Pork Belly Update -Your Detail Form

May 11, 2024

Dear Friends,

We hope this update finds you thinking ahead about RAGBRAI, getting those training rides in, and completing your travel plans for getting to and from Iowa in July!

RIGHT: Minden, Iowa, home of PBV, hit by a tornado

on April 26.

More below on

how you have helped!

The main topic here is your Detail Form, which requires you to login to your account at pkbelly.com. The Detail Form collects info we need in order to serve you! So keep reading for instructions on the Detail Form and these important topics!

Your Kindness to the Tiny Town

of Minden, Iowa

To date, Pork Belly Ventures has received checks totaling more than $27,000 for the Minden Relief Fund.

RIGHT: Pete, dropping off your donations to the City Clerk of Minden, Iowa.

Contributions have ranged from $10 to $1000, and even more. Every dollar goes directly to Minden, folks, and will be deposited in the special account at Midstates Bank. Long-time riders, riders who haven't been able to join us for years, our crew, and PBV are making an impact on a town of 600 that was half destroyed on April 26th by a very powerful tornado.

Pete said that the Minden City Clerk, Teresa, was not prepared for this level of support from RAGBRAI riders from all across the country. To be honest, neither were we. Your response has been downright inspiring, friends. We thank you.

Some of you may still wish to contribute,

in which case, here's the whole story

and how you can help!

Long-Term Parking in Burlington

Before you click, please note:

• The link below is convenient for reserving parking for riders using the Pork Belly Ventures E/W Shuttle from end to start, and only those riders. (This includes Padre's riders who are using the PBV E/W Shuttle.)
• There are separate unique parking links for Brancel Charters, for Out of Staters, and possibly others. Contact your charter for the appropriate link for you.
• Signing up for the wrong parking location, using the wrong link, only makes things difficult for you and for Burlington. You could park blocks or miles from your shuttle staging area, if you use the wrong link for parking.

Last week, PBV sent an update only to those on our E/W Shuttle, sharing our unique parking link for Burlington (more than 80 people have not yet opened that update). We can offer indoor sleeping Friday night at our host school and box lunches on Saturday morning. Here's the whole scoop again, in case you missed it!

Our May 3 Update on Parking in Burlington

OUR MAIN TOPIC:

Your Detail Form

(Login to Your PBV Application)

This is important, friends, and it requires a few paragraphs to explain. Thanks for reading carefully and completing your form by June 10th or so.

Who Completes the Detail Form?

Everyone who uses the services of Pork Belly Ventures completes the form. (You will not have your RAGBRAI Registration number now, but you will complete this part when you do have it.)

Your Detail Form:

Here's the Info We Need

from Each of You.

The Detail Form asks for information about many things, including your official RAGBRAI Registration Number. We are aware that you don't have this number yet, but all riders are responsible for logging into their PBV accounts and updating their Detail Form with this number before July 18, 2024.

Here are the responses you need to provide on your Detail Form.

RAGBRAI Registration Number--by July 18, 2024, this portion of the Detail Form must be completed by every person who is using any service of Pork Belly Ventures. For now, you can enter the word, "Later."

Extra Night in Rental Tent--If you already HAVE the rental-tent service of Pork Belly Ventures, and if you plan to arrive at our Glenwood campsite via our E/W Shuttle or by private transportation on FRIDAY, July 19, you may reserve this extra night in your rental tent. (The tent service is seven nights--Saturday, July 20, to Friday, July 26.)

If you're on our tent waiting list, please wait until we can put the tent service on your application, and only then, you can select the extra night.

Our shuttles from Omaha and Des Moines operate only on Saturday. The extra night in your rental tent is not available to those on these shuttles.

We provide rental tents on Friday, July 19, only in Glenwood. Not in Burlington.

Dietary Restrictions--For those using our support, we do not want this part of the form to be misleading. There are limits to the variety we can provide for our included evening meals. We cannot promise a strictly vegan option. We cannot handle every food allergy or dietary restriction. We can provide a meatless alternative to the entree and a GF alternative to the entree. Sometimes we can do better, and we'll try. We will offer these alternatives for each of our three included evening meals, and we will make every attempt to offer these alternatives for the optional evening meals as well. We will publish the menus as soon as we can, probably in the later part of June.

NOTE: If you have a dietary restriction, we understand that you may have questions about food options. We will address this topic--regarding our evening meals and our in-camp vendors--in our June Letter (your travel guide for PBV) published in June, and/or in our update called Our Week in the Corn. Please bear in mind that you may need to hit the supermarket during RAGBRAI or bring a little stash of nourishing, non-perishable foods/bars you like and can eat.

