UPPER IOWA UNIVERSITY – CHRIS SANDERS

LAST DAY…leaving out in the morning I had to be one of the last people to take down their tent (AGAIN)  …just couldn’t let go of the fact we were almost done…(or maybe it was that I was so tired from the day before and didn’t WANT to get on my bike again…IT IS GOING TO BE A HILLY RIDE TODAY!!!

Have to be in Dubuque by 11:00 am…and its almost 50 miles from here…hmmm…calculate about 10 miles per hour…taking in the fact that we have LOTS of HILLS today which will slow me down…leaving at 7:00 am to get there…ummm…yeah – not going to be there by 11:00…but will do my best…

Good day for a ride…not “exactly” how I would like to spend a Saturday (golf course anyone?)….but it has been a GREAT week nonetheless…I mean how often can you say that you have the chance to ride a bicycle across Iowa or any state for that matter, and have the support of your employer to do it…I really hope the students out there understand how great it does feel to help them in this way…and I have to take some time now and thank all those that contributed to my ride:

BIG THANKS to my family – mom and dad…appreciate the support not only here on RAGBRAI but also in life and my journey to be where I am and putting up with my crazy adventures (one’s you know about and one’s you don’t….HAHAHA)

Have to thank Cardinal Health  (my mom’s employer) for matching contributions toward my ride…their matching program has been great for helping to raise additional funding for UIU student scholarships last year and this year…

Thanks to the UIU International programs staff for chipping in (even though I had to bribe you with a dress down day on the office – but “what ever works”    ahhahaha…)  appreciate all your support and willingness to pick up this week the extra e-mails and calls, I know you’ll have plenty for me to do when I return…

Another big thanks to Dr. Richard Patrick and to Mrs. Debbie Walker for their support this year…and if I am leaving anyone else out – I apologize…I still haven’t received the final donation/contribution list of individuals and such that have supported me…but know I am VERY appreciative and I know the students receiving the financial support for helping them achieve their dreams of being college graduates are also very appreciative…(I know scholarships helped me achieve my goals of being the first college grad in my family – and I know there are MANY students out there just like I was who are in need of all the help they can get…”financially”  – some may say I STILL need help…hahaha)

Back to the ride…and the HILLS were FUN!!!  (sarcasm inserted here) – going down yes – fun…topped out at 47 mph on one of the hills…could have gone faster but almost 50 mph on a bike is pretty crazy dangerous…(sorry mom…no worries…no emergency room visits this time…    )   and it doesn’t take much to fling you from a bike at that speed anyway…I mean one clip or crack in the raod and SEE YA!!!  but I played it safe for me and for those around me too….

Soon and too soon for my taste – we arrived at the CRUX of the day…Potter’s Hill…I mean you have to think that these RAGBRAI people were just salivating at the mouth thinking about how we all would SUFFER just gazing at the sight of this 1 mile long MONSTROUSITY which come to find out tipped the scale at 19% incline – and for the majority of the ride up the hill it was 14%…HOLY MOLY!!!!  I would say that over 70% of the riders became WALKERS on this one…and YES – I have to admit I was one of the walkers…(Walker Texas Ranger?…)  NO!!! hahaha…but I made it up about 65% of the hill before I stupidly tried to change to a lower gear and totally lost all cadence and momentum…it was off the bike and walky walky the rest of the way      no pity for me though – I was definitely not the only one!!!

And after that it was ALL DOWN HILL….    NOT!!!!

Hill after hill…up a hill, down a hill, up a hill – down a hill, up a – you get the point…all the way into Dubuque…and those “Dubuquians” have a GREAT sense of humor….yelling out “Last hill up ahead”…just to find out there were 5 more hills after it….FUNNY!!! HAHA   BLAH!!!

Well 11:30 am and I finally made it to the group awaiting all the riders…wasn’t the last one…but definitely wasn’t the first one there either…and once we all were gathered we headed down to the Mississippi River for the ceremonial TIRE DIP!!!  we ride together into town and all the way there…every block…you hear  “UIU”!!!!  —-  “PEACOCKS”!!!!!  and with 30+ riders…it makes an impression!!! 

 

 

Once we dipped the tires…it was TIRED riders back to our meeting spot to load up our bikes and get back on the bus for home…not much else to say about the trip – I was alseep and SNORING (according to Jess Stephens our driver) the majority of the way home…I had nothing else in the tank…what’s the old song…”running on empty….”  – that was ME!!!

