”A HUMAN BEING should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”  ~ Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

It would seem that rest days would be time to relax, but I found them to be anything but relaxing sometimes.   I almost always stayed in a hotel on a rest day.  I picked rest day hotels specifically for their proximity to services such as post offices, restaurants, and supermarkets.  Ideally, I wanted to leave the bike in the room and get around on foot.  Typically on rest days, I would do the following things:

-wash clothes, preferably at a laundrymat

-conduct level 2 and 3 personal hygiene

-complete bike maintenance (full cleaning, sometimes at a car wash.)

-clean and repair equipment

-deal with mail drops

-cook up witty blog postings

-edit and review photos (I used the PDA for this)

-make mandatory phone calls

-eat, enjoy eating, and eat again.

-review upcoming terrain, route plan, and buy food appropriately.

-organize gear and eliminate unused items.

One of the strategies I used to keep from having to hotel it for two nights on a rest day would be to camp short of a town and ride in that morning.  The problem with that strategy has to do with hotel check-ins occurring after noon…but in most cases the hotels were very accommodating. 

I also learned that small towns with ‘full services’ were better for rest days than cities like Butte and Helena.  Quite simply, all your services are much closer together and not miles across town in heavy traffic.

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