Oak Harbor, WA to Port Townsend, WA - 20 miles
My quads have been whining since sometime on Friday afternoon. They're not screaming, just whining. The funny thing is that I'm apparently the only sore one in our group. When I ask the boys if they are sore from riding, they look at me confused like the concept of having sore muscles is foreign to them. Last night and this morning they even had reserve energy to vigorously enjoy the Thuet's trampoline. Stephen says he's a little sore, but he may just be trying to make me feel better.
Since our 20 miles today seemed fairly leisurely, I guess it means that we are settling into daily riding as a temporary lifestyle. We took our time leaving Oak Harbor this morning and arrived at the ferry around 3pm. We jokingly told the boys that we had to ride our bikes around the parked vehicles in order to make our border-to-border ride complete. They were relieved when we were asked to park the bikes for the duration of the 30 minute crossing.
Our boys used to take FOREVER getting ready for bed. They loved to take their time in the shower, just enjoying the hot water. Not that I can blame them; it's nice every once in a while, but as a daily ritual it was becoming a bad habit. About 4 months ago, we instituted the 15 minute rule. One of them sets a timer for 15 minutes, runs upstairs, showers, gets dressed in PJ's and has to be back downstairs before the timer goes off. If they both beat the timer, getting ready for bed takes no more than 30 minutes total. The motivation for beating the timer is "1 point" (I'll post more about our point system another day).
The purpose of that long intro was to say that showering at state parks is a whole new experience with different incentives. Camp showers are coin operated. 50 cents = 3 minutes of hot water. The shower shutting off after 3 minutes is a good motivator to scrub quickly. We do take extra quarters with us just in case someone doesn't finish in time. We aren't going to make them go to bed soapy or finish their shower with an ALS challenge.
With rare exception we are all adjusting well to the routine and tight schedule of coin operated showers. Now, if we could just remember to take the clean clothes, towels, soap and quarters all at once when we head to the showers (instead of leaving something behind at camp), then the process will go even smoother.
