[If you're not renting a tent from Pork Belly Ventures, you can delete this email now.]

Dear Tent-Renting Porkers and those on the Tent Waiting List,

We hope the "Good News, Bad News" format which follows will help you take this message in the spirit we intend it.

No News Is Bad News:  Lately, we have made a third and final attempt to contact all of those who have not sent payment to us for tent rental.  If you haven't returned our calls or sent payment, we will be reassigning your tent to someone on the waiting list.  To those of you on the waiting list, we have had very few cancellations so far.  But as we said in previous emails, we don't typically see many cancellations in March and April.  Given a typical attrition rate in May, June, and July, we might be able to assign tents to half the list or so.  We'll just have to wait and see what happens.  Thanks for your patience.

Old News:  Please bear in mind this passage, taken directly from our invitation letter:  "We'll aim for set-up by noon, but obstacles beyond our control, like the host town traffic and inclement weather, can sometimes put us a bit behind.  If you pride yourself on arriving very early in camp, we don't recommend using the tent service--you'll be happier if you just set up your own tent on your own schedule." This raises a question concerning those fifteen or so tent-renters who indicated on their application forms that they plan to arrive in camp each day "before noon."

Good News:  We have created a tentative tent grid, and we have accommodated all 18 groups of tent-renters who requested they be placed next-door to their friends.  Some groups have two, three, five tents.  One group has eighteen tents.  We made neighbor requests a priority, even when one neighbor selected "before noon" as the typical arrival time, while the other neighbor/s selected "after noon" or even later.  Some of you haven't given us an arrival time at all, so we placed you near your requested neighbors or, in the case of lone renters, wherever you fit in.

Even Better News:  We'd like you to know that we are planning for an even larger, tougher crew, even more bag-moving equipment, and even greater efficiency in our whole tent operation this year.  Yes, we were fortunate that for our tent-service debut in 2007, we had such a strong and tenacious crew and near-perfect weather. Even on days when host town traffic held them up for an hour or more, they completed their task in the shortest time humanly possible.  This year, we're all about working smarter, finding more ways to help our crew, and serving you better.  We have made some changes to the arrangements of tents, placing the tents with two occupants and double bags nearer the baggage truck.  In addition to our hefty two-wheelers, we may purchase motorized four-wheeled wagons, built to haul loads of gravel and dirt, to help our crew move bags.

Baddest News: Even with our labor-saving plans, imagine the crew's fatigue as they set up 130 tents, stake them, stretch ground cloths under them, and distribute hundreds of heavy bags across an acre or two to their appropriate tents (after pulling those same tents down and loading those hundreds of bags onto the truck).  It's 11:45 a.m., and they are hungry, tired, and dirty, but they're on the home stretch, moving the last seven rows of bags off the truck and into the tents.  Uh-oh.  Now complicate this picture with early-bird Porkers laying bikes down among the tents, blocking the routes to and from the truck, and even unpacking bags and spreading out their belonging in the aisles before the bag-delivery work is done.  See what we mean?  Even if you selected "before noon," we have put you into Tent City in good faith that you have read our invitation and understand what we need from you.  While we have tried to arrange Tent City so that all early arrivers' tents get set up early, this has not always been possible, due to neighboring requests and other labor-saving considerations.

The Gospel according to Pork Belly:  So here's the gospel, the best news.  The sooner our crew can get their job done, the sooner everyone--the crew and our tent-renters--can get some lunch, a shower, and a breather in the shade.  So if you selected "before noon" as your typical arrival time in camp, please remind yourselves that your patience is not just appreciated.  It's required.  (For that matter, even if you arrive in camp a little after noon, make sure the tent crew is finished before blocking the aisles of Tent City.)  If you think you would be happier setting up your own tent on your own schedule, please let us know right away so we can process your refund and reassign your tent.  If you can be patient until the tents are up and bags are delivered, it's very Good News to us that you'll be living in Tent City.

Thanks, and we wish you lots of safe and happy training rides this spring.

Best,
Tammy and Pete  




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)