Day 2: to Las Vegas! (NM)

Woke up at 3 a.m.  I could watch them turn on the light as I got little sleep that night.  Packing all the gear and getting in line in "Formation," starting off with Morning Prayer, stretches, and then breakfast, we are on the road by 5 a.m.  On the left is Starvation Peak and St. Rita's Church.  It is cold, because it is always cold before the dawn. 

We walked to Tetelote and the church there, along with another small chapel (capilla) up the road, taking two 10-30 min. stops at each place.  The food and drink is good, but the rituals of our stops takes time from the walk as we kiss the gia and banner of the hosting church or chapel, words of introduction, eat, drink, bless those who fed us, listen to the history of the people of the capilla, go to the bathroom, all before we can get on the road again.

Last Vegas, NM is NOT Las Vegas, NV.  It is a small historic town, with a charming historic district.  We stopped at an historic Catholic church that was not open, and then walked to the Catholic family center, where lunch was waiting!  Today we walked 19 miles.  Lunch was sandwiches, and dinner was spaghetti, which is always great for walking the next day (22 miles, carbo load).  The showers in this center was great.  I was the reader for that evening's Mass, in which the priest gave a decent homily on the life of pilgrimage and welcoming the pilgrim. Tonight we also had a talk by a deacon, talking about his work as a deacon in the Catholic church. The sleep this evening was solid as I was in the mood to catch up to last night's horrible sleep.

Highlights: seeing a Carnegie library in the middle of town; the Victorian styled houses; and getting Emergen C fromWalgreens.  Now if I/we only could get some bananas.