RAGBRAI – Day 0

Today we spend our time doing cartwheels, jumping jacks, sit ups and pull-ups in preparation for our first leg of biking tomorrow morning. Noah is already taking a five dollar shower this morning at the high school locker room. The rest of our team is currently en route from Lansing Iowa and their bus should arrive sometime around 2:30 this afternoon. In the meantime, we plan to head to downtown Orange City for the Expo.   

So far the only negative we’ve experienced has been the campers located right next to us. They have the absolute loudest generator you can possibly imagine. We essentially are unable to even talk when they have it on and despite the rules of quiet campgrounds after 10 PM, they insisted on leaving it run all night long. I even politely asked if they would mind shutting it off and they refused because they absolutely would not go without air conditioning.     So Noah and I endured listening to their generator all night long while they slept in the comfort of their air-conditioned camper. Lukas was perhaps the smartest of our bunch as he strung up his hammock between two pine trees near the baseball field about 30 yards away from us.

The rest of our team arrived at around 3 PM today. They are currently setting up tents while Noah and I headed over to the drivers meeting at 4 PM at one of the local churches. After this, we plan to head back to our camp and reconvene with the rest of our group and then head downtown for the evening and the expo which expects to see 25,000 people.  

We will be up and around 5:15 tomorrow morning and hopefully biking no later than 6 AM.    Our longtime friends and fellow Luther alumni, Ryan and Dr.  Sonia  Sather will be hosting us tomorrow.  

Spencer, here we come!