'Have you been riding round today?' asked Jo...

We set off in without a wind for a change and the forecast was good.  We were on our way to the Green Fair in Chesterfield, but we decided it would still be leisurely.  Lots of smiles as usual and a big wave from the Lady in Newton who recognised us from our first day out.

We meandered down country roads, deciding which routes to take to Chesterfield.  It was lovely to be on small roads and we didn't envy people on the motorway.

We were planning to go through Temple Normanton and Hasland after Heath, then Sally L spotted the signpost for Sutton Scarsdale, and it proved a very fruitful route.  We met 7 adults and 2 children, people from Aylesbury, America, Chesterfield and Sutton Scarsdale itself. 

Well worth the detour.  More stories for the Museum and really lovely conversations and true intrigue.  The stories around the stories, the conversations we had were set against the amazing background of Sutton Scarsdale Hall.

We mosied on and made more route decisions, going via Inkersall Green rather than Calow.  In Inkersall Green the waft of a delicious chip smell lured us to a halt at the parade of shops in the centre of the village.  People were quite puzzled by our unannounced, garish arrival.  Sally L strolled into the chip shop and was soon deep in conversation about our adventures to the two men serving.  They were very intrigued but not sure if they had stories that were suitable to share.  She told them she would be back once we had eaten the chips.  While eating the chips a young women and two children stopped by and asked us about the museum.  She really wanted to tell a story but couldn't bring to mind anything she really felt she needed to share.  After a couple of attempts she wrote some things that she seemed to be happy with.  Meanwhile, Sally was lucky enough to also get a story from one of the chippy men.  The other one said we ought to broadcast some of the stories in the newspaper and get them funded through advertising.  He was full of good ideas. 

We carried on to Chesterfield, and by this time it was 12'o'clock and we thought we better get there before the Green Fair was finished.  We met lots of people in Chesterfield.  We Saw Johnny's sculpture made of recycled materials that was getting a lot of attention.  Pam Butler was there to greet us on behalf of the Chesterfield Borough Council as the Arts co-ordinator.  We caught up with Andy and Jenny from Chesterfield Transition Group who were busy making smoothies with cycle power and fixing people's bike problems.  We also met Alastair at the Paper Girl Gallery and saw Sally's art work on the wall.

Final stop before leaving Chesterfield was a brief breather on benches by the Church, when up should come Jo saying 'Have you been riding around?'.  We thought it was some car driver about to give us some trouble, but it turned out he had seen us from the bus and was intrigued by our outfits. He was our last customer- we left the town behind and then headed home with our escorts, who ditched us before we got to Grassmoor!