The Millers: Pilgrim Meals

One of the routines that make the Camino fun is the pilgrim group meals. They are inexpensive and you have a few choices of options. The food is generally mediocre, but good enough. The main attraction to the meals is getting to know other people, generally others that are staying at the same hostel. Some nights, especially if we are in a city, we go out to eat for supper for better food. Even then, it is always with other pilgrims.

A typical pilgrim meal would be like a couple of nights ago. The food was only OK, tuna spaghetti and store bought “flan” in a yogurt-like container.

As usual, we met many people that day, but there were a few from our meal that were more interesting than others.

First were two ladies, traveling together, one of whom is legally blind. They are from Michigan and have been hiking buddies. They hiked Mt. Kilimanjaro together, the Grand Canyon, rim to rim and other places. Now they are doing the Camino. They also hiked during the previously mentioned mega-rainstorm, which seemed amazing to us.

Also, we met a guy from Germany who had to walk 34 miles looking for a hostel, not able to find an open bed until the fourth town he looked in.

Third was a a guy from Illinois. Someone called him the Midnight Pilgrim, and he adopted that name. He wakes up soon after midnight and starts walking about 2 AM generally. He puts in high mileage. Not sure why anybody would want to walk at night, but apparently God told him to do that and it is working out for him.

Also, 3 Finnish guys, one of which speaks five languages.

Lastly, is a lady from California. We ran into her on the trail earlier that day, but we didn’t chat because she walked so slowly. While hiking, she appears pretty pathetic. She looks to be in her 70’s, short, and must barely weigh 100 pounds. Dressed all in black with a hoody, hunched over, using walking sticks, and going so slowly, she reminds one of Yoda. As we passed her numerous times earlier in the day, we exchanged the standard Camino greetings, although hers were quiet. Then as we were hanging out eating a snack, she slowly strolled by again, chugging slowly along.

At our hostel, we sat next to her for dinner. Like Yoda, she is different than one would expect. She scheduled a one week walk on the Camino. But after that week, she changed her flight and all her plans at home and decided to do the whole darned thing. She was a recently retired nephrologist at Stanford, perhaps making in excess of $400,000 a year. Now, she is staying at $15 per night lodging and eating flan out of a yogurt cup!