A day without pilgrims

The albergue was fumigated when I got back from blogging yesterday. Then the plumber/gas guy arrived. Dave has been waiting since we arrived for him to show up. He will send an estimate to fix the instant gas hot water heater manana. Then the builders who want to erect a scaffold in our huerta (garden) to facilitate the building next door showed up with the priest, so that everyone was clear. Then the roofer showed up - they had been waiting for him since the spring rain. He said he would check and fix the roof in the winter. So by the time we got away to Astorga it was 5 pm, and we met Dick and Liz on the road and we pulled over to chat. They are taking over for us as hoapitalero/as, and we planned to go to dinner once we returned from Astorga. But as they pulled away we realized that we hadn´t told them not to go into the fumigated dorms, so we reluctantly turned around, and returned to Rabanal. We went to vespers together, then the 4 of us had dinner together. That was a novelty, as Dave and I have been going in shifts.

I slept until 6.30 am - what a treat! Shower, laundry, breakfast, then Astorga. I shipped my excess to Santiago for 4 euros, got cash and more dark chocolate with almonds, and more oats. I am going through a lot of them since both tea items use oats. Then the hardware stores. Since there is no Canadian Tire, with everything you might need, we were in 5 different stores getting keys cut, squeegies, pens, and vaccuum bags.

We had lunch, set up the dorms, and I ran off to blog. There are already about 10 people outside, and we will let in everyone who arrives by 2 pm. Dick is the chair of the Rabanal committee, so we discussed this very subject last night at dinner. There seems to be no rule that is fair to everyone. Dave and Dick are rewriting the Handbook, and will call it guidelines rather than rules, as we must use our discretion so many times. I pray there are no cinchas (bedbugs) today hitchhiking in with the new arrivals.