Hi all,
I’d firstly like to express my very deep appreciation and Kudos to my volunteers at Island Rest Stop this year:
Some minor equipment-based glitches, but it was the smoothest and most fun i’ve remembered since my first year as Coordinator in 2009 (yeah, well it did RAIN that year! but never mind that….):
Esta Brand – fruit/cookies/quick bread server
Mark Howard – fruit and sandwich guru
Stephen Kellerman – bike rack set up, PB&J sandwich king
Ann Klein (Gu/OJ mixing team)
Eric House – cold beverages (GU/OJ mixing team)
Arturo Taboada (Peet’s pick-up, return and general all-purpose calm dude)
Kati Tchobanoglous – quick bread & fruit slicer
Sam Leffler – bike rack set up, food slicer
Cynthia Livingston – bagel/cream cheese sandwich queen
Sherie Reineman (yours truly; sleep-deprived chicken-running-no-head and boss-lady, PB&J sandwich slicer… uh, yeah, they trusted me with a sharp knife on 2 hours sleep?)
Jean Peters (not onsite today, but helped with some preliminaries w/ Peet’s)
Additionally, Jack Lin (our van driver) and Rodian (our REI mechanic)
Notwithstanding that we were graced with perfect weather, i really appreciated the nice teamwork. The bagel-sandwiches were a big hit and this year we got the cut-fruit just about right (surplus uncut forwarded to Briones/Campo, see below)
We’d hoped for at least 2 canopies and ideally we could use 3 because of how the tables are spread out at the site in fixed locations, but since the total number that were available this year was less, we were only allotted one for the Rest Stop (the other two went to Island Registration… those folks are up by the road baking in the sun for a few hours, whereas we have some tree cover down in the Rest Stop area). Once Registration slowed down, Chip offered his second canopy (from Registration), and we moved it down to cover the table/station where we had the sweet treats (cookies, quick breads, fruit). In the end, it worked out. In rainy weather, we would definitely want that 2nd canopy right from the start (nothing worse than soggy cookies, no?)
Since the bagel sandwiches were so popular this year, we could actually bump up the quantities of bagels AND the dreaded cream cheese (1-2 more boxes of bagels and 1 more chub of cream cheese).
One benefit of making the sandwiches, it really lends to a nice face-to-face interaction and general good vibe with the riders. Seems more personally connected with them, friendlier. Many of the riders made a point of telling us how much they loved our Century, the food, the fun rest stops, etc… altogether a successful year!
Peet’s came through with the full order!!! First time in my recollection since 2008!! That said, we could use one more cambro, maybe even just a medium size one. With the warm weather, neither the tea nor hot cocoa mix were very popular (but i know Sam & Cynthia’s son Sean enjoyed a cup while waiting to his ride down to SAG central to work radio, so i’m glad we had it)
Food forwarded to Briones/Campo:
2 boxes bananas
2 boxes cantaloupes
1 box cookies
1-2 boxes quick breads
1 box oranges
GU mix – a few bags extra?
GU chomps and gels seemed to last better this year, but we didn’t have left over.
Chamois Butt’r and WooHoo creme seemed to go fast, could probably use more.
I was pleased to see people taking advantage of both the sun block and the hand-sanitizer.
Best idea yet – tongs! (my idea, and each rest stop got 10. seems like about the right number? Do we need more?)
The OJ was not very popular this year.
Sam noted we might want to space the bike racks out just a tad more, it was crowded/difficult to get the bikes on/off the racks? Move down our volunteer car parking an additional one-two more parking spaces northward to make space for bike racks?
Staging glitch: We first had 0 hose/nozzle in the truck. So the first batch of GU/OJ was made by hauling the cooler up to the water fountain and then hauling the full container downhill. Then the hose got delivered (nice new nozzle, too, btw, sweet!), but the hose was only 25 ft. Need 50 ft hose. It was inconvenient for our drinks team to have to haul the heavy beverage coolers up/down hill between where the hose reached and the drinks table, but they worked around it cheerfully. (this was initially compounded by the fact that i momentarily misplaced the plumbers key once the hose arrived, and thought for a bit i’d left it at home, but luckily found it before too long… right where i’d put it on the supply/staging table.
Everyone arrived on time and helped to the bitter end with cleanup, too. Ben Shemuel and Jamie Kellerman (working Island Registration also came down to help us set up the canopies). Thank you Thank you Thank you!!
Registration / registration setup got off to a late start, so we were flexible in the Rest Stop area with allowing some of the riders to nosh before receiving their wrist bands while waiting for Reg to get set up. Huge crowd this year, 215 chose to register/start at Island, i believe? A long line from the Reg tables out past the bike racks!! So we got busy right off the bat at the food stations, too. (it appeared the Reg team was moving the folks along through the sign-in process pretty fast).
the good weather did help with the general pace of the riders, so they actually were through Island on time (in rainy years we’ve stayed open longer to allow for the slower ride times).
this year, done/cleaned up/gone by 11:30, right on schedule.
Afterward i drove down to Campo and enjoyed a big plate of bbq and good conversation with other volunteers as well as some of the riders, hanging out on the shaded steps. the salads (rice, green lentil, tabouleh) were especially remarkable this year, and the grilled veggies and chicken …. ummm ummm ummmm!!
I look forward to it again next year.
Cheers all,
Peace out.
Sherie
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p.s. – Here are some “non-riding” pics i took, mostly at Island, a few afterward at Campo:
a good time had by just about all, i believe…and the post ride meal was over-the-top delicious! Thanks to all the volunteers!
cheers,
Sherie
sherierides 