This morning I was walking behind a very tall super fit blond haired guy, with particularly impressive leg muscles, for several hundred yards. When I finally caught up to him and he turned his head to say hello, I was momentarily stunned by how blue his eyes were and how open and friendly his face seemed. He immediately engaged me in conversation and right away I was struck by his genuine warmth.

His story was right out of the Jimmy Stewart character in It's a Wonderful Life. As a child growing up in Holland he dreamed of travel. He read accounts of voyagers in the ancient world and wanted to roam the earth. He spoke of the lure of leaving home and not knowing for sure if he would ever come back. He bought a backpack at 16 and was ready to take off but one of his parents suddenly died and he ended up staying home. Then he went to university and met his wife and before long they had kids. The realities of work and supporting a family took over and he never got his travel adventure. He heard about the Camino 20 years ago and realized he couldn't take the time off to do it. He and his family took some walking vacations, but nothing big. Then five years ago at the age of 55 he lost his job and went through a personal crisis. As part of the firing process he was assigned a life coach who asked him what dreams he had that were unfulfilled. It was then that he decided that somehow he would walk the Camino when he turned 60.

So in March he and his wife walked out of their home in Eindhoven and have been going ever since. 2500 kilometers across The Netherlands, Belgium, France, and now almost all of Spain. I'm humbled and in awe. His wife has had some difficulties with her back so she sends her pack ahead each day, but he has carried his pack the whole way and hasn't missed a step. His goal is to walk to Finisterre, the end of the continent, and I have no doubt that he will. We walked for about a hour together but he had to stop at a bar and wait for his wife who was trailing behind and I wanted to keep moving, so we said so long and we hope to meet up again. A wonderful guy, maybe the friendliest and warmest hearted person I've met yet on this adventure.

I loved today's walk again. It was easy, only a little more than 10 miles, and predominantly flat and on smooth surfaces. Ponferrada was a lovely surprise, with a castle that must be the model for all the cartoon and Disney castles in our imaginations, as well as a host of other impressive buildings. The exit from the city was long but pleasant, much of it on tree lined sidewalks. Lots of large apartment blocks, including quite a number of 1960s brutalist examples that reminded me of some state universities back home. Then through several towns--Compostilla, Columbrianos, Fuentes Nuevas, Camponaraya--and across fields of vegetables and vineyards filled with workers, before I arrived in Cacabelos, where I'm spending the night.

I realized while walking today that the past week or so, with the exception of the 3 hours of fly torture, I've been in a sort of bliss state. The weather is great, hot, sunny and dry, my body is moving in a steady comfortable rhythm, my feet issues while not solved are at least at equilibrium, and it just feels so natural to keep moving. Not that I don't get tired by the end of the walk or that my feet don't ache, but I just feel so good. It's almost like a mild mania. Terry, you remember how I was sort of manic when we trekked in Nepal in 1982, just so happy to be there and doing it? Kind of like that.