Down Time

A few weeks ago I went to a Cabela's for the first time in my life. Sheesh. It's ridiculous in that store, I felt as though I had stepped from the suburbs of Chicago into the foothills of Appalatia mixed with the county fair. In the end I walked out of the store with the tent that I was looking for for this upcoming summer; durable, water resistant, and simple to put up. The rain fly on my old tent disappeared at some point and I couldn't find a way to get a replacement, so I was anxious to get this one out of the box to make sure it had all it's parts before the statute of limitations on returning it ran out. In the process I just decided to pitch it...indoors. My apartment really didn't have any available space so I consolidated everything from two rooms into one and just barely had enough space. Since the tent was up I decided it was a good opportunity to test my sleeping bag and pad again too. If there was a video of this whole process it would have inspired a good deal of laughter, but this picture will just have to do:

I bring this up because I've been wondering what us cyclists are going to be doing at camp after we ride each day. With my calculations I estimate that I will be averaging somewhere around 15 miles per hour. On the average day we will be riding 70 miles. This means it will be roughly 5 hours of riding per day. If you add an hour of misc. time for breaks and lunch that is 6 hours. I've heard that the riders on the 2005 ride left camp around 8:00ish every morning so that would put the arrival time at the next camp at 2:00 in the afternoon. Figure an hour and a half to take care of the bike, pitch the tent, and shower and that takes us to about 3:30. Supper will probably be at 6:00 and take an hour or so to eat and do devotions. But what will we be doing with those gaps in the afternoon and the evening? Not much has been posted on the rider forum yet about this aspect of the tour, but I think this may be the best part. This will be where we get to know people and enjoy their company. I'm sure many people will use this time to call their loved ones at home or email, but I don't have a laptop and would rather talk to people in person than through a phone.

When I went to Mississippi shortly after Hurricane Katrina, I didn't really know anyone I was working with except my dad. I was in school at the time so I had some homework to catch up on, but I had lots of down time at night and was glad to find out some of those people loved to play cards. We played hearts mostly and it was a good way to connect with them and find common ground to start from. I'm hoping that a similar thing happens with this tour. I personally am going to pack a couple decks of cards, Rook cards, Settlers of Catan, Scrabble and whatever else I can manage to fit in case I find some fellow gamers somewhere between the Pacific and Atlantic.