I found myself crying inexplicably twice in the last 24 hours. First on the bus from Burgos back to Estella yesterday when I finished reading a small gem of a book, "84 Charing Cross Road" by Helene Hanff, essentially a love poem to bibliophilia and London. And then in the middle of the night when I couldn't get back to sleep as I read a moving and difficult childhood memory posted by an old White Plains friend on Facebook. Partly I think it's because Terry and I said goodbye for seven weeks, which despite my decades of travel as a rare book dealer will be the longest time we've been apart in 39 years. But it's also because this experience is causing my emotions to bubble up to the surface.

And then this morning a woman asked if she could join me at my table for breakfast. After the preliminaries--she's a 60-something retired respiratory therapist from central Pennsylvania--I asked her what her motivation was for doing the Camino. She said her husband died 3 years ago and since then she's been doing extreme stuff, skydiving, a marathon, and now the Camino. Tears were streaming down her face as she spoke. It was awkward, unexpected, and powerful. Ten minutes later we said goodbye and Buen Camino and I have no idea if I'll ever see her again. So it isn't just me.

The walk today, at the risk of using up my quota of superlatives, was gorgeous. Leaving Estella there was a gradual five mile climb, and half an hour in I came across and drank from the famous wine fountain--before 7 AM--at the ancient Monastery of Irache in Ayegui, just outside Estella.

The path wound about 6 miles uphill through a couple of small towns and offered views looking back at Estella and the surrounding mountains. The weather was cool, overcast and blustery, but eventually the sun burned off the clouds and by early afternoon it was perfect--60s, low humidity, a cool breeze.

Then there was an 8 mile stretch with no food or water. I had bought some local ham, cheese and bread at the last town and at around 1 PM I stopped and sat by the side of the path and feasted and drank water. It was really delicious after 10 miles walking in the fresh air.

Now I'm in the small town of Los Arcos, in a very basic but clean room in a simple pension, showered and resting. I can't say that the 14 miles I walked today was exactly easy, but I feel less enervated than I would have expected. For the first time today I felt viscerally that, yes, I can do this!