I want everyone to be good for Rapunzel while I'm off on my bike for another trip.  I will be biking eastern Wisconsin with an organized group of about 1000 riders.  We camp in school yards (and have access to their showers) and have semi's to carry our tents and other gear.

My hair will probably be in braids the whole time.  Most school showers provide more of a mist than a shower and I have found it isn't even worth trying to wash or even rinse my hair when that is the case.  There should be one school on the route that I can actually wash my hair, hopefully I'll get in early enough to even get some warm water.

Be good and think good hair thoughts!

Oh, don't worry Bikerbraid... we'll be good : ) Just have yourself a great trip and be sure to tell us all about it when you come back.

Anais

Happy pedaling, bikerbraid! I'm sure you'll have lots of fun.  :)

And hey, at least you've got access to showers. Where I'm going next week, we won't even have that for the most part!

Happy trails and pack lots of cornstarch! ;)

I'm back!  What a week.  We biked 380 miles in 6 days.  The weather was cooperative, i.e. it never rained while we were biking.  Our legs and knees survived even the brutal trip out to a "wind farm" (20 mph headwinds at times).  I'm tired but refreshed.

I convinced at least 2 long haired ladies to NOT donate their hair to Lock of Love.  I handed out lots of cards to the long haired ladies to show them this site.  The longest hair I saw was a braid that was mid-thigh.  There was another gal with wonderful red hair in a thick braid to her mid-back.  BSL was about as long as most would allow their hair to get to.  I think there was more long hair on this trip as I have ever seen.  Maybe the trend for long hair really is catching on.

My hair survived with minimal damage. (However, I'm quite sure I did not win any glamour awards! LOL!)

Glad to be back and catch up with all of you.

Welcome home, we missed you!

Welcome back, Bikerbraid! Your trip sounds amazing, and it sounds like you had many opportunities as a longhair ambassador too...  :D

Anais

380 miles in 6 days?! And I thought I was getting a major leg workout with my backpacking!  :o  Next stop, Tour de France, right?  ;)

And not to get too off-subject, but I think you're right about the long-hair trend catching on; upon going back to school last year I was surprised at how many girls had longer hair. It'll be interesting to see how many there are this year. Maybe I've started a trend.  ;)

I'm also curious...you mentioned in your first post that you were in a group of about 1000 riders; did the entire group travel together, or were you more like in waves or smaller groups? It seems like such a big group could disrupt traffic or distract drivers, and I can't imagine seeing that many people biking down the road together - what a sight that'd be!  :D

LOL!  Yes, 1200 riders all together would create quite the traffic jam, especially in the small towns!  

In reality, we are very spread out.  We can start each day any time we want, but our bags have to be on the trucks by 9am.  Some riders leave by 5am (why, I have NO idea), others sleep in and leave much later.  The support vehicles stop running at 5pm, so it is preferred to be in the destination city by then.  We usually were part of the "early" crowd and would be biking by 6:45am.  We would be at the destination by noon at the latest.  With the staggered starting and people taking breaks at will, the bikers get very spread out.  At times we would not be able to see any other bikers around us.  At other times we would be part of a group of maybe 20 riders.  Since we ride on streets, we are usually riding single file, or 2 abreast, if there are 2 lanes for the traffic in our direction.  We are required to follow the same traffic rules as cars.  

That sounds like so much fun! I  can see why some people would want to start so early; no one else on the road, it's all peaceful, not too hot, and you can watch the sunrise...I love early morning.  :)

wrote on Aug 11^th, 2004 at 7:14pm:

That sounds like so much fun! I  can see why some people would want to start so early; no one else on the road, it's all peaceful, not too hot, and you can watch the sunrise...I love early morning.  :)

YES!!!!!!  EXACTLY!!!!  (And don't forget the winds a less early in the day).