Day 10 Rest day Hawes : Sue queen of shops

Day 10 Rest day in Hawes 

So we made it Hawes, almost half way, 120 miles clocked, 9 stop overs, crossed 4 counties, met with 9 sets of friends and made 3 new ones. Getting here has been a major focus point that frankly, I'm not even sure where we are headed after this..apart from North! 

Last night was a real laugh and a chance to enjoy great company without the worry of 17 miles the following day. One of the treats of rest day was to take our toxic laundry for a service wash. We asked our very friendly B&B host, Stewart where we should be headed and he pointed us in the direction of Sue "my future second wife" this was an unusual introduction as his lovely current wife had just served us breakfast! 

So with our laundry sacks in toe we toddled into Hawes and soon enough we found Sue...in her gift shop. It seems the folk of Hawes have really embraced the art of retail diversification, why have one shop when you can have two. Sue is fairly robust looking and frankly you wouldn't mess about, dad gave his best charm offensive referencing Stewarts recommendation to which she responded "shame, he's too young to die". A little unusual but she took our sacks, opened the door behind the till of the gift shop to the washing machine and dryer - and in her gruff voice told us to come back in an hour. 

Breaking the news to dad that 'Sue' was more likely to be a 'Stu' will always be one of the highlights of this trip. His face was pale with the realisation that he had been exercising the Pete Smith patter on he rather than she. Our next stop was the chemist to stock up on Compede and cold and flu meds..on arrival we see the Hawes retail strategy play as the Chemist doubles up as the Wine Merchant..dedicating several shelves next to the cotton buds to wine. 

We fancied a cup of tea so popped over to a cafe, the entrance seemed to be some travel company and the tea shop round the back. When I asked for a slice of fruit loaf, I was offered a slice of Wendsleydale cheese on it but kindly refused. Sitting outside was probably an error in hindsight as we were engaged in a number of interesting conversations including a woman who was taking her dog on holiday in Hawes as it was a working shooting dog. 

Finally I was in search of some sock liners so went to one of the many hiking shops in Hawes. Once I had chosen my socks, I went to the till to be met by a woman with a torch shining into the cellar and shouting instructions to her colleague. I asked the lady whether there was anything I should know about that would explain the reason for bringing out the stock of red sledges onto the shop floor, but fortunate there are no winter snaps due, it's just what they do on 1st September each year. 

Agreeing that was just about enough weirdness for one morning we picked up our laundry and came back to meet with Leon, Pri, Jonny and Mark who had travelled all the way up for some lunch with me and dad! It was wonderful to see my besties again and catchup on the news. Today has been a lovely rest day, boots on tomorrow for the second leg of Pounding the Pennines!! 

Tea shop window

My besties