Quest for clean clothes

Still sitting in the parlor of Ebor House, listening to my laundry being done in the back room.  That’s part of why I keep sitting here working away.  I’m in my walking shorts, a tee shirt, and my polartech vest.  I could go out to eat in this, but I’ve got a fighting chance of getting long pants back before restaurants close, so I’m holding out.  I’m not starving because I bought myself a packet of what are called Chorley Cakes at the post office shop in Horton this morning.  I had two of them during a break on the trail and two more with cocoa when I arrived here.  They were a light, medium crisp pastry filled with piles of currants.  They weren’t habit forming or anything, but they were pretty good.

 

I had stopped in the post office shop partly for such provisions, but mostly because I noticed while unpacking last night I had not left the key to my lodgings in Malham in the room as I had thought.  I found them in one of the many pockets I have on my hiking togs.  I meant to buy an envelope and postage to mail it back, but the woman who ran the shop said her neighbor’s son works at the Buck Inn and offered to deliver it to him.  I thanked her kindly, put my Chorley Cakes in my pack, and hurried along.

 

I hurried all day because Hawes is the largest town the trail calls on, and it was becoming urgent I find a Laundromat.  When Mom and I were at Dove Cottage, one of the things we were told was that the great poet tromped all over the hills and rarely washed either himself or his clothes.  I’m here to tell you that unless something has changed about people in the last hundred years, he was a smelly poet. 

 

Anyway, I wanted to get here as early as possible in the hopes of finding a Laundromat open.  When I asked my hostess at the Ebor where to find such an establishment, she told me there was one but that for a modest fee she would do my laundry.  Bonus points.  I still need to go out and see about some kind of broadband connection, but at least one chore has taken care of itself.

 

The other reason I hurried through today was that there were fewer real attention getting features.  There were some lovely views and some mucky bits.  I got to watch a shepherd an his dog at work on a nearby hillside for part of the walk.  It was a mostly agreeable rolling walk, either modestly uphill or modestly downhill with only a few steeper portions in either direction.  A lot of the track was very uneven, and taking it fast with few rest breaks was hard on my legs, but I’m confident they’ll be fine after a rest.  This may finally be a short entry.

 

I walked most of the afternoon with the Canadians.  When we got here to Hawes, they realized they had actually booked rooms at the Green Dragon in Hardraw, famous for its waterfall, less well known for being another 3 kilometers beyond Hawes.  I left to find my digs while they were still deciding whether to change lodgings or walk on to Hardraw.  It had been a fairly easy day’s walk, but there’s something about thinking you’re done that makes any further seem like a struggle.

 

Really not much else to report about today, and my computer battery is closing in on empty.  No news on the laundry front, so I think I’m braving Hawes in shorts and a fleece pullover. 

 

Garmin Facts:  14.3 Miles in 5:16 moving only 36 min resting for 2.7 mph moving and 2.4 mph overall.  481 meters climbed.