Hello folks.........Guess what? My vacation has started! I need it like no other right now. Hoping to get a little R & R but I am headed out on my ROOKIE year of RAGBRAI. If you have never heard of it, please check out the link to their website. Yep......seriously.......RAGBRAI! I am not riding - thank God - but I am a support vehicle. My little red car -- we are calling her Claire the Red Headed Stepchild - will be hauling people and some things from town to town on the route this year.
We are a team of 10 (9 riders and myself) that are converging from Des Moines, Kansas City, Iowa City, and Seattle. We are the Nelson Team -- every one else on the team is related to each other through blood or marriage -- I am just the tag-a-long. Tomorrow morning I pick up two from the airport coming in from Seattle - Kelly and Corwin. We then drive to Sioux Rapids to pick up Miles who has been in Okoboji for the past week with his dad. We drive on over to Sioux Center and set up camp for the night. Yep - camp.....tent camping, port-a-potty (I hope), no shower, camping. I have vowed to wear no makeup for the whole week, but I think I may be too vain not to have something on my face. We will see.
How have I prepared? Well if this gives you any idea, I tried to set our tent up by myself last night in the back yard. It was 400 degrees outside, I started the process when I was in my work clothes (a skirt no less) and I got it, but was drenched with sweat and the neighbor was laughing at me. So.......Yeah........
Ready for the heat? I am not sure. I bought a battery operated fan for the tent. I have a cooling towel that is pretty amazing. But I have hit a couple bumps in the road. I thought I had a DC Inverter. It is this cool little tool that you plug in to your cigarette lighter and it generates amperage for electricity. I am going to use it to power the pump for my air mattress. Went to pack it tonight - thought I should test it and no go. So, not sure what I am going to do. A run to Menard's in the early morning might be the only trick. I do not have a hand pump or a battery air pump......so it looks like I am going to need that.
And then I learn today that we are going to experience the hottest week yet. Temps 100+ in Central Iowa. I am hoping that we are cooler up north. I know between the heat and the crowds, I am not sure what to expect. But away we go any way.
So my plan is to blog daily. I haven't decided if I am taking my laptop or my iPad. I think that I want to take both, but not sure I can justify dealing with them in the heat. There will be a daily blog about my RAGBRAI rookie experience but it may not get posted daily if I can't find wifi.
Check back and see if I melt like the Wicked Witch of the West. I'm MELTING!!!!!!!
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