Bike Info--On the detail form, we ask whether you'll have a bike for us to transport on our shuttle, whether you're shipping the bike (BikeFlights), or whether your bike will arrive some other way.

Bike Type--we ask you to select from a menu of bike types and let us know whether the bike will be boxed or unboxed when we transport it on the shuttle.

Omaha Folks--please give us complete information so that we can get you assigned to the coach/departure you prefer. Every year, lots of Omaha Detail Forms are incomplete, but we hope this year will be different. We need to know your airline, flight number, arrival time, PLUS your preferred departure time for Glenwood. For instance, you may arrive on Friday night, but hope to sleep in and board your coach at 10:30 AM on Saturday. Please be sure you complete your Details Form by mid-June, when we need to create and publish our rosters.

**Our web admin still needs to correct the Omaha hotel dates on the Detail Form. Go ahead and tick those boxes if you're staying at one of our hotels. Please know that those 2024 dates are Friday, July 19, and Saturday, July 27.

In summary: Our web administrator has created software that we can use at the site for counting bike types, assigning riders to coaches on our various shuttles, and producing reports on things like dietary restrictions. Your detail form, completed on time, helps us serve you in MANY WAYS! We couldn't manage without it.

Your Detail Form:

Finding It and Completing It

You will not find a tab at our website that says "Detail Form." You will login and find the tab within your own PBV registration.

In a word, Login.

You'll scroll down and see the view above. Please look for the green tab across from your name, labelled Detail Form.

Another way in… At the top of your PBV email confirmation, find a link: “Click to Continue the Application.” Use this link to bypass the login process. Your unique link will take you to your unique application, where you'll see this view and can click on the Detail Form.

Who Does and Does Not Choose Preferred Departure Times?

Not everyone needs to choose a departure:

• Those using our E/W Shuttle from Burlington to Glenwood have chosen a departure already on their PBV application form.
• To those using our Omaha airport shuttle to Glenwood, we need your arrival info (airline, flight number, and when you arrive, or for those who drive, your ETA). In addition, please choose a preferred departure time between 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM. Omaha passengers, you can complete this form anytime between now and mid-June. (We caution riders about arriving in Omaha after 3:00 PM. You could miss our last departure.).
• Those using our Des Moines airport shuttle to Glenwood don't need to choose a time (but you need to answer other questions on your Details Form). All coaches depart at 9:00 AM.
• Those using our post-RAGBRAI shuttles do not need to choose a departure time. On the last day of RAGBRAI, all coaches depart as they fill between 12:30 and 2:30 PM on Saturday, July 27th. We will have a separate update that explains and describes the last day of RAGBRAI.

How Soon Should You

Complete Your Detail Form?

It's a good idea to do it soon, but if you want to wait until you get an official number from RAGBRAI and then do it all at once, you can. By mid-June, we'll hope to provide our caterers with numbers on dietary restrictions, and we will begin creating shuttle rosters. So everyone should shoot for completion by June 10th or so. Thanks!

Group Applications and the Detail Forms

for Each Rider

If you're on an application with other people, then you'll need to have your group leader share the login credentials with you, or you can provide the group leader with your responses to each question on the form. It might be worthwhile to have a phone call with your group leader for the purpose of completing your detail form. Thanks!

How We Can and Cannot Help

We can send login credentials to your group leader.

If you're having trouble, we can help you find the tab for the Detail Form.

Of course, we can answer questions about your shuttle or other aspects of our services.

We CANNOT fill out the forms for you. There are too many of you. We ask you NOT to email us with information for your Detail Form. It is something you will have to do, as individuals or as groups.

Full Payment and

Cancellation Deadlines

May 15th is our deadline for full payment of balances due. We need to know who's in and who's out.

You can write to us for your login credentials if you intend to make payment online with your credit card.

You can mail a check and SAVE a little on credit-card processing fees. Send your check to PBV LLC, 412 Forest Glen Drive, Council Bluffs, Iowa 51503.

If you need a little more time, one more paycheck, whatever, please let us know. We need to know that you're planning on us, but we CAN be flexible on the deadline if it helps you. Write to us: tammy@pkbelly.com and pete@pkbelly.com.

