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Dear Friends,
Finally! Here it is, your essential June Letter on June 29th. We have tried to gather the most accurate info available. We didn't get every single thing we wanted in here, so we ask you to be faithful about watching our updates over the next few weeks.
We have done our best to condense the letter and reduce it to bullet points when possible. We hope we've made it pretty user-friendly and useful for you.
By clicking the document link below, you will be able to download a pdf document. Please give a moment's thought to where you will save this letter, so that you can use it as we intend, as a reference document.
It's long, and no one needs to read all of it, as you can see from this Table of Contents. These are the big sections of the letter:
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1. Top Priorities Right Now
2. East/West Shuttle, Friday and Saturday, July 21 and 22
3. Finding Us in Sioux City, July 22
4. Omaha to Sioux City, July 22
5. Des Moines to Sioux City, July 22
6. The Week with PBV
7. Our Exit and Enter Shuttles, July 25 and July 26
8. Our “Early-Finish" Shuttles on July 26 and July 27 (stand by)
9. The Last Day of RAGBRAI, July 29
10. Shipping Bikes to/from RAGBRAI
11. Between Now and RAGBRAI
12. Protecting Your Bike for Truck Transport
13. The Pork Belly Mobile App
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If you're not on the East/West Shuttle, for instance, skip that section altogether. If you're wondering about Omaha hotels, you want the fourth section. If you wonder whether you'll need to lock your bike during the week, check out the part called "The Week with PBV." The letter is mainly chronological, except for late sections.
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Download your letter. Print today. And then read the sections that are relevant to your RAGBRAI. Maybe do some highlighting. Re-read as needed. Here is the link to your June Letter in pdf format:
The 2023 June Letter of PBV
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The Pork Belly
Mobile App:
Don't Ride Without It!
The Pork Belly Mobile App is your best way to stay abreast of Pork News and Pork Happenings, as well as RAGBRAI news and host-town happenings.
RIGHT:
Katy is constantly creating
new features.
Coming soon, watch for this new convenient archive of
PBV Updates from
the 2023 season.
After RAGBRAI, we'll ask you for some feedback about your experience via the Pork Belly Mobile App!
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Important Topics:
The following topics are in the June Letter; however, we think we need to draw attention to them here, too, so that you'll read them sooner rather than later.
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Last Call Before We Go to Work
on the Rental Tent Grid:
On July 5, we will print our tent report, sorted by group name, and begin making the tent grid. If members of a group do not have their group names (identical to their friends' group names) on their applications by that time, we are not responsible for those members of the group being placed near their friends in Tent City.
If you need to check or change group names, please login and take care of this--we are tied up much of the time now, preparing for your arrival in Iowa.
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Packing Your Bike for Airline Travel
On the Last Day of RAGBRAI
Anyone who needs assistance and must package his/her bike on the last day of RAGBRAI in Davenport, for airline travel to Omaha, Des Moines, or Quad Cities airports, please write to pete@pkbelly.com now and order this service. We need to know about it right away. The price is $100.
On the 29th, remember to avail yourself of this service before 2:00 p.m.
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Payment Is Due Now.
Please settle all balances by credit card. It's too late to mail a check. Thank you.
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The Size of Our Charter
Earlier, we have let you know that we are 8-10% larger this year. You will notice that some topics in your June Letter relate to our larger size. For instance...
· We include new instructions for those who want to refrigerate medication during the week.
· We include new instructions for those bringing a CPAP machine.
· We include somewhat different instructions for those charging e-bike batteries.
· We request that you be reasonable about the number of devices you expect to charge daily with us.
· We caution against inviting friends outside of PBV to hang out in camp and consume limited resources.
It's a different situation for RAGBRAI L, friends, and we very much appreciate your help and cooperation.
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Our Days
Our days are long and full. We are excited for RAGBRAI L, but even more than usual, we are slower and slower on email, and we have long to-do lists.
We probably will not answer emails that are answered by the June Letter. Unless we happen to have a moment to spare, we will expect you to use this document as a reference for the vast majority of questions. And thank you for doing that.
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The Right-Sized Locks
for the Charging Trailers
Notice the photo of one phone charging trailer below, provided so that you'll know what kind of padlock to bring to lock a charging compartment. Huge padlocks won't go through the hole, so make it small or medium-sized padlock. Please read more about our charging trailers and charging compartments in the June Letter.
And if you have a LOT of devices to charge, please don't plan on using multiple charging compartments at once. Consider bringing a charging block or battery, and then charging some of your devices in your tent at night.
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Our Directional Signs
For the last few RAGBRAIs, we have added a checkerboard border to our directional signs to make them more visible to you. More about these signs, and about finding us in general, in June Letter. In each overnight town, this is the sign to watch for as you depart from the main rider route to find Pork Camp.
(Sometimes people suggest that we make our signs larger. This would only encourage the many other groups to post right over our sign. Everyone posts 8.5" X 11" signs.
(Sometimes people suggest that we make our signs a bright color. However, many other groups choose bright colors. We don't know how many of them will choose bright pink or fluorescent green. We have chosen black and white with a checkerboard border, so that our sign is different from other groups.)
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Go back to the top of this update now, folks, and click on the link to your June Letter, which answers 97.8% of all questions about traveling with Pork Belly Ventures during RAGBRAI!
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The FUN stuff is coming! Watch for Our Week in the Corn with heaps of good news! We'll publish other updates as well, coming at you in quicker succession now. Thanks for reading your June Letter. We'll be back on your screens again soon. Until then, we remain,
Your friends,
Tammy and Pete
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