Yesterday was a first (and hopefully a last) for us. We had to call in sick to an event that we were looking forward to for a long time. We were forced to miss our Group Ride and Potluck at Big Bear Lake Trail Center. Big thanks to the crew at Big Bear Lake for being so understanding and putting on the event even though we couldn’t make it. It was our first “sick day” since becoming the road team in April. That’s not to say it was the first day that one of us was sick. Roxy came down with a pretty serious stomach virus earlier in the year and still forced herself to help build mountain bike trails in the hot Colorado sun.
Yesterday was a different story for us. You know those days when you are literally too sick to move? When you can’t venture further than 10 feet away from a bathroom? Well that was both of us yesterday. We waited as long as we could to make the call about the event. We thought it was food poisoning that would pass once all of the evil forced itself out of our bodies. Unfortunately, we were wrong and we stayed far too sick to ride our bikes or be around people eating delicious food.
When you’re that sick the first thing to do is get out of the van. Our van is too small and has too few bathrooms (none) for two humans to be that sick. Luckily, we were close enough to some family members that offered us a comfy bed to be miserable in. Even now, we haven’t been able to eat in close to 48 hours.
We’ve heard “it’s going around,” a bunch this week and maybe that’s true, but we thought it would be nice to share how we keep things clean and somewhat sanitary in the van. It’s important for us to state that we have pretty low standards when it comes to cleanliness but we do make an effort… sometimes.
- Food Storage – We like to travel with raw meats and veggies. Obviously, food born illness is no joke and we take our food storage seriously. You’ve heard us talk about our RovR cooler before, but we can’t overstate how important it is to keep your food at a safe temperature. That means making sure the cooler stays below 40 degrees at all times.
- Showering – We don’t get to shower inside very often. We are usually treated to a warm (indoor) shower no more than once a week… and that might be generous. That doesn’t mean we aren’t able to wash off every now and then. A quick dip in a mountain stream or alpine lake will do the trick but sometimes it’s just a little too chilly. We travel with a solar shower and try to use it as often as we can.
- Wash your hands – Once we shower it usually takes no more than a few minutes for our hands to be covered in dirt again. We use our solar shower, Sea To Summit Wilderness Wipes, and organic hand sanitizer from Dr. Bronner’s to help keep us as clean as possible.
It’s important not to let simple hygiene fall by the wayside because even dirtbags can get sick and miss out on a lot of the fun. We do laundry as often as we can, we wash our dishes as often as possible and perhaps most importantly, for the second time, we always wash our hands.
We’re in recovery mode and things are on the up and up. Tomorrow we’re back in the van and heading to the highly anticipated Gauley Fest 2017. See ya there!
If you like the gear we’re reppin’, or what we’re wearing, check out some of the sponsors that make this tour possible: La Sportiva, Crazy Creek, National Geographic, RovR Products, Sea to Summit, Mountain House, LifeStraw, and Lowe Alpine.
