May 5, 2023

Dear Friends,

This year, for the first time, we offer you the opportunity to choose your preferred shuttle departure times in early May, rather than in late June.


We have an ulterior motive. With so many passengers for RAGBRAI 50, we need to know your departure preferences (in some cases) earlier in the season than usual. We also think this will be a relief for some of you folks on the E/W Shuttle, who are often relieved to get your preference recorded.


Please find a few other important topics, some of which we've mentioned before, as well:

  • The Process for Cancelling Services


  • Hang On for All Things Davenport, News on Long-Term Parking, etc.


  • All About Your Details Form


  • Where to Find Your Details Form (LOGIN to your account)


  • Large Applications with Many Riders--How to Complete These Details Forms for a Group
  • Firm Payment Deadline, May 15


  • Cancellation Policy and Refund Deadline/s


  • The IMPORTANCE of Group Names


  • Availability of PBV Services (no change)


  • Massage Appointments and What's Left


  • Last Call for Hotel Stays

The Process for Cancelling Services:

Write an Email.

To cancel services, simply write to us at tammy@pkbelly.com and/or pete@pkbelly.com. If you're due a refund, you can include your mailing address in the text of the email. An email establishes the date of your cancellation. It makes it possible for us to look you up by name, or if the name is very common, we can look you up by email address. And it allows us to copy members of our team on the reply and keep everyone in the loop. We are traveling to bike events this time of year, and we don't promise that we will receive voice messages. Email is the way to cancel some or all services on your registration.


Do not go into your registration form and remove all services, please. This complicates the process on our end, causing us to search for confirmation emails and reconstruct your registration to determine whether a refund is due and the amount.


Simply write us an email, and we'll take it from there.

We Don't Know Much About Davenport

Hang On, please, for information about the location of our E/W Shuttle in Davenport, the location/s and prices of long-term parking, and anything else regarding WHERE things will be. We CAN answer questions about how things work with the shuttle, generally, but please wait for specifics until we can scout. Davenport is not ready for us quite yet.


By the way, we do try to allow a little time between updates, but we will not hold this info when we get it. We'll share Davenport info with you ASAP!

Who Completes the Details Form?

Everyone who uses the services of Pork Belly Ventures completes the form. (You will not have your RAGBRAI Registration number now, but you will complete this part when you do have it.)


Who Chooses Preferred Departure Times?

Not everyone needs to choose a departure:

  • Those using our E/W Shuttle from Davenport to Sioux City must choose among two departure times on Friday afternoon, 7/21, and three departure times on Saturday morning, 7/22. If you want to shuttle to Sioux City on Friday, we will assign those spots on a first-come-first-served basis. (We think we have plenty of space on Friday, but we'll find out soon.)
  • Those using our Omaha airport shuttle to Sioux City must choose a preferred departure time between 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM. Omaha passengers, you can complete this form anytime between now and June. (We caution riders about arriving in Omaha after 3:00 PM. You could miss our last departure.).
  • Those using our Des Moines airport shuttle to Sioux City don't need to choose a time (but you need to answer other questions on your Details Form). All coaches depart at 9:00 AM.
  • Those using our post-RAGBRAI shuttles do not need to choose a departure time. On the last day of RAGBRAI, all coaches depart as they fill between 1:00 and 3:00 PM on Saturday, July 29th. We will have a separate update that explains and describes the last day of RAGBRAI.

Your Details Form:

Here's the Info We Need

from Each of You.

The Details Form asks for information about many things, including your official RAGBRAI Registration Number. We are aware that you don't have this number yet, but all riders are responsible for logging into their PBV accounts and updating their Details Form with this number before July 22, 2023.


Here are the responses you need to provide on your Details Form.


RAGBRAI Registration Number--by July 22, 2023, this portion of the Details Form must be completed by every person who is using any service of Pork Belly Ventures. For now, you can enter the word, "Later."


Extra Night in Rental Tent--If you already HAVE the rental-tent service of Pork Belly Ventures, and if you plan to arrive at our Sioux City campsite via our E/W Shuttle or by private transportation on FRIDAY, July 21, you may reserve this extra night in your rental tent. (The tent service is seven nights--Saturday, July 22, to Friday, July 28.)


Our shuttles from Omaha and Des Moines operate only on Saturday. The extra night in your rental tent is not available to those on these shuttles.


We provide rental tents on Friday, July 21, only in Sioux City. Not in Davenport.


Dietary Restrictions--For those using our support, we do not want this part of the form to be misleading. There are limits to the variety we can provide for our included evening meals. We cannot promise a strictly vegan option. We cannot handle every food allergy or dietary restriction. We can provide a meatless alternative to the entree and a GF alternative to the entree. We will offer these alternatives for each of our three included evening meals, and we will make every attempt to offer these alternatives for the optional evening meals as well. We will publish the menus as soon as we can, probably in June.


