R15 29 Bike, Bike, Bike...

Present day announcement: I am off to Mexico, beavers! I have written enough blogs and post dated them to get you through until I return on January 3rd. If there are any snaffus, though, please contact Steven. She has access to the blog and is my pinch blog hitter. Thanks Steven! Adios! 

Thankfully someone had clued us in that Hanover wasn't anything. Just a historic village, with no services. After who knows how many onemoreonemores, our tanks were topped off and we headed towards Storm Lake. 

I got to riding with Too Much, which was really fun. I love this time of the day of ragby, after everyone else is already in the overnight town, showered, and eating, when the roads are empty, the sun is at your back and the day is cooling off.  

Just wait long enough for empty roads.

As Too Much and I rode, we chatted, which was really nice. He's the best. We rode through some stinky patches and I told him that it was "the smell of money," which he said he had never heard, but seemed to amuse him. 

Soon we were up on a ridge above Storm Lake and we could see the blue water and the town beyond. Happily we wended our way around the west side of the lake and towards the campus, where the Deb had secured us a spot, and what a spot! Buena Vista College is home of the beavers, so naturally.

Crushing it. 

Pochy was waiting for us by the side of the road, waiting to welcome us to camp. In the middle of campus, close to where she parked the RV, she put up all our tents in a grassy area. She had also scoped out the town, found the showers, etc. And she made us meatloaf sandwiches. 

Oh. My. God. those were good. 

As we were futzing with our gear and unpacking, the Dale rolled up. Apparently he had needed to go down town and find a new tire. One of his had failed...hmmm....

The showers were in the rec center of the Buena Vista College basement, and the hot water was long gone, but I found the cold shower refreshing and delightful. Of course, I didn't stop by the desk to pay. Sorry BVU, but I am not giving you $10 for a cold shower. No way. 

In the shower, I washed my jersey, bibs, etc, and when I returned to camp, I hung them over the railing of a, well, it was a pit. There was an iron ladder that went into a square, concrete pit that had a door that opened into the building attached. I thought it looked like a great place to dry my clothes over night. 

It wasn't long before we beavers were crawling into our tents and falling fast asleep in beaver heaven.

In the middle of the night, it started to sprinkle, so we all had to shuffle out of our tents and put on the rain flys. The rain that evening wasn't bad, but we'd see more of it in the morning.