Day Three: Getting the Band Back Together

After the ordeal of the second day, we were beat up, but the third day dawned with a different feel.  We had experienced the hospitality of a Muslim man running an albergue for Christian pilgrims.  He was from Morocco and he spoke Spanish and French, but little English.  He had recently opened a clean little albergue on the outskirts of Melide and he was enthusiastic and friendly, despite the communication barrier.  Colin spoke to him in Spanish, I muddled through several conversations in French and we passed a much need night of rest.  In the morning we found Dan, who had passed the previous day and night in Melide at the Xunta Albergue (the one run by the government).  We had a pleasant breakfast and assessed what was going to be necessary for us to carry on as a group.  Dan was not able to carry his pack, he could walk with a light burden, but simply could not shoulder the 30 extra pounds.
We split up Colin's pack, because it was the smallest and lightest of the group and Colin carried Dan's larger pack.  My pack was rather heavier than I would have liked but I took Colin's sleeping pad, which was not heavy but was bulky, various other articles were divided among the group and Paul and Michelle, who were physically in the best shape took turns carrying Colin's lightened pack kangaroo style.  All in all, it was an exercise in teamwork, harnessing the relative strengths of the group in order to compensate for the weakness of one of our members.  Paul and Michelle approached the task of carrying the extra pack as a challenge and a light burden in order to keep Dan with us, and we were all glad that our little group was whole once more.
We planned to walk 23 km, but when we reached our goal around 3:00 pm, we determined that it would be within our ability and perhaps in our best interest to push on another 7 km in order to reach a nicer albergue and leave ourselves the shorter hike on the final day.  Everyone was in favor, even those of us who were dog tired and afflicted with blisters, even those that were carrying extra weight.
As it turns out, the Spirit did not lead us astray, the Albergue where we finally stopped for the night was the most pleasant stop of the trip (besides the rather posh hotels in Madrid and Santiago).  We had an excellent meal and plenty of wine, we actually had the chance to get to know some fellow pilgrims, because we had time to do something besides sleep.  We woke up and had morning prayer in the courtyard of the Albergue and several fellow pilgrims joined us.
We were together, we were ready for the home stretch.