NOTE: If you have a dietary restriction, we understand that you may have questions about food options. We will address this topic--regarding our evening meals and our in-camp vendors--in our June Letter (your travel guide for PBV) published in June, and/or in our update called Our Week in the Corn. Please bear in mind that you may need to hit the supermarket during RAGBRAI or bring a little stash of nourishing, non-perishable foods/bars you like and can eat.


Bike Info--we ask whether you'll have a bike for us to transport on our shuttle, whether you're shipping the bike (BikeFlights), or whether your bike will arrive some other way.


Bike Type--we ask you to select from a menu of bike types and let us know whether the bike will be boxed or unboxed when we transport it on the shuttle.


Where You Will Meet Us--this question asks whether you'll arrive in Sioux City, OR whether you'll shuttle with us from Omaha, Davenport, or Des Moines. Depending on which option you choose, a brief form will appear for collecting further info about your preferred departure.


Omaha Folks--please give us complete information so that we can get you assigned to the coach/departure you prefer. Every year, lots of Omaha Details Forms are incomplete, but we hope this year will be different. You don't need to do this right away, but please be sure you complete your Details Form by June, when we need to create and publish our rosters.

Your Details Form:

Finding It and Completing It


You will not find a tab at our website that says "Details Form." You will login and find the tab within your own PBV registration.


In a word, Login.

You'll scroll down and see the view above. Please look for the green tab across from your name, labelled Detail Form.


Another way in… At the top of your PBV email confirmation, find a link: “Click to Continue the Application.” Use this link to bypass the login process. Your unique link will take you to your unique application.

How Soon Should You

Complete Your Details Form?


  • Those who are using our E/W Shuttle should do this fairly soon.
  • Others should plan to complete the form, but it's not urgent in May. We'll be reminding you.

Large (and Very Large) Group Applications

We all remember January, when folks were planning how to complete their registration forms and secure services as quickly as possible for large groups of riders. Consequently, we see many more applications than ever with more than four people, and in some cases, a very large number of people. Here is how you folks on large applications should handle your Details Forms.


Work on this with your group leader--the person with the group's login information. Group members may need to call or email the group leader and provide the responses to each part of the Details Form. You may grab a cold one and have a zoom meeting to complete your forms. We leave this to groups to find their solutions and complete the form for every group member.


Each form needs to be completed. Riders using the E/W Shuttle and the Omaha Shuttle have a few more questions to answer than others.


If some people on the application complete the form, they will be assigned to coaches/departures. Those who have not completed the Details Form cannot be assigned to coaches or departures.


Coaches and departures will fill. If you want your group to be together on a coach, then we must have complete info for all group members.

How We Can and Cannot Help

We can send login credentials to your group leader.


If you're having trouble, we can help you find the tab for the Details Form.


Of course, we can answer questions about your shuttle or other aspects of our services.


We CANNOT fill out the forms for you. PBV has more than 1700 riders using our shuttles this year, and we are extremely busy this season preparing for RAGBRAI and other cycling events. We ask you NOT to email us with information about your group members' Details Forms. It is something you will have to do, as individuals or as groups.

Full Payment and

Cancellation Deadlines

In the past, Pork Belly Ventures has had soft payment deadlines, but not this year. May 15th is your deadline for full payment of balances due. We must know who's in and who's out.


You can write to us for your login credentials if you intend to make payment online with your credit card.


You can mail a check and SAVE a little on credit-card processing fees. Send your check to PBV LLC, 412 Forest Glen Drive, Council Bluffs, Iowa 51503.


We remind you of our Cancellation Policy and Refund Deadline, so that there's no misunderstanding. June 15th is the last day to cancel and get a 90% refund. After June 15th, we don't make refunds with this exception. If you took our cancellation protection when you initially registered, then you have extended your 90% refund to Wednesday, July 19th at 10:00 PM. If you have our protection and cancel by email by 10:00 PM on July 19th, we will make a 90% refund. After July 19th at 10:00 PM, we make no refunds.

GROUP NAMES

for the Rental Tent Grid

and for Shuttles

We'll keep reminding you until sometime in June, when we need to go forward with the rental tent grid and the shuttle rosters.


If you wish to be assigned to the same coach with other folks in your group, OR if you would like your rental tent to be set up next to someone else's rental tent, YOU MUST HAVE A COMMON GROUP NAME ON ALL APPLICATIONS. If someone types "Team Cycologist," and others type "Cycologists," then we will sort alphabetically and NOT know who is supposed to be together. If one group member types "OFWCC," and another types "Old Folks with Credit Cards," we will sort alphabetically and NOT know who is supposed to be together. Type identical common group names on all applications of your group members, please. Even if two people are on the same application (even if you have the same surname), the common group name helps us a great deal. Thank you! You're helping us serve you better!


