While seated on the floor in the Atlanta airport (to access the outlet for charging), I noticed the woman seated nearby’s backpack, which had a Camino patch on it. I asked her if she was walking the Camino. She is. All of a sudden we had so much to talk about and she’s my new best friend in the Atlanta airport. This quick and instant connection was one of my favorite parts of walking the Camino and it made me happy to see it return before even getting to Spain. Another woman, also with a pack with a Camino patch, joined us, and asked if we’d watch her pack while she went to fill her water bottle. Her pack was small. I mean really small. Woman #1 looked at the pack, then looked at her pack then asked me, “Is there such a thing as pack envy?” I then asked her how much her pack weighed, a pretty standard conversation opener on the Camino, and she said, with a somewhat discouraging tone, “16 pounds.”.
“Oh yeah….there is definitely such a thing,” said the girl whose pack was now tipping in at 18 ish pounds. The ish covers the hair conditioner and the extra scarf I added this morning on a crazy whim.
She then said, “I added my hair conditioner last minute…. oh and some mascara and some blush and I’m feeling kind of guilty about that.”
The Camino comraderie has already begun. I didn’t feel so alone as I boarded my flight to Madrid, knowing that there were at least 3 of us headed to the Camino and I sure felt more justified in the last minute addition of the small bottle of conditioner to my pack. It really did feel like I was home again.
Susan arrives in Madrid tonite then we take the bus to Logroño in the morning and will begin walking the next day. I’m clean, my clothes are clean and my feet are blister free. Time to get this party started.