Saturday, July 22, 2023
Day 50
Shuttle from Carter Lake to Sioux City, Iowa
And so it begins!
Breakfast downstairs in the hotel. Fuel up. And enjoy an extra cup of coffee. Life won’t be like this over the next week!
We chack out and say goodbye to the amazing staff at Best Western Carter Lake. They’ve made our stay feel like we’re home.
Bikes and duffles are moved to the gathering area for Pork Belly behind Candlewood suites. It’s always a treat to see Tammy and her staff.
Juli wasn’t able to make it this year. She is missed!!
The shuttle to Sioux City takes about 2 hours. Once there, we check in with Pork Belly, get our tent assignment and put our duffles in the tent.
We’ll need to retrieve the bikes once they arrive and assemble Zachary’s bike.
We take a quick trip to the expo downtown to pick up our RAGBRAI packets and then a visit to Walmart for a few items for the week to come: snacks, sunscreen and the like.
Back to camp, we find the bikes. While Zach builds his bike, we empty our panniers into another duffle for Pork Belly to move daily. We’ll be riding unpacked bikes are are so excited to have the ‘week off’! To ride without the extra weight will be a treat!!
Now, with gear and bikes set, our tent neighbor reminds us of a RAGBRAI tradition-writing ‘Virgin’ on the calves of a first time rider. Zach, being a good sport, allowed me to endulge!
Properly tagged, we headed to the ‘dip’ site. Another tradition is to dipnthe front tire into the Missouri river. Upon completion of the ride, we’ll dipnthe rear tire into the Mississippi. RAGBRAI is rich with tradition. How fun to share these with Zachary.
Back at the tents, we set up our bedding and call it a night. The next seven days are ride days. Ride, eat, sleep, repeat!!
