We set out from Astorga and made it one town into the next day’s route, stopping due to rain in Foncebadón
We were sad to leave our sweet-tooth-satisfying city of Astorga, but depart we did as the skies cleared behind us and we walked straight towards steadily darker clouds while having our hair whipped by steadily cooler “breezes.”
As we departed from coffee stop number two, an unwelcome buzzing caused Jeanie to stop. Her PDM alerted her to a needed pod change, although she wasn’t scheduled to change until that night. She allowed herself ten seconds of incredulous “seriously?!” Before dropping her bag and readying her diabetes pit station. Although we had just left a serene little cafe that would have provided a more than sufficient setting to change pods, Jeanie’s insulin pump had waited until we were in the middle of a mini wind storm (and just far enough that it was not worth turning back to theresaid cafe). As Jeanie dug through her bag, and we pinned items down to stop them from blowing away, we made a renewed commitment to remembering to pack the pod change items on top of the bag. Eventually, between the two of us awkwardly juggling items and Jeanie clenching the final pieces between her teeth, the pod was successfully switched without a single casualty to the wind, and we carried on.
A good number of pilgrims stopped just before the mountain, cutting the day on the shorter end. But why would we EVER do that? 🙂 After a ham and cheese sandwich and a quick break for the feet, we were heading up the mountain! It was a steep uphill but we powered through. It started misting, then drizzling, then “gently raining.”
“How lucky” we thought, to not get caught in a true downpour. And so then the true downpour came thundering down, drenching us through our layers and sending us throwing uncomfortable glances at any large nearby metal objects. A little dazed and a lot dripping, we entered into the nearest albergue we could find. We found blankets in a closet and passed a very cold evening spending all our spare euros on cups of hot chai tea.
Today we were reminded that waterproof and water resistant are two very different things. We look forward to checking in soon from a warmer and dryer spot!
Diabetes and Travel 
What a day! I felt the wind you battled and wished to be there as a wind block for you as well. I sensed the looming inevitableness of your dousing as the weather spoke to all of you and other pilgrims listened while your humanness overrode natures warning. #1 Be safe dear Pilgrims, be safe… We want the whole story.
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Another gold star, J & J!! We all have times, diabetics and the other folks, when we shoulda coulda made some different choices. Thank you for sharing your humanness and learning from your choices. You laughed at your collective self and are ready for the next day.
have peace, joesevilla
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