RAGBRAI 2010 thanks for the memories…I will do my best to post some of the weeks adventures pictures to my personal Facebook for those of you who are my “friends”    and will also give some of the photos to our Communications department to post on Flicker – so be sure to check them out and all the fun videos we made during the trip if you haven’t been there…simply click this link:  www.uiu.edu/teampeacock and check out all the cool and exciting things we caught during the week…

Hope you enjoyed the blog and the small glimpse into RAGBRAI 2010…I had fun – see you next year…(and yes I will be training….HAHAHA)

GO PEACOCKS!!! 

Sanders – OUT!!!

RAIN!!!  Oh yes and lots of it too…it was a virtual downpour!!  And leave it to me to BRING rain gear and then leave it behind…I mean – it wasn’t raining that hard when we left camp…but then when we got about a mile down the road – the sky opened up and the buckets starting pouring down…and that coupled with the fact that is was COLD (around 60 + degrees) and WET…not a good combination on a bike…

The lightning show was pretty remarkable…ummm yeah right!!  FRIGHTENING is more like it!!  A couple of the girls on our ride decided to “scream” everytime they saw lightning which yeah it is “kind of” scary….OKAY OKAY it was SCARY…but what could we do…we were on a road riding in wet soaked conditions…if lightning can hit a moving target then we were a bunch of targets…BUT fortunately for us no one was hurt…just SOAKED to the bone and COLD…

Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to stop and have breakfast – and before you make the assumption that it was FarmBoys again…HAHA…you would be….NOT RIGHT!!! we had French Toast!!! and it was mmmm  mmmm  GOOD!!! strawberries and whipped cream….with a HOT cup of coffee….and when we finished we had cold shivers and damp socks for dessert!    not to mention the sniffles…(actually one of our riders was diagnosed with bronchitis and was riding with us…goodness anyone calling for a case of pneumonia? “paging Doctor Coughsalot, paging Dr. Coughsalot – please come to Ward 8 2 much…”    ) – luckily her mom came and provided her with some dry clothes…and gave us a warm place to dry off in the RV parked up the road…that was a BLESSING…waiting for the sun to emerge from behind the clouds in a warm vehicle…hard to imagine we were SWEATING our “you know what’s” off just days before in the heat and here we are complaining about the cold, wet, miserableness that was Gilbertville…(nothing against Gilbertville – not their fault…just saying…)

Well – when we finally made it to Quasqueton – we were ready for some refreshments (since the temperature had now risen and the sun was back out scorching us) – I guess the old saying holds true almost everywhere I go….if you don’t like the weather -wait an hour – you’ll get something else…was half expecting it to snow tonight…HAHA…better watch what I say – we still have one more day of this…YIKES!!!

But after we finally arrived in Manchester – the “excitement” of the day composed of rain and interesting mishaps became new excitement for the NADAS concert (the NADAS are a local band here in Iowa that have quite the following…I have also found them to be a really cool band…they have been to the UIU campus every year and put on a really entertaining show…you can go to one of those music sites and download them…no commerical plug here – but you know where to go)  PLUS we get to go on stage and throw out UIU coozies to the crowd…OH YES!!!  I will be playing air guitar with the band while I am up there…it WILL happen…(and it DID happen) – how fun!!!  Great ending to a tiring, miserable, cold AND hot…CRAZY day…one more day to go!!!  Hope we can survive tomorrow’s HILLS…Eastern Iowa is not as FLAT as you might think it is…OH my!!!

Go Peacocks!!!

Well I have been a consistent winner this week with Team Peacock…I win the “last to take down their tent” award…people were actually scaring me how fast they were taking down their tents and moving their stuff to the bus…while I was enjoying my cup of coffee and just sitting down trying to “mentally” prepare myself for this – another 80 mile day of riding.

It was determined that we would find and utilize as many short cuts as possible today as we all were tired and the body was getting REALLY upset with me especially that I was even considering getting on the bike again today to ride.

Last night’s cook out (two hamburgers, chips, pickles, potato salad and some fruit) was luckily good enough to fuel me up for what I was about to do AGAIN!!!  Oh how my rear end did NOT like having to get back on the seat…and the short cut…hmmm…not that short and probably more HILLS than the regular route we would have taken…and it only cut off a couple miles…but today….a couple miles make ALL the difference.

Breakfast at Farm Boys again…YES!!  But I think tomorrow we need to try something new…might need to sample the French toast vendor…we saw this going into town and WOW!!!!  It looked AMAZING…so that will probably be our meal for the morning tomorrow…

Weather actually turned out to be VERY agreeable for us today – despite the miles needed to be completed in order to make it back to camp…you of course know that we HAD to stop at Smoothie guys again…even if the weather is not that hot…it is still an important stop on the route and YES the smoothies are THAT good!!