We remind you of our Cancellation Policy and Refund Deadline, so that there's no misunderstanding. June 15th is the last day to cancel and get a 90% refund. After June 15th, we don't make refunds with this exception. If you took our cancellation protection when you initially registered, then you have extended your 90% refund to Wednesday, July 17th at 10:00 PM. If you have our protection and cancel by email by 10:00 PM on July 17th, we will make a 90% refund. After July 17th at 10:00 PM, we make no refunds.

GROUP NAMES

for the Rental Tent Grid

and for Shuttles

We'll keep reminding you until sometime in June, when we need to go forward with the rental tent grid and the shuttle rosters.

If you wish to be assigned to the same coach with other folks in your group, OR if you would like your rental tent to be set up next to someone else's rental tent, YOU MUST HAVE A COMMON GROUP NAME ON ALL APPLICATIONS. If someone types "Team Cycologist," and others type "Cycologists," then we will sort alphabetically and NOT know who is supposed to be together. If one group member types "OFWCC," and another types "Old Folks with Credit Cards," we will sort alphabetically and NOT know who is supposed to be together. Type identical common group names on all applications of your group members, please. Even if two people are on the same application (even if you have the same surname), the common group name helps us a great deal. Thank you! You're helping us serve you better!

(And thanks for the entertaining group names!)

PBV Availability

Our Weeklong Support and Partial-Week Support are available, and we're getting new folks every day.

Our Rental Tent Service is sold out. You can get on the waiting list.

Our pre-RAGBRAI shuttles from Omaha and Des Moines are available.

Our E/W Shuttle from Burlington to Glenwood is available. If you sign up, see the link above on Parking in Burlington.

Our post-RAGBRAI shuttles back to our Omaha airport hotels, back to our Des Moines airport hotel, or to the Quad Cities International Airport are all available.

Massage Appointments

Julie has been taking appointments for 11 therapists since April 18th, and prime times are filling fast on some days. Generally, she has this availability:

• Sunday-plenty openings
• Monday- plenty openings
• Tuesday- Full up from 4-8:30 pm
• Wednesday- plenty openings
• Thursday - Full up from 4:30-8:30 w/ a few random 15 min. openings during that time.
• Friday- Filling up from 6:30-8:30 with five random 30 min. openings left in that time. 
• Outside of the "full" times we have plenty of openings. 

If you want to make appointments, please don't delay. Use this link to access our Massage Appointment Request Form.

The Process for Cancelling Services:

Write an Email.

To cancel services, simply write to us at tammy@pkbelly.com and/or pete@pkbelly.com. If you're due a refund, you can include your mailing address in the text of the email. An email establishes the date of your cancellation. It makes it possible for us to look you up by name, or if the name is very common, we can look you up by email address. And it allows us to copy members of our team on the reply and keep everyone in the loop. We are traveling to bike events this time of year, and we don't promise that we will receive voice messages. Email is the way to cancel some or all services on your registration.

Do not go into your registration form and remove all services, please. This complicates the process on our end, causing us to search for confirmation emails and reconstruct your registration to determine whether a refund is due and the amount.

Simply write us an email, and we'll take it from there.

THREE FUTURE UPDATES

to Look Forward To...

Earlier than usual in June, you can expect your June Letter, which answers 97.8% of all questions about traveling with Pork Belly Ventures during RAGBRAI!

Sometime in June, we will publish Our Week In the Corn, which gives you the day-by-day fun stuff of Pork Belly Ventures. We'll tell you about our lovely campsites, our daily local food vendors, our evening menus and caterers, and who's performing each day on Pork Stage. Lots more, too!

Then in July, we'll publish PDFs of your PBV Host-Town Maps, showing our locations in each town and pinpointing other amenities and festivities! The rider routes to and from our campsites will be included on these maps.

And Finally, Facebook

We are grateful to Becca and Grace for their work on a new feature of our FB Page. BIKE SHORTS (Becca's idea, and Gracie's productions) are short videos on all kinds of topics... our services, our partner organizations, and more. We have a schedule of topics, and we're rolling out a couple videos each week. Here's our most recent... on Midweek Shuttles and Partial-Week Support!

You can do this, folks. Login. Locate the green tab that says Detail Form. Complete and submit!

♥? ♥? ♥? ♥? ♥? ♥? ♥? ♥? ♥? ♥?

We thank you again from the bottom of our hearts for your kindness to Minden. We'll be on your screens again soon, and until then, we remain,

Your friends,

Tammy and Pete  

Pork Belly Ventures LLC 

Tammy: 712.328.0161 h, 808-375-8921 c, tammy@pkbelly.com

Pete: 402-681-2613 c, pete@pkbelly.com

 www.pkbelly.com