Day 21: Friday 03/25/16, Rest Day in Marathon, TX

 Day 21 distance: 0 miles (Rest day)

Total miles:  1135 miles

About 8 coasters, including your blogger, stayed at the Marathon RV Park to rest and relax today rather than going to Big Bend National Park. If you are reading this to follow a family member or friend, I encourage you to click this Link to Day 21 of my 2015 C2C blog to see pictures of some of the sights they will be viewing today at Big Bend. It is a beautiful park, and if not such a long day, I would have liked to have gone again myself.

We woke up this morning to a local temperature of 37 degrees. Currently at 3 pm, the temperature is pleasant sunny 73 degrees. Marathon, Texas is at an elevation of 4400 feet.

Yesterday, I stated that today I was going to give you some information on our laundry procedures and tenting while on this tour. However, I am going to delay the tenting sideline until later, and instead add some pictures on the camp haircuts that some of us received this morning.  :)

BTW, if any of you readers would like to get information about this trip that I have not covered, please send me a note. My oldest favorite granddaughter Makayla, requested more information about our camp chef, which I will cover at some point on another day off. Also, at some point, I will briefly show you how our computers and other electronics are transported and charged. Anyway, we still have about 5 more rest days before we reach St. Augustine, so unless I think of something you might find  interesting, or you have a request for my comments on a ride subject not covered, we will all get to enjoy a blog-free day later on. :)

Laundry

All coaster and staff laundry is done by Bubba's staff every 3 to 4 days for a total of 12 times during this tour. The process starts by all 56 people  (37 riders and 19 staff) placing their laundry in an appropriate labeled bin for the type of clothing to be washed. Each item of your clothing must be marked so you can correctly identify it when picking up the cleaned item. In addition to having your own clothing mark, it is also imperative that you make a written inventory of your items you place in the bins or chances are great you will not initially pick up all your clothing items!

Labeled bins are set out every 3 to 4 days where we place our clothing to be laundered.

Each bin has a label so the correct items are placed in the proper bin.

These are examples of clothing that I have marked. I use either/both a permanent marker to write directly on the clothing, or an adhesive clothing patch that I write my initials on with a permanent marker. Note the initials that are on the socks were marked last year and should be done again.

 It takes two people around 5 hours to do the laundry. Considering that on a 4 day cycle, the riders alone would have a minimum of 148 pair of bike shorts, 148 riding jersey's, all undergarments, and evening wear, I think that is quite fast. It generally takes 9 super size washers and two regular washers to wash the clothes. Then 9 driers are used at the start of the drying cycle, and as items dry, they are removed until a final two washers are operating. The staff washers are very careful not to over-dry clothes and often, and preferably, they may have a very slight dampness when we pick up our clothes. The machine cost for one laundry is usually around $80. The soap used is always a Free and Clear type.

Cloth bath towels were eliminated a few years ago by Bubba due to the additional heavy laundry and environmental load. He now supplies everyone with paper towels that are disposable. In theory, one towel can be used to dry off; however, most people use a second towel for a final dry. Since the second one does not get completely saturated with water, most people will let it dry (it takes a very short time to air dry a towel), and then reuse it for everything from a mat on your tent floor to cleaning your bicycle.

The picture shows the paper towel used for drying after bathing. It is much tougher and absorbs more water than a standard paper towel. Bubba claims when he was testing these towels before he begin using them for his tours, he used the same one for 22 days before disposing it. I know Bubba was a policeman in his earlier life, but I would still like to see that statement verified by a lie detector test! :)

Our washed clothing is ready for pickup late on the afternoon of the morning they were placed in the bins. Invariably, there never is a wash day where some clothes are never picked up. Eventually the unclaimed clothing is given away.

The washed clothes are set out on two tables according to type and color of clothing. Socks are left in a bin to sort through. This year we started pinning each pair of socks together, It makes it much easier to find your socks when pinned together rather than looking through over 300 individual socks to find your match.

Camp Haircuts

 This morning a few of us who did not go to Big Bend were given the opportunity to get a camp haircut. The opportunity turned out to be a set of hair clippers with only two cutters, a #1 and #3, and no barber. :( Not surprisingly, there were only four who took up the offer. Mark Barga, one of the four volunteers, took on the role of barber. In fact, he even did most of his own head! Pictures tell the story:

Pete McCabe, part of this year's SAG staff was Mike's first victim client. He only used the #3 blade so it wasn't tapered but didn't look too bad!

Oops! I don't think that was the blade that Kurt Frederick wanted! Now what do I do?!

After various designs, Kurt decided that perhaps the #1 blade should be used over his entire head. Here it looks like Mike was getting ready to try to remove Kurt's ear with the last strip of hair!

Your blogger was so impressed with the first two results, he thought he better get one of these fine haircuts. Yes! A #3 cut on the top! Mike said that removing the top hair (singular) was very easy.

So when the top was done, Mike tells me he cannot go down to a #1 and taper into a #3. I then tried to find a bowl so I could go with a Curly look (or was it a Moe?). I ended up taking the #1 cutter and going to a mirror to do my own taper. Sorry, no further pictures available at this time. (Irv, if you are traveling to Texas, let me know as I am in dire need of a correction cut!)

Now how did Mike end up with the best looking cut of all? I think he was gaming the rest of us!

 It has been a great day off! Extra special, since there is a TV that I will get to watch Gonzaga play Syracuse in a Sweet 16 game in a few hours!

LINK to Day 21 of my 2015 C2C blog