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Oh, how we hate to make mistakes. But we did.
Here's the missing link that allows you to join our RWGPS group:
PBV RWGPS Missing Link
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Dear Friends,
Important stuff here, folks, and the biggest news is MAPS...
- PBV Overnight Town Maps, PDF below
- Note the QR codes on each map, which can provide you with our RWGPS route files.
- We also include instructions on our new RWGPS account, to help you find us.
- Have you found your town-to-town Rider Route Maps for each day?
- And finally, Maps to help you find our Early-Finish Shuttle Locations on Tuesday and Saturday (if you have signed up in advance for the Early-Finish Shuttles).
We hope you'll get familiar with these items and think about how you can use them during RAGBRAI! We'll talk more about this at the town hall on Thursday night, 7:00 PM Central.
And there's more!
- We're closing our Extras this Thursday morning. That's Early-Finish Shuttles and Optional Dinners. If you want them, sign up now.
- What's Left for Massage Appointments
- Settle Unpaid Balances
- "Closed" or Sold-Out Services
So grab your maps, create your RWGPS account, and scroll carefully through ALL of our topics below! Please be aware of what's happening at this late date!
BELOW: PBV Mapmaker Bob Rebach's bike in the Maryland corn.
He's headed soon for Iowa corn.
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The PBV Overnight Town Maps
Huge thanks to our marvelous Pork Cartographer, Bob Rebach! Our maps are ready for you WAY earlier than usual, and every day counts!
Of Note: for the first time in a long time, Bob is riding RAGBRAI again with PBV. We have thanked him for years, but this year, we get to shake his hand, give him a hug, and introduce him to you.
For now, let's appreciate his good work. Here are your 2025 maps of eight overnight towns, with the locations of Pork Belly Ventures campsites, rider routes to and from camp, shuttle routes, and other places of interest around each town!
We normally publish eight maps, but we have TWO maps of Guttenberg this year, one for 7/18 and 7/19, and another for the last day of RAGBRAI, 7/26.
Please note the QR Codes on these maps. They will take you directly to the RWGPS files, next topic.
The 2025 PBV Overnight
Town Maps!
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ABOVE: Bob Rebach, training in Maryland for RAGBRAI 2025!
Bob has been our Pork Cartographer for umpteen years,
and he's finally coming back to be a Porker again!
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RWGPS
Ride with GPS
PBV now has a RWGPS "Tour Operator" account to which you can subscribe for free. We offer our thanks to a long-time PBV rider, Dan Leinbach, pictured in his PBV jersey above, who has at least three extraordinary attributes:
- He's a tech whiz.
- He's an avid cyclist.
- He's an exemplary citizen, who will go out of his way to help his fellows.
And thanks to Dan's hard work, here are some initial instructions for you:
PBV's RWGPS Process
Just click on the link above for Dan's helpful document.
BELOW: Last night's Zoom with Bob and Dan,
our map- and file-makers, to whom we are all so grateful!
We reviewed everything prior to Thursday's Town Hall Meeting.
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By all means, get busy using the route files at RWGPS right away. But remember, we'll host a recorded Town Hall Meeting on Thursday night on Zoom (see next topic). For RWGPS Newbies or for those of you with questions, we'll be discussing the app, the files, and how to use them. Dan will lead that discussion. He's building a slide deck to help you navigate RWGPS. We can make that deck available to you after the Town Hall.
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PBV Town Hall
July 10, 7:00 PM Central
The main topic of the town hall is "FINDING PORK BELLY VENTURES," and we will review several ways/tools for finding Pork Camp each day (see topic below).
We will publish a Zoom link about 30 minutes before the town hall, and Zoom admits the first 100 joiners. We will begin at 7:00 and record the meeting so that we can post it on Vimeo and YouTube for anyone who couldn't attend on the night.
Dan Leinbach will lead the talk on using Ride with GPS, with a step-by-step process for getting and using the RWGPS app and then saving our files for each day's route.
If you load the PBV RWGPS files, you don’t necessarily need the official RAGBRAI files. We began with the RAGBRAI files, but extended them from Pork Camp to Pork Camp.
We cannot over-emphasize how important it will be to download and/or pin these routes prior to RAGBRAI. They take quite a while to download, and given the limited and sometimes non-existent internet service in the overnight towns, it's essential that you take care of this as soon as you can.
We expect this topic to take up most of an hour, but if we have extra time, we'll address other more general questions too.
Our Warmest Thanks
We tender our heartfelt gratitude in advance to Becca Laughlin, our team member who will run, record, and post the Town Hall Meeting, to Bob Rebach who has put in a great deal of time since April, making and tweaking our maps to gain the approval of each overnight town, to Dan Leinbach who has invested many hours in creating and tweaking our RWGPS files and making them accessible to our riders, and to Katy Fletcher, our Pork Belly Mobile App Developer. Find all updates and maps on our App! All of these partners are part of the PBV Way-Finding Solution for this year.
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A Town Hall Preview:
Ways of Finding Pork Camp
Ride with GPS: We think the safest way to find camp is to use Ride with GPS, so that your phone can talk you through your turns at the end of each day (your Garmin would beep to indicate a turn), while you keep your eyes on the road.
Finding and Following Someone with RWGPS: We hope there will be a lot of good citizens out there this year, tech savvy folks who will lead others to camp.