Met a few new people on the route today and let me just say that our mid town support from the Alumni office was SUPER…they had frozen Snickers, Mars, and Go-gurt (yogurt)…Holly and her team continue to make us feel special and give us the royal treatment…MUCH LOVE and thanks Holly and her team of support people.

Tonight’s diner might be the best topic of conversation – as the ride was less than exciting and we all were just physically tired and wanted to make it back…sometimes the big 20 mile stretches between towns make it difficult to stay happy and positive…but we did go to Red Lobster for dinner….HAHAHA what a time…we all were SUPER hungry yet we brought most of it back with us…drank too much water and the salad/garlic cheese biscuits are just WAY too good!!  Our server was pretty cool and put up with us being Super giddy and just tired…you know the feeling when you’re so tired EVERYTHING is funny – that was US tonight…

Tomorrow – Friday…making our way to Manchester…get to see the Nadas and hand out some UIU cozies for the crowd…should be a good time…hope we can make it through any weather conditions that may be coming our way…

GO PEACOCKS!!!

Clear lake to Charles City…”CHUCK RIDES AGAIN”…and that’s not just me making that up…this was the slogan for Charles City and MAN I was SOO hoping Chuck Norris would just show up and be here waiting for us…

We had a horrible storm last night…and I am SUCH a happy consumer right now…went and bought me a new tent just for the fact that last year we had a horrible storm and I got soaked during the night because I didn’t have a good tent…needless to say I have a GREAT Tent now…and I didn’t get single drop of rain on me and I could not have had a better TRAIL run for the waterproof ability of my tent…THANK YOU North Face!! So while some of Team Peacock are now moving along on only a few hours of sleep…I on the other hand slept like a ROCK…

I will have to apologize to my readers…we have had a great time figuring out this internet connectivity and so these posts may be coming in a day or so late…but I hope we can get this all figured out and on track for the last few days…I’ll also look to add some more photos to the last few days of the blog so you can catch up and see some of the sights and sounds of the ride…

Some quick highlights for today…we found a short cut out of town to the route…that cut out a mile or so from our trip…(we’ll take what we can get now…hahaha) – FARM BOYS for breakfast…YUM!!! Iowa State patrol day today…had to give them some props for helping us out and keeping the roads safe for us bike riders…small accident involving a rider and a dad and his kid…everyone was okay BUT it is never cool to see an accident on the trip…

GREAT port-o-potties in Swaledale…(hey gotta take what you can get and when you’re not having to go in a corn field it is a simple small pleasure…) and the Hand Sanitizer was an added bonus…another headwind into Rockford – but before Rockford we stopped at the Oasis…and many members of Team Peacock decided to venture on the mega steel acrobat swing…(oh yes this was a massive swing and I will post the video of the performances off the sing later for your enjoyment.) HAHAHA this was refreshing stop on a day we all needed to enjoy something fun…

Stopped in Rockford to eat some Ribeye sandwiches and dance to the Cha Cha song…Team Peacock REPRESENT!!! (boy we have some good dancers on the team!!!)

SMOOTHIE GUYS helped us get cooled off after Rockford with swirl Peach and Strawberry smoothies!!! Thanks so much for supporting Team Peacock Smoothie Guys!!!!

Finally pulling into Charles City…we were happy to have Heath and Angie Grimm hosting us…once again…thanks for reading and hope you gys are enjoying the blog…keep the comments coming and would love to hear any questions you have about the ride or anything you are curious about for Team Peacock, UIU, or our ride this year on RAGBRAI!!!

GO PEACOCKS!!

Here are a few photos:

 

 

 

OH MY GOODNESS…here we are waking up in the morning and excited about the SHORT day of a ride and what do we wake up to? 90 degree weather with a heat index of over 100 degrees and a head wind on most of the ride…and even then – the road conditions were not what I would call “ideal”…

This will be a VERY short blog as I am SOOOO tired…SOOO sweaty and I do NOT feel like typing…just being honest… this was a LONG day and it was only a 60 mile ride…

Feel like I have to “peel” myself off the bike seat…hoping to get a lukewarm shower and then some FOOD!!! So hungry…I heard they have Gyros at the fairgrounds…maybe I can get TWO of those…hungry hungry…over 4000 calories burned today…hope to replenish some of that and get ready for tomorrow.

