Podcast: The Mattress Went Down to Georgia

Transcript:

Robin: “Hi, my name is Robin, and I’m a friend of Pam’s. I’m an avid reader of her newsletter, and I really enjoyed reading her last one about BRAG. After reading it though, I did have some questions for her about some of the adventures she had camping out. So I’m going to ask her a few questions now.”

Robin: “Pam, let’s start by you telling me the overall basics of BRAG.”

Pam: “Okay, Robin, I’m glad you’re interested in all this. It’s fun for me to tell more of the story. So BRAG started in 1980 and a lot of states have events where they set it up so the bike riders can ride across the state, people can have fun, get exercise and just see the little towns and backroads. That’s what BRAG is, they started it like that, and gosh, I’ve lived in this state for every how many years, twenty plus, and I’ve always heard about BRAG but never did it. This year I decided two or three things fell into place and I would do it. So what you do on BRAG is you get your bike and you follow a preset course and everybody moves—its seven days in a row—everybody moves and sleep at the next spot, moves, sleeps at the next spot, moves, sleep at the next spot. I decided to do only four days of BRAG because I was worried about doing the whole thing because the whole part about sleeping bothered me.”

R: “Okay that’s interesting. Let’s dig a little deeper into that last part. The sleeping part. Tell me about all the different ways people find to rest during the night.”

P: “Whenever I met people last week, I would always, almost always ask the first thing: ‘what are your accommodations?’ because I came to find out that made a big difference. Here’s how you sleep at BRAG: You can either take your own tent and the people running the show will move your tent to the next place, you ride there you’re hot and sweaty, you set up your own tent, and I guess live in it. A second way is, there is a service that will set your tent and a camping place for you and you go to the next place and you get to sleep in a tent and have a bed that’s already made up for you. Another way is they have this thing where you can sleep inside, like a school gymnasium or a civic center floor and they allow people to bring a blow-up mattress or whatever and they sleep inside, but you are side by side by side with all these biking strangers. And then another way, Robin, which is a really good way is to sleep in a hotel. But by the time I signed up for BRAG this year, there was no way for me to get a hotel room.”

R: “I was wondering why you didn’t sleep in a hotel room. That would definitely been my choice.”

P: “Right.”

There’s more! You know what to do. Click the play button above.

Did these BRAG campers know they play pickleball into the night when they chose these campsites?

BRAG campsites are deceivingly calm in the dappled shade and sun of an early afternoon.

How it is if you choose the sleep-inside-on-the-floor option, aka indoor camping.

Here’s the link to the original story,

“Community Science Goes Along for the Ride at BRAG.”