QR Codes in Camp: We're going to have the QR Codes available for you in camp, but remember. It takes time and bandwidth to download or pin these file. Best to do it before RAGBRAI.
Our Maps: At your last stop of the day, pull up a photo of our map (or carry a copy). Remember your first turn upon entering the overnight town. You may have to pull over a couple times for safety, but your map will guide you to camp.
Cue Sheets: We're going to have turn-by-turn cue sheets at our front desk--just for the turns you'll be making in the final overnight town of the day. Stop at the front desk before 8:00 PM, and snap a photo of the cue sheets. Use these much like you would use our maps. Pull over, note your next turn, and so on. Please be safe.
Our Locations Card: Everyone who spends the week with PBV receives the durable locations card, with a zip-tie. You may wish to zip-tie your card to your handlebars or top tube. The locations card provides you with the name and address of every campsite, and a suggestion that you "Ask a Local: Where is the water tower?" The locations card is our old-fashioned, lowest-tech tool for finding Pork Camp, but you may find it useful in a pinch!
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Rider Route Maps
We imagine that most of you have found these already, but your daily rider route maps from RAGBRAI are HERE.
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Early-Finish Shuttle Locations
You can click on the images below to download a PDF for each of our Early-Finish Shuttle Location Maps. Of course, we'll have these maps at the front desk, so that you can snap a photo the day before you plan to use the shuttle.
On Tuesday and on Saturday, if you have signed up in advance, you'll ride about half of your miles, then come to our shuttle location in Bancroft or in Edgewood respectively. Our crew will be loading bikes, and the motor coaches will stage about 30 minutes before departure.
On Tuesday there is a convenience store on site. On Saturday, you'll cycle through food vendors on the way to our location.
Tuesday's departure time is 1:00 PM.
Saturday's departure time is 10:45 PM.
Please ask any questions at our front desk during RAGBRAI.
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ABOVE: the Tuesday EFS Location.
Click the image to download and print a PDF of this map.
BELOW: the Saturday EFS Location.
Click the image to download and print a PDF of this map.
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We're Closing Optional Dinners
& Early-Finish Shuttles
The Tuesday Early-Finish Shuttle is/was sold out--we've had some cancellations, and Kay will notify you if a spot has opened up.
Thursday morning, 7/10, we will close the Saturday early-finish shuttles and our optional dinners.
After that, you can come to us at our front desk during RAGBRAI to inquire about any remaining seats on Saturday, or any remaining dinners. We'll be conferring with our caterers Friday, and they may or may not elect to take more dinner reservations.
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Last Chance:
Optional Dinners
Once again, last time, our Optional Dinner Menus have been selling very well. Menus for Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday have been published, link below. (Dinners on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday are included for those using our support.). If you want an optional dinner or two or three, login and select before Thursday morning, please.
Our Optional Dinner Menus
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What's Left for Massage Appointments?
Some days are getting pretty full, and Julie offers this update on availability:
The massage therapy tents are open from 1-10 PM.
- Sunday, plenty of openings
- Monday, plenty of openings
- Tuesday, full from 3:30 to 9:30
- Wednesday, almost full from 3:00 to 8:30, 3 spots at 6pm for 30 min. and one at 7:30.
- Thursday, almost full from 3-8:30, random 30 min. spots (10) open.
- Friday, 2-5:30 is filling up, random 30-60 min. spots (7) open.
Wow, Friday's a great chance to grab a massage before your hilly final day!
Here's the Massage Request Form. Fill in all the blanks, please. Julie will reply.
PBV RAGBRAI
MASSAGE PRICING:
30 min. @ $50
45 min. @ $70
60 min. @ $90
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Balances Due
Hey, we don't have much time for bill-collecting this time of year. If there's a balance on your application, it's due. Please do us the courtesy of logging and settling up right away.
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Availability
Des Moines to Orange City
Our Des Moines shuttle prior to RAGBRAI is sold out, and we have a waiting list. We've had some cancellations. Write to dave@pkbelly.com.
E/W Shuttle from End to Start
We've closed online registrations. You'll have to write to dave@pkbelly.com if you want this shuttle. Some departures are full.
Our Tent Service is sold out with a waiting list. Our Weeklong Support is sold out with a waiting list. We will notify you if/when your name comes up on these lists. To be added to the list, write to Kay@pkbelly.com.
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Omaha to Orange City, Available
We have space on this shuttle. Some departure times on Saturday, 7/19, are quite full, but we still have seats on nine departures!
To shuttle with us between 7:30 AM and 4:00 PM, please complete an application at pkbelly.com.
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Your June Letter
At this point in our season,
when we get questions by email,
we reply with this letter attached.
Please read the parts that apply to you.
An archive of the 2025 updates appears on our home page at pkbelly.com, and on the FREE Pork Belly Mobile App.
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During your week in the corn, you'll have a chance to thank Bob and Dave in person, and we hope you will. We all benefit from their knowledge and conscientious work!
Our Week in the Corn is coming right up, and we are rolling downhill toward RAGBRAI!
See ya pretty soon!
Tammy and Pete
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Pork Belly Ventures LLC
Tammy: 808-375-8921 c, tammy@pkbelly.com
Pete: 402-681-2613 c, pete@pkbelly.com
www.pkbelly.com
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