Day 38: Ribadiso to O’Pedrouzo 22.2 kilometers

Albergue Mirador de O’Pedrouzo 13€

That’s 30.849 kilometers to Santiago, not thirty thousand eight hundred forty nine kilometers. They use commas where Americans would use a period.

Charlie, Megan and George!

First, the most important news of the day: Happy 30th Birthday to our amazing daughter Megan!! I celebrated her at the closest thing I could get to the 30 kilometers to go marker.

Today was a great day on the Camino. I started out walking with Becky and Lindsay. We had a quick breakfast at a little cafe as we passed through Arzua.

We need to collect two stamps per day in our pilgrims passport from Sarria to Santiago.

At 10:30 AM this stretch of the Camino was the most crowded that I’ve encountered so far. It really wasn’t that bad.

We saw lots of people we knew along the way, but more that we didn’t know.

The Camino is full of people that just started in Sarria, but it doesn’t seem overly crowded. There are an equal amount of additional cafes, restaurants, bars, Albergues and hotels. Which makes it a little harder to spot friends at the trail side stops.

Kirsten, me and Grandma Ginger

I was thrilled to see my favorite pilgrims of all today, 84 year old Grandma Ginger and her 24 year old granddaughter Kirsten. I got to walk with them for a couple hours. I hope I’m still walking the Camino at 84. And I really hope I have a grandchild that would want to walk with me. Ginger is a bit famous on the Camino, everyone is inspired by this spunky, kind, smart, positive, worldly woman with 84 years of wisdom to share.

Buying cherries out of a van on the side of the trail.

The first cafe in each town along the way is usually pretty crowded. Go past the first couple and the crowds thin out.

Today flew by and kind of got away from me. I arrived at O’Pedrouzo, found the Albergue, showered, washed my clothes in the shower, hung them in the sun and headed out to meet friends.

Elisha and Elana suggested this amazing steak place in O’Pedrouzo. It’s actually the only reason we all stayed in this basic town.

Almost all the food was eaten and Lindsay left before we took this picture.

We met pilgrim friends, people that have become our Camino family, at a really good steak restaurant. We ate too much, stayed too late and made plans to leave way too early tomorrow morning for our final day of walking.

Tomorrow I will wake before 6:00 and walk the last 20 kilometers as a Camino family. We will reach the. Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela together. I will cherish every step.