Pork Belly Update-E/W Shuttle Info

So you've signed up for the E/W from Dubuque to Onawa...now what?

The first thing that you need to check is that you have selected a departure time. If you have not selected a departure day/time, please go in and make that selection now. You can do this by logging into your pkbelly.com account, scrolling down, and clicking "Edit". We can't assign you to a bus if we don't know when you plan to depart.

If you have already selected a departure time, please don't make a change in your application. Rosters are already being created, so if you need to make a change please email dave@pkbelly.com and request the change. If we have room, he will make those changes, and let you know either way.

If you are planning on leaving a car in Dubuque, make sure that you purchase your Long-Term Parking, linked here (prices increase on July 10 & again on July 18).

If you are traveling with a group, make sure that your matching group names have been previously recorded. If not, adding them now will not ensure that you will be on the same bus - please, write to dave@pkbelly.com if you need to add/make a change to your group name.

Very soon, we will publish our rosters with your bus numbers.

Where to Find us in Dubuque before RAGBRAI

Our staging area in Dubuque before RAGBRAI, on Friday 7/17 and Saturday 7/18, will be at McAleece Park, 1800 Admiral Sheehy Drive, Dubuque. All other charters will depart from this park as well, so it will be a busy place. You will not be able to park a car at McAleece Park. When you arrive, please plan to drop off your bike and bags, and then either say your goodbyes to someone dropping you off, or take your car to Long-Term Parking and shuttle back to McAleece Park.

Long-Term Parking

Are you leaving a car in Dubuque for the week? If so, you will need to purchase a Long-Term Parking permit from Dubuque. Their website, linked here, has the option to purchase the parking and more details about schedules for parking and shuttles. Prices increase on July 10, and again on July 18, so if you know that you need this you should order now! Please print and bring your parking confirmation. Good news, folks - at the end of RAGBRAI, our staging location will be right across the road from the long-term parking location!

Spending Friday Night in Dubuque

If you are taking the Saturday E/W Shuttle to Onawa, but are arriving on Friday night, you have a few different options as far as overnight accommodations on 7/17.

• Camping - Complimentary camping is permitted at McAleece Park (our E/W Shuttle staging location). Although this is free, you must pre-register for it, at the same website as the Long-Term Parking.
• Indoor Sleeping - As we try to do with all of our overnight locations, we have arranged for indoor sleeping on Friday night, 7/17. Holy Trinity Catholic Church is hosting a limited number of our riders in their air-conditioned basement. They are a short drive from McAleece Park and the Long-Term Parking. You can park in their parking lot on 7/17, then drop your items off at McAleece Park in the morning (you can bring your bike on Friday, if you'd like), park at Long-Term Parking, and shuttle back to McAleece Park. These fine folks will be preparing their famous Turkey & Dressing Sandwiches for you to purchase, as well! If you are interested in this Indoor Sleeping option for $25, please email kay@pkbelly.com.
• Hotels - Dubuque is a fairly large town with lots of hotel options. While we can't recommend any, we are sure you can find one!

Extras at McAleece Park

The lovely folks in Dubuque are going to be ready for all of us! They have lined up camping, showers, vendors, shuttles, and a pre-purchase box lunch option that you will pick up at McAleece Park, so you don't get hangry on your bus ride across the state. Please make sure you have registered for all services needed at their website.

Camping & Showers

Camping is available at McAleece Park on Friday night, 7/17. There is no charge for this, but you must pre-register at https://dubuqueragbrai.ticketspice.com/traveldubuqueragbrai There will be a food stand open at the park as well as complimentary shuttles downtown. Lights on the ballfield will be on until 9:30 PM.

Showers are available at Sutton Pool on July 17 from 4 - 7 PM. You must purchase a ticket to shower (same website as parking, camping, box lunches). There will be a shuttle from McAleece park to Sutton Pool.

Dubuque Town Shuttles

Shuttle routes connecting Long-Term Parking, McAleece Park, showers at Sutton Pool, and Dubuque's food and entertainment district will run on Friday, July 17; and shuttles between Long-Term Parking and McAleece Park will begin at 5 AM on Saturday, July 18. Please note: No bikes allowed on the town shuttles.

• July 17: 10 AM to 10 PM, Dubuque districts shuttle for food, entertainment, shopping and more (Districts include Q Casino, Historic Millwork, Upper Main Street, Cable Car Square, Lower Main Street, and Port of Dubuque.
• July 17: 4 PM to 7 PM, Showers shuttle (McAleece Park to Sutton Pool)
• July 18: 5 AM to 10 AM - 3 shuttles will run from long-term parking, E 16th Street, to McAleece Park to bring riders from vehicles to the shuttle departure at McAleece Park (note: our last shuttle leaves McAleece Park at 9 AM).

Box Lunch on Friday/Saturday

On the same website as the Long-Term Parking and Camping registration, box lunches will be available for pre-purchase. These are prepared by Convivium Urban Farmstead, a nonprofit organization, education center and restaurant dedicated to using food as a tool to connect people— to healthier living, to their community and to the earth.

For $15 plus fees, this box lunch comes with a full-size wrap (Roast Beef, Chicken Caesar, or Roasted Balsamic Veggie & Feta), plain chips OR apple and cookie. The cut-off date to order these meals is July 3!

When to Load Your Bike

Pork Belly will be available to load your bikes on Friday, July 17th from 11 AM - 7 PM, and Saturday, July 18th from 6 AM - 8:30 AM (our last shuttle departs at 9 AM Saturday - so you should be there before 8:30!).

If you are on a Saturday shuttle, but are arriving in Dubuque on Friday, we encourage you to load your bike on Friday if possible. This will make things easier for everyone on Saturday morning.