Okay – another 80 mile day and yes my body feels like it has been beaten to a pulp….not a bad day actually – but it was LONG…very few opportunities for relaxing – but when we could we took advantage…

Saw some really cool people on some really interesting contraptions…bike may not exactly be the word for them…and then there were some very creative looking bikes…I posted one of them below for you to see…

The Storm Lake to Algona leg was a “feature day”…one that riders could choose to do the CENTURY LOOP…or in easy terms…ride for 100 miles in one day by taking an additional route that would essentially have you riding section of the ride TWICE…okay I did this last year…so I felt some sort of gratification that I can boast that I have DONE THE LOOP…but this year….HAHAHA  :)  NO WAY BUDDY!!!!  My legs looked at that loop and sped up so that I would not have time to second guess my decision to possibly consider it…they were like HEY HEY HEY…what are YOU thinking…??  No time for CRAZINESS now…just make it back to camp so we can RELAX buddy!  So that is what we did…and yes it was a GOOD decision… 

You’ll notice in one photo below – I am next to a road sign, many of these are on the route advertising the various vendors…one of the vendors is a pancake vendor (“Chris Cakes”) and this was a fitting one for me to pose with…

So far we have seen many different bikes…some pretty sweet, expensive, and FAST bikes…some bike not so good for use on a ride like this…and then some unique and almost unthinkable bikes…I mean unicycles, this I saw last year and so it didn’t take me by surprise…but this one was NUTS to see…I didn’t see any brakes and the seat…OOOH  -  OUCH!!!  Can’t imagine how he feels after a ride on that thing.

Also – met up with  a group of young ladies…(yeah yeah…I know – of course you did Sanders…hahaha…it wasn’t like that  )…we got to talking during breakfast about their jerseys…”Team Jess” was what they were called…and we found out that they were riding in honor of their friend who rode with them years ago and who was no longer with them…about 6 girls all coming together in memory of a friend…I was sad to hear – but at the same time really cool to see young people coming together and doing something like that – and it seemed it was something THEY did on their own…

Well the jerseys reminded ME of one of MY friends…Jessica “Jess” Stephens, who is riding with Team Peacock this year…she just finished a rather long and arduous battle with cancer…all the treatments are completed and is riding strong with us this year again (in honor of some of her “friends” who are still battling cancer and who gave her strength and encouragement)…Team Jess could have been riding for her as a testament to her strength and determination to beat her illness…one which I understand is not easy…from my own experience with cancer…thanks Team Jess for the reminder of how much we take for granted…and thanks for reminding me also of what Team Peacock is doing too…riding for people other than ourselves…

GO PEACOCKS!!!

(** apologies about the lack of photos…apparently McDonald’s internet service doesn’t want to upload my files…**)  – will upload later and let ya’ll know when they are available…another fun aspect of RAGBRAI…

Day 1…and after a super fun night and a really peaceful rest (as peaceful as you can have in a tent, trying to get even 15 minutes of extra sleep while the EARLY risers get up at 4 am and later get up and get ready to begin thier days) – I am NOT a 4 am rider…hey I am not even a 7 am rider…we HAVE to leave the camp at 8 am…and that is when I leave…HAHA…I like my sleep and believe me it is going to be a LONG day today…slated for 76 miles and we found out that we are about 8 miles from the route…so we will have an over 80 mile day for DAY ONE!!!  How’s that for BREAKING you in for a FULL week of bicycle riding…whoooo boy!!

Okay…first rule of RAGBRAI…you don’t talk about what you do on RAGBRAI…(but I get to bend this rule a little bit) rule two of RAGBRAI…you MUST stop at Farm Boys breakfast burritos!!!  OHmygoodness…that is GOOD STUFF…(okay that isn’t “exactly” rule two, but its definitley ONE of the rules.)  and BELIEVE me you NEED to eat on RAGBRAI…(burned over 4000 calories today!!!)