(And thanks for the entertaining group names! Funny!)

Availability of PBV Shuttles/

Services

Our pre-RAGBRAI shuttles from Omaha and Des Moines are available, friends.


Our E/W Shuttle from Davenport to Sioux City is not full; however, it's not available to be selected on our registration form. Write to us if you need that shuttle, please. We can add it for you.


Our post-RAGBRAI shuttles back to Omaha or to the Quad Cities are available.


Our post-RAGBRAI shuttle returning to Des Moines is full.


We're sorry that our support and partial-week support are full, as is our rental tent service. We have seen no significant changes in our numbers yet. We need to see a lot of cancellations before we can accept any more riders. If you're not with us this year, we wish you a wonderful RAGBRAI.

Massage Appointments Are Going, Going....

Julie has been taking appointments for 13 therapists since March 30th, and prime times are filling fast. Generally, she has this availability:


  • Sunday, plenty open
  • Monday, random 30 min. openings between 4-7:30pm
  • Tuesday, 3:30-9pm is full
  • Wednesday, random 30 min. openings between 3-8pm 
  • Thursday, 3:30-9pm is full
  • Friday, random 30 min. openings between 5-8:30pm


If you want to make appointments, please don't delay. Use this link to access our Massage Appointment Request Form.

OUR REMAINING HOTEL ROOMS

This is probably the last time on this topic. Here's what we have left. Please click here for the details on how our hotel stays work:


Terms and Details: PBV Hotel Stays


Here are the nights, hotels, and rates for our remaining rooms. Both of these hotels are within 15 minutes of camp by coach. The Radisson on Friday, 7/28, is less than a mile from camp.


Wednesday, 7/26, Des Moines

Des Moines airport AmericInn, *1 triple-queen left. (We can put names on a waiting list for other room types and prices.)

9 minutes from camp via the coach...


Pricing for *triple-queen room:



1 person using room, incl transfer:       *$275.00

2 people using room, incl transfer:       *$163.00 per person

3 people using room, incl transfer:       *$125.00 per person

4 people using room, incl transfer: *$107.00 per person

5 people using room, incl transfer: *$ 95.00 per person



Friday, 7/28, Coralville

Coralville Radisson Hotel, a few double queen rooms.

On the Friday night of RAGBRAI, your last night of camping, we are located in a fun entertainment district with bars, restaurants, and hotels.


The Radisson is less than a mile from camp, and your transfer by coach is included. A sidewalk takes you straight from camp to hotel, so tonight you can have a hotel stay AND join in the festivities on our last night...



1 person using room, incl transfer:       $253.00

2 people using room, incl transfer:       $152.00 per person

3 people using room, incl transfer:        $118.00 per person


If you'd like to reserve a room, please write to Tammy@pkbelly.com with this information:


  • Your chosen night/s in a hotel room
  • Names of ALL room occupants (who will also need passenger seats on our coach. Remember, we have to be exact about this. If they're not on the rooming list, they won't have a seat on the coach.).
  • Please say whether you'd like to be on a waiting list. If your particular night is full, we'll make sure your place in line is recorded. It's not unusual for us to clear several people from our waiting lists.


When we have assigned your room, we'll write back and put the charge/s on your application/s.


We're seeing a little shifting around, so if you want the waiting list for any night, write to Tammy, please.

THREE FUTURE UPDATES

to Look Forward To...

Earlier than usual in June, you can expect your June Letter, which answers 97.8% of all questions about traveling with Pork Belly Ventures during RAGBRAI!


Sometime in June, we will publish Our Week In the Corn, which gives you the day-by-day fun stuff of Pork Belly Ventures. We'll tell you about our lovely campsites, our daily local food vendors, our evening menus and caterers, and who's performing each day on Pork Stage. Lots more, too!


Then in July, we'll publish PDFs of your PBV Host-Town Maps, showing our locations in each town and pinpointing other amenities and festivities! The rider routes to and from our campsites will be included on these maps.

Okay. You can do this. Login. Locate the green tab that says Details Form. Complete and submit!


More to come, friends, and we'll be back on your screens again soon. Until then, we remain,


Your friends,

Tammy and Pete  

Pork Belly Ventures LLC 

Tammy: 712.328.0161 h, 808-375-8921 c, tammy@pkbelly.com

Pete: 402-681-2613 c, pete@pkbelly.com

 www.pkbelly.com