Intercourse, Stickiness and Butt Masages
So... I figure I'll start with this one since it has a racy title. As we travelled on our three day tour we were bathing impaired. Imagine a full day of biking with no major bathroom access followed by a night being one of two people in a cozy two person tent. All of the camping places along the way were RV camping places that cost $30 a night and required a three day stay because of the holiday. So- we decided that our strategy would be to roll into town and talk to the local police. Rumor has it this has been sucessful for other bikers. In Ephrata, however - we had no such luck. Fortunately we ran into some other bikers who let us stay in their backyard. Point is- by the end of the second day we were all pretty disgusting. We washed our clothes as we went but our laundry was still pretty rank when we returned on Monday. Genorous applications od sunscreen added to our general feeling of stickiness.
In addition to the stickiness was a pain that is difficult to ignore- and that is the literal pain in the ass! Ouch. The first day my poor bum was in sad shape. Every time we stopped I immediately massaged my rear end. Yikes. By the second and third day I was a bit more used to the sensation and also found some good strategies for alleviating the pain while coasting downhill.
The second day we were told that one great place to camp would be in a cemetery- no one would bother us there. That would have been wicked cool but as we biked through Intercourse, PA we found a camp site that would let us stay for one night- and they had showers! We made a reservation and headed out to another town for site seeing- largely because everything in Amish Country is closed on Sunday. Though there was a winery open and we bought a bottle of Blackberry wine to be consumed with dinner.
Comments
Phew! I survived reading this. It was a close call, though.
One thing I find useful when travelling without access to showers is moist towelettes. They can't replace a shower, but make me feel as though I tried. How did you wash your clothes on the road and how did they dry? Did you stop at coin-ops?
Posted by: Ma | June 2, 2006 10:03 AM
Rae, remember my friends Amina and Whitney? They spent their first year of marriage biking through Europe - they talked about gross non-showeriness quite a bit - going much longer than a weekend at times!
Posted by: Mara | June 5, 2006 3:07 AM
We washed the clothes with water and dried them on the back of the bikes. Moist towelettes came in handy for clenaing my sunglasses that were covered in sunscreened fingerprints and smears, and for cleaning fresh bird poop off the tent.
Posted by: Rae | June 6, 2006 6:29 PM
So you've been through Intercourse! While visiting a friend last summer, who lives in Lancaster, she took me around town and of course, through Intercourse! So I admit I giggled like a school girl, but it was still pretty funny to see it plastered all over everything in Amish town USA.
As a side note, I have a close friend who is a biker and does long road trips. He buys something that resembles butt-deoderant, I call it butt-glide, but actually it is called Body-glide. He says it helps with the biker butt soreness. Can't say I have tried it, but he used it on his trip from Charlottesville to Vermont and seemed to have no issues.
Posted by: Ange | June 7, 2006 12:55 PM
We had the butt goo, but didn't use it for some reason. It's not the kind of thing that can be shared easily!
Posted by: Rae | June 16, 2006 7:23 AM