A birthday is a time to reflect on the year gone by, but to also set your goals for the upcoming year. Catherine Pulsifer  We wake up to another flat tire and one low on air. I thought I had fixed them the night before. There was a Peregrino named Jose nearing his 70's who helped me fix the flats after seeing me deal with one flat after another the night before. He tells me that I must clean out the inside of the tire in case there is debris inside of it from the previous puncture. The night before Jose had been walking around the Albergue with a beer in his hand singing to himself and talking to anyone that would give him the time, he showed me how to best use the air pump which he had and helped me with the change. Within a few minutes we were on our way out when Jose comes to me and tells me he can’t get his electrical bike to start, he has a small battery and motor to help him on the hills. I tell him I am not much of a mechanic but I will look at it. I pull out the battery and notice that when he put his battery in the draw string from his bike seat was caught up between the battery and the connection, so luckily it was a quick fix for him. The favor was now returned. Every time we have needed help on our Camino someone has always been there, and It felt good to be there for someone when they had need. Jose tells me that he was on his 22nd year of doing the Camino and had completed it 15 times. On our way out of town we stopped off at a supermarcado, which is really about the size of a regular living room and bought our mid morning break meal.  We came upon the albergue Hospital de Peregrinos San Francisco de Asis. We walked in and right away the hoteliers came to our help, I explained our situation, he said not to worry, that there is always a solution. He called ahead his friend in Burgos which was the next major town with a bici shop. He told his friend our situation and he gave him directions to the bici shop after we got of the bus. But Prior to that we had choices to make. At first I suggested that we could leave our bicis there get a a bus to Burgos, buy the inner tubes and come back in the morning and ride out. Not a problem he said, your bicis are safe here. Feeling like that was the plan I went outside to wait the 3 plus hours before the next bus when I start talking to another person and he suggest taking our bicis on the bus to Burgos that way we would not lose a day of travel and gain 50 Kilometers. So the attendants at the albergue called the bus station and asked if we could carry bicis on the bus, they said yes. Within a few minutes another person comes up to me telling me that his friend was coming from Burgos that evening and he would call him to bring me the inner tubes. Half an hour ago a problem , now 3 solutions. We would have gone for that, but I thought I better take the surest option , because if his friend was not able to get the inner tubes then it by the time he arrived in town the bus would have just gone. I thanked him and took the second option. The host let us wash up a little while we waited for the bus. Within half an hour all the peregrinos were headed up the hill to see a church that had been built into the mountains over 700 years ago, they invited us to go prior to catching the bus. Jessy and I went up a very steep hill, it was a beautiful church that the monks had used to school the village children for hundreds of years.  After the church we came back down and waited for the bus, once it arrived the driver gave us a hard time because our bicis were not boxed, I explained to him the situation and after lecturing me that it is not acceptable to carry bicis on the bus unpacked, he said that since the bus was almost empty, he would make the exception for us. It ended us costing 10 euros for the 2 bicis and 5 euros for the two of us to ride the 50 or so kilometers to Burgos. We arrived in Burgos and after asking for directions we finally found the bici shop, we walked in and bought 2 inner tubes and had it changed on my bike. We ended up buying Jessica some cycling shorts since she had left her's at home and we had been taking turns wearing mine to ease some of the soreness on our bottoms. After the bicis were fixed we rode them to out to our albergue for the night the Refugio Municipal Casa de los Cubos, now about 8:45 we walked in so late that they gave us the handicapped room which had two beds which is all they had left. He tells me that if any handicapped Peregrinos arrived in the next 15 minutes we would have to give them the room. After getting cleaned up we went out and got a couple of Margarita Pizza's and a few drinks in a bar. We bought our red peregrino bracelets for a few euros.
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Shoes are always stored separate from the pilgrims
Refugio Municipal Casa de los Cubos
View of the Catedral from our albergue
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