Yesterday morning I went to breakfast with my cousin who was in Iowa from Oregon. I was glad to meet up with him for the brief time we overlapped in the state!
We had a good time with him, my parents, and Elaina. Stacey stayed home to work on grading and making some quizzes for her students next week. I stopped at the bank and got more cash than anyone should at one time! On RAGBRAI small bills work best because places can't always make change so I got lots of small bills. I got in the car and told dad to lock the doors so we wouldn't be robbed! If you've been to Preston, IA you know that's fairly unlikely. After we both got our bags ready and did some more things for work we decided we decided we should probably set up Stacey's tent since she hadn't put it up in 2 years. You know...make sure no poles are broken, there isn't a hole in the tent etc. Plus it never hurts to remind yourself how the tent is set up! This is when we encountered our first "crisis"!!! As we were setting up the tent Dorice was laying it out as I was putting the poles together. As I was working on the poles I discovered a broken pole and thought well crap maybe I can fix it or I might just have to buy a new tent today. So I fixed the pole with my camping repair kit only to discover that this pole didn't even go to this tent and my tent is perfectly fine!
Another crisis was that when packing in Muncie, I put my camp towel in my bag. It dries quick and folds up small. It's awesome. Well for some reason I (thankfully) decided to take it out of the pouch to find that this wasn't my big town but instead a towel slightly smaller than a hand towel!! 😱😱 That would have been awkward with me trying to "dry" off in the open community showers. Nobody wants to see that!! Luckily this realization happened on Sunday so I quick ordered a new towel on Amazon and shipped it to my parents. Thanks Amazon prime for 2 day shipping!! But wait...it still hadn't come by 2:30 Friday....I need a towel Amazon!! Luckily it came right before we left to take our bikes to the semi so I didn't have to search for one in the Quad Cities and I didn't have to scar anyone in the showers!
We loaded up our bikes to take them to the semi for transportation out to Orange City. When Stacey's bike was on the car she said...I don't think my back wheel is on right. Sure enough...it wasn't sitting fully in the frame. So...we luckily got that fixed before we started out!! Yet another crisis averted!
We got our bikes loaded and saw some of our fellow RAGBRAIers! We saw some people we definitely don't want to put our tents by because we remembered their snoring habits from previous years! We then headed to Clinton for dinner with my great aunt and uncle Carol & Lou. While at dinner everyone's phones in the restaurant start going off for a weather alert and tornado watch. A bad storm was rolling through...little did we know it was only going to get worse. It POURED and the wind was nasty...but we were inside eating an nice dinner, so it didn't phase us much. Unfortunately Gabby who was at home did not have the same experience. She HATES thunder. I got home from dinner to her still in her crate but she had chewed a hole in it and was trying to escape. Poor thing. I think Bria (my parents) dog thought she was nuts! Here are a few pics that some friends took of the storm. Thanks Marcia Naeve and Karin Harmsen!
When we got home most of the rain had stopped but there was still lots of lightning. Stacey went to finish up her quizzes. I hopped in the shower because let's be honest it was the last good shower we were going to have over the next week. About 20 min after I get out of the shower...there is a LOUD bang...flash...boom....darkness. Yep! We lost power and blew a transformer. It's pouring the dogs are scared and we have no electricity. Now keep in mind we have a few things to pack yet and we were planning to load the car. Also...stacey hasn't showered yet. No shower for her because we have an electrical well pump for water.
Just before the power went I got a call from our friend Sarah who is staying at my house in Terredise while she is at teacher camp. She asks me if the door behind my couch randomly opens up I thought she meant the closet door not the front door to the porch area. So another one of our friends Ashley was there and had gone into the kitchen to grab knives in case someone was in the house. Sarah told me they were going into the attic to check I asked her again what door she was talking about and then squashed all fears when I told her that door will always randomly open up! So crisis averted! We got everything ready by flashlight and got the car loaded with the help of lots of lightning to light up the sky and our trusty flashlights. The power company got the electricity back on at 2 am....thankfully they weren't hurt doing it in the pouring rain and major lightning. A lot of respect for them and the job they do! It stormed all night long. Over 3 inches of rain between 10 pm and 5 am. It was still raining, lightning, etc as we left to get the bus. Gabby rode with us so she didn't have to stay home in the crate during the storm. I think she was much happier that way!
We got to the QC to load the buses and thankfully we could wait under the covered parking because guess what? It was pouring....still! Once it let up a bit people made mad dashes to the bus!! We got our stuff on and got a seat. Little did we know we should have stayed off the bus because we didn't leave for another hour. Buses were supposed to leave at 7:00 but with the storms and everything we didn't pull out until 7:30. We're already tired of being on the bus and we've only been moving for an hour!
We've met some new friends already today and we saw some regulars as well. We packed snacks for the bus so we aren't starving! Yay! Most of our new friends are newbies so we've been trying to fill them in. We met three guys from Philly. Ray, Vince, and Carlos have not only RAGBRAI questions but farming questions as well. They are in for a great week!
We just stopped for lunch and are now back on the bus headed to Orange City!! Just remember as you read the blog that we don't always proof read it and we're typing on a phone!! We also take turns writing, so you get both perspectives.
We may write again tonight after we get settled. Otherwise, see you tomorrow!!
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