Well we left Des Moines Saturday about noon and arrived in Sioux City for the Start of RAGBRAI the following morning. We have host in each city we spend the night in and these host can provide anything from a yard to pitch a tent in to a bed and showers and even food at times. Our first host were Greg and Teri Grupp of Sioux City where we parked the RV on the street and they were most gracious and generous host to say the least. They provide bedrooms for the team and showers and a wonderful meal at the end of the day's festivities in what was a wild scene in down town Sioux City. Literally thousand of bikers at a 4 block long expo with all sorts of vendors and food and beer..........plenty of beer! Live music by Smash Mouth (?) who I guess is a hot band right now and besides 10,000 bikers and at least that many more locals it was quite the crowd. The weather was in rare form, very, very nice for a change and has been since Saturday morning.
We went back to Greg and Teri's place for dinner which Greg stayed behind and prepared, giant burgers on the grille, with fresh picked (that day) Iowa sweet corn.............to die for...........baked beans and Greg's special zucchini dish that was also a treat. We were treated to some rare wines and cold beers and some live music at a neighbors just a few blocks away.
The team woke up at 5:30 and Greg had breakfast ready, sausage, and pan fried eggs topped with a cream cheesed bagel then flipped when the egg was done................I will be trying this at home you can bet on it. The team was a bit off schedule and didn't pull out until just after 7:00 am, Bev and I chatted a bit with Greg, got some directions out of town and to our next stop which was Storm Lake Iowa (Buddy, Popper and Richie fame) and left about 9:30 for Storm Lake via a alternate route than the bikers take. We arrive at Storm Lake about Noon and setup at our second host Melinad Coogan, we have on street parking for the RV and tent space for the Team and showers available in her house. This spot is right in the middle of the action, right on the main street the bikes come in and the section the town shuts down for venders and entertainment. We are smack dap in the middle of everything and it's awesome. Bev and I set-up and spent most of the afternoon watching as the bikers came in to the main street. Groups of two, six, ten etc. virtually all day long until our team arrived at about 3:00 pm. The team all showered and we went the two blocks to the main food area and sampled brats, ribeye sandwiches, pork chops on a stick, and ice cream. I had a cooler of beer on ice and awaiting the team by the way and upon arriving back we drank a few beers and they relaxed before those showers. Out host Melinda plays violin in a volunteer orchestra and they had a concert in the church next door to her house at 7:00 pm so we all attended and it was actually very relaxing and most enjoyable. Now it's 9:00 pm and the Team will be getting up at 5:30 once more and I'll have coffee going and breakfast if they so desire, as of yet it's just coffee and maybe some fruit but I can do pancakes or eggs whatever so we'll see.
Day two is the century day, 100 miles for the team to Algona and it's out "sloppy joe" day so Bev and I will have sloppy joes and all the trimmings ready when they return, which I understand will be much later than the 3 o'clock time today........................Day two next blog!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment