Van Duty

Today I had my first van duty. 

I somehow managed to be the last one on the team to do van duty for the first time. At first I didn't want to be in the vans because I wanted to ride every day and not have the responsibility the van drivers carry, and then it became more of the principle of the thing, that I wanted to see how long I could avoid it. I somehow managed to make it to Day 24, but today I was chosen to be Water Van Passenger. We were headed from Davenport to Iowa City.

Porter was the water van driver, and he was a great partner. I especially liked riding with him because the music he listens to is awesome. Along with listening to music in the car, we also blast the music at water stops to pump up riders.

Unfortunately the only picture I got of Porter was when he was blinking... promise he wasn't driving with his eyes closed :)

In the morning, it was our job to pack the water van and fill up our giant water containers. 

Porter filling up the water...promise I helped and didn't just take pictures all day :)

The day started with rain and the forecast called for a chance of thunderstorms, so we were kind of worried about whether we'd be able to stay on the roads. The band of storms we've been dealing with threatened to meet up with us again. 

I actually had a really easy day to be in the water van. What makes the water van's job difficult is complicated directions, long days, and groups spacing out a lot. None of that really happened today. It was a 54-mile day, so we only had to do two water stops, and the route stayed on two main roads, US Historic Route 6 and County Road F44, for most of the day, so minimal chalking was needed.

My view for most of the day

As soon as the riding groups started leaving, we started driving. We saw a lot of leaves and sticks on the road, several downed trees, and cornfields that were blown over. Yesterday's storm was pretty serious!! For the first 20 miles we had Ashley in the van with us - Ashley's the one that broke her hand and has been a permanent van driver for the last three weeks. She was going to ride today for the first time since the fall! She was going to sit in the van and scout out the roads to see if she felt comfortable riding, then ride with the team after the first water stop.

Very ready to ride :)

We found a good place for a water stop at mile 22, then went ahead a little bit to continue chalking, but we didn't have much time before we needed to get back to the water stop to wait for the first group's arrival. We were stopped in the employee parking lot of a bank in the small town of Wilton, IA, so Ashley went into the bank to ask if it was okay for us to set up there.

As we were waiting for riders to arrive, we were in for a surprise! A lady approached us and introduced herself as a reporter from the local newspaper. The bank had alerted her to our presence, and she came to interview us. We answered all her questions and told her about the ride, and then she took a picture of the team when everyone had arrived.

Before groups arrived, I put out the high-demand items: bananas, fruit, bread, peanut butter, granola bars, and sunscreen. As I've mentioned before, people become animals at water stops. They dive in and eat everything in sight. Key word: in sight. If something isn't in plain sight it will not get eaten. So I tried to make it easy for the riders, keeping in mind what I'd want to see if I were riding. 

Bananas and peanut butter are a very popular water stop snack so I tried to set them in very plain view.

After all four groups left the first water stop, we still hadn't seen any rain and people put their rain jackets in the water van. We left Ashley on her bike to ride -- yay!! -- and continued on to chalk and find a good second water stop. 

The superstar in her first mile back on the road

It wasn't long before we came across a sign on our intended road that said "Road closed: water over road." We knew the first group had already plowed through the road closure anyway and made it through, so we chalked the turn and drove through the road closed signs (hashtag responsible decisions). There was indeed water over the road! Due to flooding, there was water just rushing over the road. It was a good 4 inches deep. However, the option for a reroute was a gravel road, so we had the team continue through the river...I mean road?

This is not a lake.....it's a field. Floods!!!

We chalked the turns up until the second water stop, but there weren't many to chalk. We decided to do Water stop #2 a bit before mile 40, because the sun had come out and it was close to 90 degrees. We had also come upon lots and lots of rolling hills. It turns out Iowa is not flat. It is rolling hills!! These were definitely the most consistent hills we've seen since Pennsylvania. So we went for mile 37.

Cows wading in a muddy flooded field... and Porter looking very concerned.

Setting up the water stop off the side of the road under a tree (and surrounded by annoying bugs), we were setting up just as the first riding group was already arriving: they were fast! And they were very eager for water. As people were at the water stop, I made a few calls to hosts that I needed to make.

Porter trying to explode an inner tube at the second water stop. Hashtag mature

We were at the water stop for almost an hour and a half, because two groups had made a wrong turn and were way behind the first team. Leaving the water stop, we cheered on all the riding groups as we passed them, and headed to chalk the turns to the host.

We encountered another road closure but were able to chalk riders to get on the sidewalk and go through, because it was some road construction. In the van, though, we couldn't get through, so we had to find a reroute of our own to get around the construction. We almost went down a dirt road, but it was really muddy and had a sign that said "Caution: Category B road maintenance" (no idea what that means) so we opted not to get the van stuck and found a different detour. It was gravel roads, so we were glad the riders we were able to get through on the sidewalk.

The gravel detour we had to take... Iowa roads.

The rest of the day went without problems and once we finished chalking we just drove around cheering on riders until the last group rode in. Being in the water van was actually fun! I did miss being on the road but at the same time I liked taking care of the riders, making sure they got everything they needed, and cheering them on.

Oops...when we pulled over to chalk the road we accidentally stopped in a bus stop...

Once we got to the host, Porter and I spent a solid hour and a half cleaning out the water van. It had gotten pretty gross and it was bugging me all day. We unloaded everything and reorganized all the food into labeled bins, throwing out old food that had expired. One of the things we need to do better from now on is making sure the older food gets eaten before the newer food. While cleaning we also discovered some awesome gear given to us by 4K HQ that we had no idea was there because it got buried on Day 1. That led me to decorate the van's windows with window paint. I forgot to take a picture though!

Evening activity: Jared getting interviewed for local news!

Evening activity: Straightening hair with Gina's new mini hair straightener

In the evening, half the team went to another Hope Lodge visit while the other half went to a horticultural museum in Cedar Rapids. Jared aka Princess's family has been in the horticulture business for generations, and they have connections with this very successful nursery in Cedar Rapids. I don't exactly have an interest in horticulture but I figured this would be my only opportunity to go to a horticultural museum in Iowa.

The nursery and museum, Hughes Nursery & Landscaping were very impressive. The first thing I noticed was that it was immaculate. Perfectly trimmed grass, completely clean driveways, and flawless landscaping everywhere. The interior of the museum, a small museum on the family history of the nursery, was spotless as well. Dwight Hughes Jr. was the man giving us the tour. The tour turned into a Jared & Museum photoshoot because he was so excited that Jared was visiting that he took pictures of Jared with everything in the museum and all of the nursery machinery. It was cool though, and we had no idea Jared was so popular in the horticultural world ;)

Gina loved seeing horses!

Dave feeding a horse

Beautiful sunset as we were leaving 

Tomorrow we head to Grinnell, Iowa, a 73 mile day. We are following the route done by RAGBRAI, an annual bike ride across Iowa. It helps because they know what roads are gravel and what are not! There's a chance of thunderstorms, so here's to hoping they miss us like they did today.