Civilization, a mechanical and my travelling Papa.

We have reached some civilization at last, a town of reasonable size...and people living ordinary lives, it seems. Makes a change... I have to say that if time is a thief, bike mechanicals are the equivalent in being able to steal ones mojo and good Che from you, quicker than you can say Jack Sparrow. I generally service my own bike unless it's something like bleeding the brakes or servicing the forks, but pretty much anything else I do myself and seldom have issues unless something breaks completely. I had ridden 4 days in Spain and my bottom bracket started to make some horrendous noises. Not creaks, but metal on metal hideousnesses. It was responsible for me scowling and frowning and generally cursing and eventually riding with music so it was audible no longer. Such can the effect of a malfunctioning bike be for me. So irritating, I even find my blood boiling whilst typing this. Just so you know, I have let it go, it wasn't easy, but such is the nature of bicycle touring, I just didn't expect it to happen, 4 rides after I had had the bike serviced. It lends itself to wanting to write to some website review thing and complain...but as I have said I have let it go. Ok letting it go for real now, but it had to be written so I could absolutely release it...ok, gone!! We have travelled around 610km on our journey down the Camino Del Cid. What a fascinating journey of discovery and interesting little hamlets, with nothing more than a broken down shack in some main streets, made of straw and mud. Very few people have we seen, and I am guessing a lot who have had children with other family members as their parents did before them. Not to be harsh, but wow, "The hills have eyes"meets Burt Reynolds in a canoe down a river with some banjo back ground play off going on. Scary stuff in the second least inhabited area in Europe I am told. Thankfully we are far from there now, but seriously, nothing, no beasts, no crops, no houses with inhabitants, like a properly deserted region. I think Cid may have been responsible for some of that....a mean man he was and a real mercenary and a good killing machine in his day. He certainly knew what he was good at and his purpose in life was just that. Undefeated in battle apparently, so a bit like Vader before he got a conscience. He even got exiled for a bit until the king of Spain got defeated by the Moors and needed to bolster up his army, so called him back, that was the level of his expertise in 10AD and some change. Hence the journey we now embark on has immense historical importance and has traditional meaning for many Spaniards, even though most of us have probably never heard of El Cid. Having done 4 different Camino Santiago routes, this feels completely different. It's much more raw and doesn't travel in any straight lines, but follows his troop movements and battle areas, so we find ourselves riding all over the compass on most days, and in big semi circular routes from time to time, which is a bit counter intuitive when on a bike. Even with all the bike admin and some stress around finding some accommodation occasionally, I feel totally grateful to be able to have the ability and health to do things like I am doing with my mate Howard. A good travel companion and a handy man at arranging stuff in Spanish, always makes things easier. We got stopped today and the gent asked if he was my "Papa", that made him a bit upset, but from today forth he shall be known as Papa. To be fair I thought it was a probing and decent question from the man...H didn't. That's irrelevant....Papa it is. Everybody dies, not everybody lives...That's a true story right there, pick a team.