Day 13: The Yarnbombing Town

August 13, 2024: Being a zero day, I decided to sleep in late. No reason not to!

In the morning, I picked up my hiking clothes which I had had laundered the evening before, and it felt awesome having nice, clean clothes again. There were some stains in them that will probably never come out, but they were vastly better smelling and more comfortable than before.

The main reason I had selected today to have a zero day rather than a few days earlier in Hawes was because the weather forecast predicted a steady rain all day today, and I wanted to avoid that. As it turned out, it really didn't rain at all until very late in the afternoon. I was a little miffed that the forecast turned out to be so inaccurate, but I was badly due a rest day so I couldn't complain too much. I would have taken a zero day regardless. After nearly two weeks, I deserved it!

Around 11:00, I headed out to a cafe where I ordered lunch. It was a different cafe than the one I had visited yesterday, but they also had panini on the menu and I liked yesterday's panini so much, I ordered another one for today.

This time, I remembered to take a photo of my panini before devouring it. =)

I planned to visit the post office to send some postcards, but I had trouble finding it. It was clearly labeled on the maps of the guidebook, and even in Google Maps I could see where it was, right by the Co-op, but I couldn't find any sign of it. I thought maybe it was a little section inside of the Co-op, but looking around inside didn't find the post office either.

What happened to the missing post office? I learned later that it had recently closed and the town no longer had a post office. Oh, well, that would explain it. It also meant that I wouldn't be mailing any postcards today.

My ankle still hurt horribly, so I limped around town using my trekking pole for support. I walked around town looking for all the yarnbombing creations around town. They seemed to be on every post and bike rack all over the town! And they were absolutely adorable! 

But most of the day, I wound up back at the hotel, continuing to catch up with work on my laptop.

For dinner, I was happy to eat the food from my pack.

And thus ended another day on the trail.....

The town was filled with all sorts of adorable little yarnbombing creations! I won't post them all here (I took photos of 36 separate installations in all), but here's a nice sampling. =)