The route for this stage is again in a straight line west, paralleling roads.

I had curated another music playlist some time before coming over to Spain. With different music styles, often referring to the road: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4ue5PB2N2y3DBGWeeykiaU?si=186a7e3386ae4a89

Listening to it made me feel more energized and inspired at times.

Reaching the town of Reliegos, I encountered the locally-well-known “Bar Elvis”.

It appears to me that this building is in need of a design intervention of some sort. I message an architect friend for ideas.

I meet E. and L. , who as it happens are staying in the same albergue as me.
I also see F. who I had met in Carrion des los Condes, and T., staying in a place one street over.
It’s hot in the afternoon, and people congregate at a bar in the village center.
L. showed me where he had taken a photo of a cat, taken on an earlier trip to this village, which he had sold as part of his free-lance photographer business.

In the albergue it’s then siesta time. As it happens I have a small laptop with me for this section (Macbook Air). It feels out of place in this context and I don’t take it out much, but it can be useful sometimes. I use it now on my bed in the dorm room, with some music composing software, reshaping some melodic lines.

I had noticed a microscopic market with a hand-lettered sign saying that it will open at 5 PM for a brief time window and I return at that time.
I am holding on to eating vegetarian. Yes, it is a challenge in Spain. Since the albergue has a kitchen I decide to make my own dinner. I make a kind of “decarbonized” spaghetti carbonara – spaghetti, with eggs broken into it, and parmesan.

Visiting the friendly Bar Elvis, I notice the same sort of decor indoors as well as out ….

At sunset I climbed up a small hill which contained bodega structures dug into it. There I could to connect back to California with Facetime.