A Day in the Life of the Support and Gear Vehicle, aka the SAG. You want attention? You want to make friends everywhere you go? Have folks just staring at you everywhere you go, to the point where you look around to see what people are staring at, only to realize its you? Well then jump in the short bus. For a traveling show such as ours, you need a support crew to match. To carry all of our food, gear, and teaching supplies we have an adapted short school bus. We removed the seats, installed shelves, and racks, added a roof rack and Voila! A support vehicle to envy. Of course we follow our principles of sustainability in everything we do including our bus. We run on Bio-diesel, and have solar panels to charge computers, phones, and cameras’ batteries. Of course we left enough seats to collect folks should they fall ill or have any injuries. The rest of the bus space is dedicated to storing bins of food, curriculum, surfboards, and camping gear.
Some may think that a day in the life of a SAG driver is easy. I mean, hey, you’re not riding your bike up-hill for 50 miles right? Well it is still a very rigorous job. Packing is quite a feat! You need to make sure that everyone’s belongings are secured on top of the bus, however they also need to be able to reach their day-bags. Food for the day must be accessible for riders to get to snacks, coolers, and lunch supplies. Water of course should be available as well. After all is said in done you need to secure EVERYTHING so that you don’t get clobbered by flying objects should you decide to apply the brakes.
After the riders leave for a school, the SAG finds the quickest way there, which is not always the bikers path. Bikers take a bike friendly route with no hills and good lanes (ideally). The SAG however would like to get to the school before the riders, so that people can change into their presentation clothes, and access curriculum supplies. After a school visit, or during the ride, the SAG finds a lovely/convenient place to station lunch. As soon as everyone has had lunch and is re-charged and ready to go, the SAG moves on to our night stay. Then they start the process of unloading everyone’s gear, and setting up the kitchen for dinner. Often times the SAG also runs many errands picking up donations, buying batteries, getting gas, etc. It is not the most glorious job, however it is a very necessary position that all depend upon and appreciate.
As far as school visits for today, we (Meagan, Sara, Travis, Kyla, Lissa, Stuart, and Adam) rode 17 miles to visit Nativity School in Rancho Santa Fe, outside San Diego. The school visit started with them offering riders a generous lunch. We then gave the school a slideshow and our ‘protecting your coast’ workshop. After leaving the school at 2pm, riders had to travel another 40 miles before arriving to our evening destination, Camp Surf. Half of our crew got an early start but those of us who visited the school ended up arriving in the dark. Luckily, the SAG was there through it all so when the late riders arrived a delicious hot vegetarian chili and salad was all ready to be served for all. We will sleep well tonight as we have had much practice and have only one school left on our bike trip which we will be visiting bright and early tomorrow morning, Mar Vista’s Poseiden Academy, a short 10 minute bike ride away. The green short bus is there for us through it all.
Miles traveled today: 57
Written by 2nd time bike-tripper: Sara Cartwright
No comments:
Post a Comment