgos, a 45 mile trudge up the Montes de Oca.

On the previous day, from Los Arcos to Santo Domingo, Nathan experienced some frustration with how slowly Allen was riding, which conversely expressed itself as Allen´s irritation with how fast Nathan was riding, but as Tom Waits said, eventually the 2 will settle on agrees, and todays ride to Burgos marked that agreement. Nathan, the mountain of a man that he is settled into Allen´s steady pace and acted as a windshield as best he could as we trudged on through the headwind. Eventually, our friend Fritz, who we first met outside the church in Logroño a day earlier rode up behind us, and together we rode, laughed, discussed life, and drank his wine (where we got the wine-water bottle idea from - thanks Fritz) and the miles to Belorado although very painful for Allen and mostly done on one knee were slowly traversed.

We left Fritz in Belorado, although we are sure to see him again, and proceeded to Burgos. Just outside of Belorado Rocinante blew a tire and Allen, who was running on very little sleep, took a nap while Nathan changed the tire. We eventually reached the town of Villafranca Montes de Oca, where Allen laid his head down on a bar table and slept some more as Nathan ordered lunch causing some concern to the bar owner, but Nathan assured him that all would be well. Then we hit the Montes de Oca, one of the Many Faces of the Devil, a 6% grade on 3 good knees, 3 good wheels, and 2 tired bodies. We made it to the top of the 6% grade only to discover a series of rolling hills that seemed to go on forever and can best be decribed by this picture.

Then all of the sudden, on a long flat stretch, 15km outside of Burgos we looked around and discovered...

the storm had broken, and the sun that shone through lifted our spirits, made us forget our ailments, and guided us all the way into Burgos, the most hard fought and welcome site yet.

The Camino Frances has evolved from the dirt path to the right of the modern road to the modern road itself. Walkers and mountain bikers follow the dirt camino, and we, with trusty Rocinante and La Mujer de plata bicicleta follow the modern roads whenever we can find them.