Okay – let me just say that over 3600 feet of climb, in addition to the 80+ miles of riding…one the first day – whoever came up with that was just SICK in the head.  I feel sorry for all the 1st time riders…well no I dont’ actually – because I rode last year for the 1st time (by the way – last year was the most elevation of climnb in RAGBRAI history) and I honestly was having flashbacks to last year’s ride – the hills last year were MONSTERS and this first ride was pretty close to a reincarnation of one of the legs last year…long, hilly, and the group I was with…well lets just say a few of us were on the grass in one of the towns…laying down in the fetal position trying to “find a happy place” (find a happy place find a happy place…hahaha)…luckily we mustered up enough strength to try to make the last 10 miles…which added another element to the ride…”cracks in the road”…AS IF MY BUTT NEEDED ANOTHER REASON TO HURT…OUCH!!!!!!   (*tear*)  wimper wimper…LOL…okay yes I sound like a sniffling whiney kid (you would too if you were here – but your not…so keep reading and smiling and thinking…SUCKER!!!)…but all of us were feeling it afterward – and it was only the first leg of the trip…

Come back to camp…self medicate…and find a chair to rest our tired legs and rear ends…

Hanging out at the camp site – which by the way was beautifully located next to Storm Lake…we had an awesome view and outside of the BUGS…we had a really great location and enjoyed a quiet night…no crazy storms and a nice cool night to relax and get ready to ride again tomorrow…79 miles tomorrow…two 80 mile days BACK to BACK…hehe did I mention HOW much FUN this is?

Enjoy some of the photos from today:

Golf course rest break

Panoramic view of Farmboys burritos…LOVE my new camera!

Sanders and Hayek – before…

Hayek – AFTER

Sanders – AFTER

Evening Sunset on Storm Lake

Oh my goodness…what a day…Team Peacock packing up and heading out to Sioux Falls…not only do we have the SUPER cool bus that holds our bikes and ALL our equipment, water, sports drinks, and all our other “stuff”…but we also have to travel with two mini vans and two turtle top buses.  37 riders and a great support crew to help us out…let me just say – they make our trip SO much easier and I know that MANY of the RAGBRAI riders would give their bikes to have the crew that we have…

I rode in one of the turtle top buses and for about 10 minutes of the trip the A/C worked…for the rest of the trip we had no A/C and had to roll down the windows to get the air to circulate in the van.  The “party” van quickly became the “sweaty” van.  Honestly – we were doing everything we could to try and get cool…and if you don’t believe me then you have to check out the photos of us putting ice bags on our heads to try and fight off the heat…I guess it was just another phase of our “conditioning” prior to beginning first stage of our RAGBRAI adventure.

The van rides are always interesting…we had an awesome driver…thank you Mary for getting us to Sioux City safely…and let me just say….Cindy and John Brewer were GREAT hosts for Team Peacock.  We had streamers in the trees in front of their house and COOL signs for us in the front yard and also in the back yard.  THANKS to Staci and her kids…Elizabeth, James and oh goodness – umm – okay if I get this wrong I am SO sorry but I shooting for Lauren…if not…Staci – please let me know and I will make a correction to this blog…but the signs were AWESOME!!!  And also the pool party was also TOTALLY cool…Staci was so kind to allow us VIP access to the pool and I totally showed James (Staci’s 10 year old son) how to dive off the diving board…(he may claim otherwise – but WE really know who is the winner…LOL)  That was MY highlight of the evening.

A few of us went to the “kick-off” concert in Sioux City…Smash Mouth….but I wish I could say something good about the concert…BUT I can’t…sorry Smash Mouth – you need to get some more songs and stop covering Van Halen at YOUR concerts…you’re not a cover band!!!

Tomorrow – Ride #1 begins…

So maybe I didn’t paint you the exact picture of how Team Peacock REALLY kicks-off the journey each year for RAGBRAI…so I decided that it would only be fair that I publish this post after the event so that you – the reader – can catch a glimpse of this simple yet energized event.

BIG thanks right away to UIU dining services for preparing such a great meal for us…need all the carbs we can get before we go and burn burn burn some massive calories…and it was so good to have almost the entire riding team and support crew in one location before the ride…good chance for all of us to see each others faces and get to know any names that we might not know…but for the majority I think we all are familiar with each other.  Departments from across the university are represented on Team Peacock…I was actually having a hard time finding one that was NOT on the team or support crew serving in some capacity…from Facilities Management and Services, to the UIU Post office, all the way to Athletics and Academic Extension / Center for Distance Education…and of course INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS (sorry its MY blog…so have to give Int’l Programs the bigger shout out)  hehe…seriously though…there were not many departments I could think of that didn’t have someone there tonight or would be with us this week.

