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Hi
Porkers,
With the flurry of activity over Boulevard and
our new bike jersey, we almost missed the
desmoinesregister.com article by Brian Duffy, "Hills Come
Alive with Sounds of RAGBRAI." You'll find it
front-and-center at www.ragbrai.org, and here is a quick summary of
what this year's route is like.
In terms of distance,
the 2008 route is nearly identical to 2007-477 and 471 miles,
respectively. But it's the upping and downing that will
make the significant difference this July. While last
year's route was among the flattest-ever RAGBRAIs, the new
route is the eleventh hilliest on record, and you can expect
sixty-five percent more upward pedaling than last year, or
22,500 feet of climb. As Duffy says in his article,
"It's a return to the hills, valleys, and ridges that define
this state." The up-side, he says, is the scenic beauty
of the route. Having grown up in the beautiful Loess
Hills of southwest Iowa where the ride begins, we couldn't
agree more. You can check out the interactive map of
pass-through towns at Interactive
towns.
One of Duffy's January articles
mentions that the host-town "exuberance" factor is especially
high this year, as two towns (North Liberty and Le Claire)
have never hosted RAGBRAI before, and for four others, it's
been awhile--an average of 17 years since Harlan, Jefferson,
Tama-Toledo, and Tipton had the pleasure. (I am certain
that we stayed in Tama-Toledo in 1995, because that was the
year I met the Porker who would become my
husband!)
On
Thursday, Pete witnessed this host-town exuberance
first-hand. T.J. Juskiewicz, the RAGBRAI ride director,
invited Pete to speak at the host-town orientation meeting in
Des Moines. Early in the day, Pete attended other
informative sessions, and that afternoon, his role was to
speak about what a RAGBRAI charter is, what services we
provide, and how charters' needs are a little different from
other groups'. He talked about allocation of camping
space and several other subjects. T.J. said that more
people attended this host-town orientation than ever before,
and Pete felt afterwards that if the attendants'
curiosity (lots of questions), attentiveness (lots of
note-taking), and excitement (plenty of laughter) is any
indication of what this year's ride will be like, these folks
will put on a heckuva a RAGBRAI. We are grateful that
T.J. offered Pete this face-to-face introduction, and come May
1st, we'll be even better prepared for our trips across the
state, looking for the parks, schoolyards, nature preserves,
and fairgrounds we'll call home-for-a-day in July.
On a
related subject, we've had a number of questions from you all
about the specific locations of our campsites, long-term
parking, and other amenities in the host towns. Just so
you know, during this period from February through May 1, all
charters and groups are told not to contact the host towns
with questions. This is their planning time, when they
set up sub-committees, sort out their budgets, create maps,
websites, and so on. So rest assured that as soon as we
know something definite, you will know it too. But it
will likely be around May 8th before we'll send an email
letting you know what our Iowa hosts have in store for
us. Last year, we did the usual thirty-two-hour scout,
split between two days on the road, and in the end, we felt
really lucky about every campsite. Let's hope for that
good fortune again this May.
A note on
availability: Weeklong support is still available,
probably for a few weeks yet. The tent waiting list is
getting long. We still have space on all bus
services.
That's it for now, Porkers, and we hope you
are as exuberant about RAGBRAI XXXVI as your Iowa hosts
are. Including us. We hope that wherever you are,
spring has sprung and you've started practicing for the best
week of the year. Until next time, we remain,
Your
friends,
Tammy
(Phillips) Pavich
Pete Phillips
808/946-5315
or tammypav@aol.com
712/328-6836 or petephillips@cox.net
(Honolulu-four
hours earlier than Iowa)
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