INTERNET!!

ok this is going to be way more abbreviated than i would like... its been 2 weeks since ive had internet opportunity and ive a couple pages handwritten that i want to put in but now that stuff is days old and it would take all night for me to inscribe it all...and i dont think i can hog this computer at this little bar all night.... hmmmm... so where to start....ill try to think of the hilights... we are in a little village just east of burgos. we should get to burgos tomorrow, after a LONG hike. we are so lucky tonite as we were able to get a room somewhere and there is internet downstairs. gro is upstairs sleeping and her cuteness got us in. today we did about 16k. thats about our limit. there are people passing us by doing 30 plus k a day but they dont have heavy packs with tents or pups with sore feet. 15 or 16 is about the limit for both of us i think. today we did 12k through a pine forest. in the rain and then fog. i realized i dont mind the rain and mist as long as its not cold or windy. the few days previous to this were horrid, we got stuck in a hailstorm one day and then got rain snow wind ice etc and tons of wind the next, and i really didnt know how we were going to make it through... turns out i guess that it was part of a hurricane. anyway, the forest was a really nice change from walking along roadsides..i have mixed feelings about when the path goes along roadsides...its nice to know im not totally alone, but frankly im sick of the traffic. there is so much BIG TRUCK traffic all of the time on the national road that runs near the path. one day we actually tried walking on the road instead of the path becasue it cut 4 or 5 k off. it was SO unpleasant. never again. anyway, the pine forest was nice, but not 12k of it.... it got kind of boring and it was so foggy you couldnt see ahead of you very far. there was nothing but forest, it was like a logging road. no villages, etc nothing. saw some logger, thats it. i had been told the first part was the hardest cuz it was through the ocs (sp?) mountains, and i thought we handled it ok and were done with the uphill, then i saw a straight up path ahead. it wasnt actually as bad as it looked but it looked awfully steep. i have a pick but this computer is old ibm too old to download. no place for flashdrive. grainne ended up on my major bad list for not only going after another dog coming towards us but for managing to pull me down face first in the mud with my 30 pound pack. the poor guy with the other dog didnt know what to do because obviously he couldnt grab grainne who was after his dog, but wanted to make sure i was ok and i was just like "dog you are SO dead" and then burst out laughing, as i was lying face down in the mud.... hmmm. not to much else interesting from today except that we got SO lucky with where we are staying tonite. tomorrow we try to get to burgos and then id like to take train to leon and then get to santiago walking from there. i dont think we can actually walk the whole thing, it would take another 6 weeks cuz we seem to only be able to do 15 k a day and would need to do 20 every day and thats just pushing us too much. the uncertainty of not knowing if we are going to have a place to stay at night is what really gets me, particulary since its turned so cold. the first week was beautiful sunny weather, still cold at night, but feasible to think about sleeping in the tent. now its crap weather and cold. i need to see if i can get another sleeping bag in burgos for grainne becasue she is cold and shivering every night even inside unless she is under blankets. i specifically got a LONG size sleeping bag with a bottom zipper thinking i could stuff her in the bottom every night but shes just too big and wants to stretch out. i also got a zero degree farenheight rated sleeping bag but its gonna get returned when i go home because im cold in it at 40 degrees... i dont know who the heck they get to be the testers for these temperature ratings on sleeping bags, but they are always SO wrong...


aside from today, grainne has usually been a delight to have as company. although at the moment i am worried about her hurting feet. although they dont seem to hurt any more when she sees another dog to try to attack, or a boy to try to run after and get attention from...she loves men SO Much, her whole body starts wiggling, tail wagging, and so excited when she sees a guy. shes SUCH a girl. she was in love with this tall italian guy at the albergue last night and the ONLY thing that kept her going through the snow and ice and rain on ?tuesday? was that there was a french guy about a quarter of a mile ahead of us that she had her sights set on. anyway, her whole life her problem is always that she wants more movement. here she gets it. i think she is getting a bit too much exercise actually though, as she'd be happiest with about 6 or 7 k a day.... so we´ll see.
OK i guess ill work backwards here..... but i guess taht will make this post particulary long... hmmmm.

in brief, we spent...lets see if i can remember.... a night outside pamplona, where i left my car, the next in puenta, which is the last time i had email access. the next in a church courtyard in ? i forget.... the next in estella where we got in trouble with the cops cuz the place was kind enuff to say g could come inside but only at 11 pm...so she proceeded to sit outside barking at every dog that went by until then and they called guy in charge of the place and he came back and got mad at me... all he would have had to do was let her sit inside the door and she would have shut up but we werent sposed to have dogs in there anyway so he was already doing me a favor....the next night we spent in lorca in a churchyard because i was afraid of the 12k with no villages that came after this. i didnt think we could do 20 whatever k. the next at an albergue with a bunch of people in...some town... i forget... the next night we tried to spend in vianna and ended up in tears at the albergue becasue they wouldnt let me even talk to the hospitalero..the cops actually followed me into the albergue and said no dogs and wanted me to leave her with some guy that wasnt home. i sobbingly told them forget it as i prepared us to go another 10k for a total of TWENTY EIGHT K.. to the next town, where we arrived after dark in the rain and were turned away from the albergue there and there wasnt even a place to put our tent..they tried to send us to the camping place but then it was closed for water damage... .... we got so lucky after me finally breaking down in tears after being forced out of a church entry way so they could lock up, and sent to another church, where they gave us our own meeting room, mattress, kitchen and shower for the night :) the next we had to pass on a town cuz they said no dogs so i thought we could stay at the next--vendosa--but after arriving in the dark, unable to go any further, and with nowhere else to go, we found the albergue closed for renovations, it freezing cold, windy, hurting feet, the village dark, no shop, no cafe open, nothing, and an old lady gave us bread and apples and went out of her way to take us to the top of the town where the church had a covered entryway...but ever try to peg a tent into mortar? it only works when the mortar is crumbing. this wasnt. that was probably our worst night. we spent the next 3 nights in azofra for a rest. then onto i forget where.... oh yeah, belorado, where there were NO albergues open and we had to get a guy to open one.. even though it was a big town. i bet i added on 3 k at least just walking around and around the town... then last night in villafranca where we slept on the freezing cold floor by a back doorway--preferable to being outside at least, where they wanted to put gro.... many people here think dogs belong outside but seriously gro would DIE. she would have died the first night. she cant handle the cold like these dogs can. and tonite here...