By the morning, Bobby's grandchildren had turned up. I'd been told that my presence would quieten them down, and it did for a few seconds, before the eldest, Annie found her tongue - she signed the book as well.
Bobby took me to the church, and I walked to Costa for a coffee. Here the manager was intrigued by the T-shirt, because he was from...Guildford! I also got two free packets of biscuits out of that, as well.
Weeks earlier, I'd rung the newspaper here, and 'Jackie' had told me to visit. I found the place, down 'Central Arcade' and Jackie and two others made me the cup of tea they'd promised. They signed, took flyers, and seemed to be writing something while I was telling the tale of the walk, so I'm not sure if that became a story. They were also apologietic for my experience when I rang the Ripon newspaper, and was told ' no - it's nothing to do with Ripon, so we're not interested.' When people say things like that, my natural tendency is to explain to them how it's not as bad as they think, and that if they were to listen, they'd realise that I've thought that through already, and I'm ringing because -if they gave me a few seconds- it IS something worthwhile...
..But, I'm learning that I can't do that on this walk. If it's 'no' then that's it. It's a shame that that reaction will prevent them being involved in something like this, but there's no time to waste when minds have already been made up.
On the way out, I passed a little music shop, and bought the guitar in the picture above. I've always wanted to take something to 'grab attention', but I gave up on my own guitar because it was too big. This was a kid's one, and only 29 pounds. The woman was from Durham, and she signed straight away.
With that, I met my brother -who was 'lobstered' from the sun of the day before, at the station, and we walked south, past this field of corn/maize things (I'm not from the country..)
We also passed this house:
...shame it wasn't the cathedral, because this was a long day, with terrain as bad as the one before. I'm writing this in Barnsley on day 8, and these two legs between Darlington and Ripon were the worst by far. They weren't a constant bad, but when the length of the route mixed with the bumpiness of the verges, it got painful.
The highlight of the day - apart from the lovely weather, was stopping in the King's Arms in Sandhutton for a DSCB. The manager used to live/work between Jarrow and Wallsend, and was fascinated. We got our shandys and cokes free of charge, and I left my address with him, written on a flyer. i've been doing this a lot, and that's the way I hope to gain the most signatures. Each person I've stayed with has said they 'know....who would definately sign but they're not here at the moment..' So, we've all agreed that they can simply use a bit of A4 for the names of everyone they know, and send it to me before the end of September (known from now on as 'A4-send-to-me-later, or 'A4SML). The manger did this, and here's what the place looked like so you can pay it a visit if you're ever near there. 
We passed the pub named after the '......stool' at Carlton Minniot, but by this time, my brother was feeling the strain. His legs were killing him, and our pace was slowing, which frustrated me, as I'd tried to arrange to get into town later, but had been told by my host that he wanted me to get there by 5. As we passed over the A1, my brother was 300 yards behind, and I was constantly stopping to let him catch up. The last three miles were a slog, and we had to fall into a pub on the outskirts of Ripon for three bottles of coke.
As soon as I knew he would find the centre /bus station etc, I ran ahead to the cathedral to meet 'Ken Lancaster'. I found him just under the west end, left my bag there, and ran back to where my brother was at the bus station. He had a further 40 minutes to wait for his bus back to Northallerton and the train, but I gave him my sleeping bag and a few other things which were weighing me down, and left him to it. He DID get back to Jarrow that day, you'll be pleased to know.
Ken walked me through the cathedral grounds to the community hall behind. 
I borrowed a duvet from him, but put it in the kitchen next door. I was a bit freaked at sleeping in the hall, which was big, creaky, had lots of doors and had -in the words of Withnail and I - 'The kind of windows that faces stare through.' I didn't fancy jolting awake at any of the many noises a hall as large as that makes at night. The kitchen was perfect, though - I'm not after comfort - just a roof over my head, and any shelter is greatly appreciated -especially one that has its own shower, like this one did.
This was the view from the hall's entrance:
I went out around Ripon, but no-one there was interested. It was a boisterous night in the town, the music was loud, and people obviously had other things to do. I spoke to a few people, and flyered a little, but Ripon wasn't a very good night for promotion.
It's a lovely place though. As I said on Twitter, it's like Northallerton, but seems to have more lanes, and 'nooks'.
This is what it looks like later on:
..and this:
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