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Re: [at-l] Clothing?

Hello Bob -

I said:

>> (everything gets washed during the town stops).

You asked:

>How'd ya do it?
>Two loads???
>Wear a poncho???
>Or... midnight at the laundry in the birthday suit?

My wife walked in about the time I read your message and asked why I was
laughing.  I had to admit that you had reminded me of some very interesting
town times <VBG>.

Usually we wore our outerwear (rain parka and rain pants) when we washed
everything else (one load for ALL the thru-hikers in town!).  Sometimes
this scheme fell a little short...(cough, cough...).

One of the lady thru-hikers used her poncho and made a belt out of whatever
she could find in the trash bin (coat hanger, string, plastic bag,
etc.)...she sparked some interesting comments from the local Laundromat
denizens.

We hit Gorham, NH at the start of a long July 4th weekend and ran into a
whole slug of the first northbounders we had seen.  Ron's washing machine
was soaked up, so my son and I had to walk halfway thru town to get to the
local Laundromat.  I had left my rain pants in Andover and had nothing but
my parka to wear...it's long but not THAT long <g>.  I dug around the
hiker's swap box and found a clean old pair of long john bottoms...they
were at least two sizes too small, had LOTS of holes, and were bright
purple!  It probably wouldn't have been so bad, but we got caught up in a
practice for the July 4th parade when we left the Laundromat to go across
the street for beer and pizza...

We hit Gatlinberg in early December after about two days of walking in a
driving freezing rain.  Everything...and I mean EVERYTHING...was soaked.
We made it to the Laundromat (next to the outfitter) and decided to
wash/dry everything we owned except our packs.  Not being very patient (and
probably close to hypothermia at that point) we decided to wash everything
RIGHT NOW.  We found enough Christmas posters to cover the windows in the
front, blocked the door (I think we slid a park bench in front of it), and
retired to the adjacent shower room for a shower.  After the showers, the
place was filled up with steam...we found some cards and played gin while
we waited for the stuff to dry.  It wasn't all bad...I guess we could have
played dress poker <g>.

One of the ladies on the PCT carried a lite nylon sarong with her to use in
the laundrymats.  One hot day (VERY hot for that area) we were washing
clothes in the Laundromat in the little town where the PCT crosses the
Columbia river.  The place was pretty small.  A big station wagon filled
with kids and dirty laundry pulled up and the driver got out to unload.
They started to haul in all the bags of dirty clothes and the lady stopped
to look around.  She hollered at the kids to put everything back into the
car and took off with tires spinning.  We looked out the door and could see
her over in the parking lot of the cafe down the street...talking to an
officer in a local police car!  We quickly took inventory and decided that
we probably did look a little strange:  we had peanut butter, jelly, bread,
ice cream, milk, pretzels, beer, resupply box explosions, packs, boots, and
newspapers spread out over ALL horizontal surfaces in the place.  I was
wearing a fleece vest and wind pants, my son (6' and had not cut his hair
or beard in months) was wearing a loin cloth made out of a clean towel he
had found in the Laundromat, one hiker (very tall and very thin) was
wearing white silk long johns, another hiker was wearing something he had
found in the same junk box that had the towel (small women's culottes?),
and the lady hiker was wearing her sarong.  We decided that eating was more
important than anything else, so we finished our meal while waiting for the
local justice.  The cop came over and almost fell down he was laughing so
hard.  Unlike the excited lady, he had met many a thru-hiker and was used
to the Laundromat dance we all did.  He sent the lady to the Laundromat in
the next town and reported that her main complaint was about "that nekkid
homeless lady wearing that flag..."

With a little practice, we got to where we could hit town, eat a BIG
breakfast at the best flapjack joint we could find, stop by the post office
to pick up the resupply box, walk to the Laundromat, wash all our clothes
(one load), one of us would pack away the resupply while the other took a
sink bath in the back of the Laundromat (take turns), put on or pack the
clothes as soon as they were dry, and then eat a BIG lunch at a pizza place
on the way out of town.  Or... sometimes we would grab a motel room and
goof off for the rest of the day <g>.


y'all come,
            Charlie II

charlie2@ro.com    Huntsville,Al




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