Well I have to say that today's was a pretty awful walk. Last night I was awoken numerous times by torrential rains and impressively loud and sustained thunder. The rain seemed to be coming in waves. When I got up this morning the intensity had thankfully lessened to a lighter but steady rain. I resigned myself to getting wet. And I did, through and through, and cold too; the path traversed seemingly endless fields with absolutely no shelter. As that British fellow I mentioned a while back might have said, "rawther unpleasant, that!"

The unpleasantness of the weather was tempered by walking with a charming couple from California almost the entire 11 miles, he a still active 62 year old firefighter with 37 years under his belt, she a 51 year-old student hoping to become a nurse after a whole host of jobs over the years.

Theirs is the kind of love story one loves to hear. When she was 16 or 17 they fell in love, but he was 11 years older than she. Her father forbade the relationship and it didn't survive and they went on their separate ways, both to marry and have a couple kids each. But after the marriages fell apart they somehow found each other again and have been together for three years. She said she's been madly in love with him since she was a teenager. When they first started seeing each other for the second time she said she really wanted for them to walk the Camino and he agreed, but in an aside said to me "when you're first dating you pretty much say yes to anything; I didn't think she'd hold me to it!" He was having a much easier time of it than she; her feet are pretty messed up and she's had to taxi it a few times, but he hasn't missed a step. When we arrived at the hostal in which I had reserved a room, we stopped, had a cup of coffee, and said goodbye. A nice encounter.

Unfortunately the weather report is not encouraging. Looks like off and on rain the next few days. I'm trying to consider my options. My feet, already messed up, got worse today in the wetness, and I don't want to do irreparable damage. I'll see what it's like in the morning. I'm about halfway through and I haven't yet skipped a step, but if I feel it's the right thing to do, I will.