And for those of you new to Team Peacock – we even have our President riding with us…that’s right…and let me tell you…he takes his training for RAGBRAI SERIOUSLY…you can’t even begin to measure the amount of miles he puts in to train for this event….we don’ even try anymore    )  Unfortunately we won’t have two of our champions with us this year…Bob and Betty Firth (Board of Trustee members) who rode with Team Peacock last year (my first year with the Team)…Bob and Betty – you will be missed, but we look forward to seeing you both back next year…we know you’ll be cheering for us…

Well I guess I can share the BIG news of the evening…as of today Friday - July 23rd…Team Peacock has reached its goal of raising $500,000 dollars for student scholarships since the Team’s inception just a few years ago…WE DID IT…so thank you all who have contributed to this milestone and please continue to support our efforts as we still have the 400+ miles to ride next week…motivation is always a good thing… 

I’ll leave you tonight with some photos from the event:

New jerseys awaiting the newest members of Team Peacock…wear them with pride my friends!!

 The GENERAL (Kata McCarville) – you don’t mess with the GENERAL – even when you’re a Colonel…danggit…always pulling RANK ON ME!!

 

 Sanders and Hilton – (poor Adriel – he has NO IDEA what he is in for…HAHAHA this is going to be FUN!)

 Stephens and Grove….they don’t call Grove “Dr. Fun” for nothing…Jessica I hope you brought your helmet!!

 Is it our turn to get some food?

 

Bill “the Duffinator” Duffy – explaining the ”right” way to get ready in the morning for a ride…”You see people…what you need…well what you don’t need is someting heavy in your stomach…empty stomach is your best bet…then you stop at the first stop and get what you REALY need – and that is APPLE JUICES…THREE Apple Juices…drink them all down and THEN your are GOOD TO GO!!!”  I promise…

(umm…please note…neither UIU, Team Peacock or any of its “sane’ members endorse the Apple Juice philosophy)

That’s RIGHT!  BICYCLE BICYCLE BICYCLE!!!  RAGBRAI 2010 is almost ready to kick-off…I hope everyone is prepared…training is over – all 75 miles of my training is complete (maybe it was 76 miles…haha) – Some have tabulated hundreds of training miles – (just wasted energy in my opinion) Miles that could have been harnessed for the ride that matters…that or I’ll be the one with the sorest muscles, YES I am leaving it as just “muscles”…you can decide WHICH one’s will be the sorest…no need for me to elaborate…

So how exactly do you “kick-off” something like a 400+ mile bike ride – Sanders?  Good question!!

Well after the packing is complete (and for some this may be more of an arduous task than others)…most of us will not care that our shoes match our helmets, gloves, and bike shorts…(or any combination of these) OR care if we do or don’t have a hair dryer to style our hair and a ceiling fan for our tent (sorry Anne had to throw it in there…thanks Randi for the heads up).  After the tents and sleeping bags, bikes and equipment, along with any “emergency items” needed for personal comfort, cleanliness, and “refreshment” are safely stowed – (NOTE: we have learned from past experience…brown paper bags are not considered safe containment for fragile items) …we will sit down on the LAST COMFORTABLE SEAT we will get to experience BEFORE placing our rear ends on what should be considered a present day TORTURE device…and WE WILL ENJOY EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!   Hahaha

Not only we will enjoy a comfortable seat, we’ll also enjoy one more night in the comfort of our own bed…something about that makes me smile…I mean how can one compare the comfort of your bed to the invigorating thought that after a long ride of 50, 60, or even 80 to 100 miles (those that are brave enough to challenge the CENTURY LOOP) – you get to come back to a nice warm TENT AND A SLEEPING BAG!!!  – just to wake up and do it all over again… 

Now – you might be saying…goodness this doesn’t sound like FUN at ALL!  WELL Hey hey hey now…Mr./Mrs. “I like to jump to conclusions”…let’s not get ahead of ourselves…I am just setting the stage for you…I mean come on…if it was all golden corn fields and Twinkies you may not want to keep reading…you’re following TEAM PEACOCK here…and when the Peacocks come to town, its UIU – peacock blue…WATCH OUT NOW WE’RE COMING THROUGH!!!  And if you didn’t know…ya better “tell somebody”!!!

What’s that you say…I still haven’t answered the question…what question? Oh yeah…how do we “kick off” the bike ride…hey that’s easy…you just call up Chuck Norris – and ask him what time it is…and when he says 2 seconds ‘til – it’s hard not to respond, “2 seconds ‘til wha…..” and HE ROUNDHOUSE KICKS YOU IN THE FACE!!!  That’s how we KICK OFF RAGBRAI!!

 Welcome to TEAM PEACOCK’s adventures…oh yes there will be more to come!  Keep checking back, leaving comments, and don’t forget to check out my BIO on the “About” page!

GO PEACOCKS!!!!!