09/05/2023 Bikepacking Spain Day 28 : The Philosophy of Enough

Good weather today - off to a good start! In Spain, you can grab an individual can to buy from a 6 pack, so I went to buy 2 Diet Cokes for me and Janet. A customer came up to me and said, "You know, there are cold ones," and then he went to the refrigerator section to find one. All they had was the red Diet Coke and not the silver ones we were so excited about (silver is rare here and uses a different sweetener). Really nice of him. But then we got outside and made faces. The sweetener was gone. I looked at the bottom and they expired over a year ago! Doh! Always got to check the dates on artificially sweetened stuff! --

Some mornings we start out and I think, "I haven't taken any pictures today." Then the beauty once again unfolds. Kudos to Janet - she designed this leg of the route and I love it! --

Some little side trips down steep cliffs today. By the way, Janet sometimes joins me on these side excursions - but leaves her bike and GPS behind meaning she doesn't get "credit" for her true footies! --

Ok, it's a cheesy song, but check out this Ermita (which means "hermitage" or "chapel"). It was locked, but Janet will probably post a photo of the cool intricate root-like artwork made from concrete. I did feel it was a shame to have the cell phone towers surrounding it - but hey, that's how you get our Strava posts! (That might be something always-positive Janet would say!) --

Free ride!

We went down a very steep trail to get water. A sign said, "El agua que yo te doy, no me la pagues con golpes" - which literally means, "Don't pay me with punches for the water that I give you". I think it means something else maybe? Any Spanish natives have a better translation? --

We saw this "Refugio" on the map near some steep contour lines. I was excited about sleeping on the edge of the cliff. It turns out this one was locked, so we couldn't take pictures of the insides. I have mixed feelings about the Refugios during good weather. On one hand, it's "cool" to sleep on a unique place. On the other hand, my first love is sleeping under open skies. Of course, during bad weather, they are a godsend. --

There was still plenty of time in the day to keep riding - to make more miles. But this beautiful location was tugging at me. You may not have this problem, but I always have this nagging feeling that I need to "do more." More work, more miles, more saving, more helping, more faster. More, more, more. This has reached psychotic levels in my work where I would sometimes stay in the lab until 4am trying to help out with some sort of "catastrophe".... Which is ridiculous if you think about the real importance of things on the "pale blue dot." Janet doesn't have this way of thinking, which can be helpful. We decided to stop here where the grass was mowed perfectly by cows and the rays of sunlight beaming through the trees was just right. It's not too much. It's not too little. It's enough. --

Amen to the philosophy of enough!

Janet W.