The ocean is behind us now, and the way makes a beeline for Santiago at this point. Only a few days left! I feel like I’ve been out here for ages, yet it has also just begun. The pilgrims have started asking each other if there will be another Camino in the future, and, yes. Yes, I would like to do another or two.

On the home front things keep getting worse and for all of my focusing on the moment at hand it’s hard not to despair, so when I read things like this it makes me breath a little easier.

I stepped from the hotel into the rain and joined the stream of colored ponchos and raincoats of the other pilgrims. There are so many more of us now. Several paths have converged and many pilgrims hopped on in Vigo or joined for the last 100 kilometers.

I immediately see Adrian and Ignacio again. We see each other daily without planning it. We start walking next to a man traveling with a wooden walking stick and I mistake his accent for American, but he is Candian and living in Amsterdam. I introduce myself as Renee, he says his dad’s name is Rene, I somehow learn his mom’s name is Patty, and here I am, Renee Patrick meeting a guy with parents Rene and Patty. 😄

We talk about hiking and the PCT and the book Wild. I tell him about trail magic and trail angels and he says when he makes his first million he will hike the PCT and give all his money away. I said his trail name would have to be Trail Daddy if that happens, and he loves it. A thru-hiker is born!

At some point Stevie Nicks comes up, so I have to put on some Fleetwood Mac and the song Dreams is just about the most perfect thing there is to listen to on this rainy misty morning.

The rain is washing us clean of hate and fear. We get stronger together the closer we get to Santiago.

The meeting of cultures and people and ideas is beautiful. We are better for it. We need to travel more to see we have more in common then apart. It’s easy to forget that when we get caught doomscrolling and distracted by the 24hr news cycle. That isn’t real life. That is disaster magnified.

Trail Daddy and I talked about fractals, and, well, Richard and I talked about them yesterday too. I’m slightly obsessed. Have you read Emergent Stratagy? That explains the way we can take our personal experiences and influences turn that into systemic change (taking cues from fractals). This Camino: if all of us, or just some of us take this peace and tolerance and acceptance back with us, share it with our friends and family, it can spread and grow and unite us. It helps if we get off our phones and start looking people in the face (and yes, I realize the irony of that as I sit writing this on my phone)… maybe we can shift the balance.

We walked through vineyard after vineyard today and I got a whiff of wood smoke and immediately got excited for fall. It should be getting cooler soon at home: sweater and soup weather, and I’m here for it. This song fit in well here.


And this day should have a soundtrack because this one was perfect too.

I haven’t told a lot of people out here that I have cancer. Some take the news ok, some ask me more questions and share their own stories from their life, and others walk away as fast as they can. I met the group of Americans from California again as they waved me down when I got to the endpoint for the way today, so joined them for a glass of wine (I mean with all the vineyards it would be rude not to!) in a charming little cafe on the river. The talk eventually turned to our reasons for being out here, and I shared my story. They were all so lovely and caring about it. I needed that ❤️. We exchanged contact info, and I have a feeling I might see some of them again.

It was a lazy afternoon, and after I got checked in returned to the cafe for an early dinner (before they closed down before their dinner time) and ate with Trail Daddy and Alex (I met a few days ago) and a few other pilgrims from Texas. After, I took a stroll down their riverfront in the luscious warm evening air.

I was in bed by a decent time, thinking that today was one of my favorite days.