Preparing/Protecting your bike for Truck Transport

This info is available at our website, and will be published again in our June Letter, but we want to be sure that everyone reads and understands it. We are careful with all bikes, yet must remind you that:

PORK BELLY VENTURES DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE TO BIKES THAT ARE NOT FULLY BOXED. 

When transporting bikes on trucks, we've had only a few mishaps in more than 20 years--truck contents shifted and gouged the top tube of a beautiful, completely unprotected bike. Somehow, another nice bike got scratched in transit. Since then, we have recommended that all Porkers fully box bikes for truck transport. Keep reading.

ALSO NOTE: CARBON OR COMPOSITE WHEELS CAN BE DAMAGED BY HANGING AN UNBOXED BIKE FOR TRANSPORT. If you have carbon wheels, it's your responsibility to see that it’s loaded properly by doing all of these things:

• Contact Dave Kennedy now at dave@pkbelly.com and let him know about your wheels.
• Prepare a large handlebar tag for your bike that says “DON’T HANG THIS BIKE.” Present the bike for loading with your tag on the bars.
• Remind us again when handing us the bike at the time of bike-loading so that we will load your bike without hanging it. 

If for some reason fully boxing isn't possible for you, then here are some suggestions. 

• At any hardware store, you can buy cheap pipe insulation to protect your frame's tubing. 
• Tape it on the main triangle---top tube, down tube, and seat tube, forks, and chainstays. 
• Cover your rear derailleur and other fragile components. 
• Remove the computer or other accessories from your handlebars and frame. 

Experience tells us that most of those on the East/West Shuttle will bring unboxed bikes to Dubuque for transport on our trucks. Consequently, our semi trailers are outfitted to transport bikes in various ways:

• to hang unboxed bikes in rows--they're hung by a wheel, with the opposite wheel secured to D-rings in the truck floor by bungee cord
• to wall off bikes with cardboard
• to tie off bikes to the walls of the trailer
• to carry boxed bikes and boxed tandems, unboxed tandems, trikes, recumbents, trailers, and whatever you plan to ride across Iowa!

Please take the above precautions to protect your frame and components. On your Detail Form, there's a place to note the type of bike we will be transporting for you, and whether it will be boxed or unboxed. Bottom line, we'll load your bike in whatever condition you like, but if it's not in a box, we assume no responsibility for damage.

Finally, if you take our advice and use pipe insulation or other packing material, plan to store it either in your hard shell bike case or in your duffel. We can't store it loose on our trucks. All bike boxes should be flattened for weeklong storage. 

Coming Soon: The June Letter

Very soon (yes, we know June's almost over!) we will be sending out the June Letter. This comprehensive document will cover almost every question you might have, and will be a good reference document for your Week in the Corn. Speaking of that...after the June Letter will come our "Week in the Corn" update - a guide to the meals, vendors, and entertainment you can look forward to in Pork Camp!

It's getting late in the season to be changing things around - if you need to make changes in your registration, please email us at: info@pkbelly.com.

Before you go - a few reminders!

Reserve your Optional Suppers

If you're joining us for weeklong services, please take a look at our previous update about Optional Meals and order what you would like by July 5th. The complete menu is not visible on the PBV Registration, we've abbreviated them:

• Monday Optl Supper, Roasted Pork Loin & Sides
• Tuesday Optl Supper, Smoked Pulled Pork & Sides
• Thursday Optl Supper, Spaghetti Dinner

The Vegetarian/Gluten Free options are not spelled out when you go to the registration page. Please refer to the menus listed above for those, and select the appropriate day. You MUST have completed your Detail Form with the appropriate Dietary Restriction to receive the alternative.

To select and pay for any of these optional suppers,

please LOGIN to your account at pkbelly.com,

click EDIT, scroll down to "Additional Services",

make your selections, and then make payment.

If you need help with your login credentials,

write to us: info@pkbelly.com.

The Detail Form

The Detail Form collects some simple but important info that we need in order to better serve you! This is important, friends, and we appreciate you reading these instructions carefully and completing your form ASAP so we can make sure that shuttle assignments and meal options are properly accounted for. We asked to have these completed by June 15th - as shuttle assignments and catering information is being compiled it's a critical source of information. EVERYONE who uses any services of Pork Belly Ventures - even if it's only a shuttle - should complete at least some of the form. Depending on what services you are using, some questions may not apply, and that's fine. You can read more about the Detail Form, including complete instructions, here.

Account Balances

Just a friendly reminder that your account balances were due in full by May 15th. You may pay your balance via credit card by logging into your pkbelly.com account. If you'd like to save the credit card processing fees, you can mail us a check, but since they are past due please let us know if you'll be doing this. As of today, we will begin removing accounts with no payments beyond the deposit, so if you have an outstanding balance please help us out and write to us with your intentions at info@pkbelly.com. Thanks!

Cancellation Deadlines & Process

We remind you of our Cancellation Policy and Refund Deadline, so that there's no misunderstanding. June 15th was the last day to cancel and get a 90% refund, for any reason, if you did not choose the cancellation protection. From here on out, we don't make any refunds, unless you took our cancellation protection when you initially registered. If so - then you have extended your 90% refund to Wednesday, July 15th at 10:00 PM CST. If you have our protection and cancel by email by 10:00 PM on July 15th, we will make a 90% refund by check (mailed to you after RAGBRAI). After July 15th at 10:00 PM, we're sorry, we cannot make any refunds in any instances.

If you need to cancel services: Please send us an email!

Simply write to us at info@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 scouting and traveling to other events between now and RAGBRAI, 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.

We'll be in touch when we have more news to share, friends!

Cheers, from all of us here at Pork Belly Ventures!