Biking Iowa - Des Moines - Nice People

It is Saturday morning about 9 AM and there are now about 30 of us getting bikes and gear loaded for the week. More are due to arrive soon.
My hotel is supposed to have WIFI, but I think they forgot to plug it in and no one seems to know much about it.
Had hoped to have this online this morning, but Iowa is not exactly the tech capital of the US. Corn, hogs, insurance, nice people.
The best thing about Iowa is the genuiness of the people. As a rule, people don't get much friendlier than this.
However, when I arrived at the Des Moines airport and tagged up with John from Charlotte, we attempted to get a cab
ride for our bikes and gear and us to our hotel. 15 minutes away. Des Moines airport is not a very busy place.
The cab drivers wanted nothing to do with us and our bikes and gear. No van shuttles here. About the time we are thinking
of renting a car, a local comes over and asks us where are going ? With the bikes and the magnitude of RAGBRAI, he knows
we are here for the ride. We tell him and he says he has a truck and when he picks up a friend that is due to arrive he
will be happy to drop us off, gear and all. The travel day has not gone as planned. Apparently bad weather in the MidWest on Thursday
screwed up all the air traffic in the country, so all planes are arriving late.
While waiting for his friends to arrive another local offers us a ride as well. Turns out "New" John (not be confused with John from Charlotte)
who is dressed in t-shirt and shorts with an older long bed pickup - is a city attorney and will be riding the entire trip too and is meeting
a riding partner from Mississippi - Tom- getting off another delayed flight.

We load our stuff in his truck and off we go. The termperature is a perfect 76 degrees or so. I quicly volunteer to ride in the back of the
pickup truck as a tribute to my old days as a kid. We find ourselves in downtown Des Moines where we are introduced to
New Johns wife Tammy. Tom is left there and New John takes us to the hotel a few miles out of town. Des Moines has around 300,000 residents and
has more big insurance companies than you can imagine. It is also the site of the state
It is a beautiful building that I wish I had time to visit. Pictures are post

I select to keep riding in the badk of the truck. (I think I need a big eared dog to hang his head over the rail an suck in the clean air).
Once at the hotel. New John suggests we go back to town to check out the "night life" and the baseball game. He volunteers to drive us back and even accomodates me
with a quick stop at Compusa for some gear I forgot. New John is downright proud of being computer unaware. he says he doesn't
need it and that is part of what his secrretary does.

Dropping us off at an Italian restaurant, we say goodbye to a new found friend and hope we see him on the ride. It is about 530 Iowas time by now. The restaurant is pretty good and they
I have to ask a stupid question: Do you know where is WIFI in town ? No one seems to have any idea of what I am talking about.
We walk a couple of blocks to Principal Park (as in Principal Insurance) and are trying to decide whether to get the general admission seats for the ball game at $6 or should we be crazy and spring for
$10 for reserved seats when a nice guy and his about 12 year old son offer us free tickets that he just happens to have - general admission, but that leaves money for
beer. Thc Iowa Cubs and the Memphis Redbirds are just finishing the first game of a double header. The stadium is very nice and clean and pretty full. About 6:30 by now.



Iowa has beautiful, soft grass. Not anything like tough and rough Florida grass. The ball field is really pretty. The crowd is there for the socialness of it. They really
do not seem to be into the game and when the call for cheering on the team happens, it is met with a lot of silence. However, about every three rounds a Chevy pickup truck drives around the field with
a cannon that shoots t-shirts into the crowd and everyone goes wild. About 5 innings was enough, so we decide to walk the 4 blocks or so to downtown. Quite a few clubs, restaurants, and bars are looking to get busy. But not yet. Now about 9 pm.

All of a sudden I see the look. A guy who looks like he might be a geek. I politely ask him if he knows where there is a WIFI hot spot and he does.
I get directed to the Java House. A really cool and large coffee house that seems to cater to college students. Some young lady from California is playing an accoustic guitar. Sure enought WIFI, now I can catch the emails from the past 10 hours.
We hang there til after 10 and then wander to a Renaissance hotel that has a lobby bar that has about 25 young professionals. There is really a genuineness to Iowans that you pick up on right away.

Taking a cab back to our hotel, our driver was born in Iowa. He moved to Texas for 7 years, but had to come back. I stayed at the same hotel as this year several years ago, but he informs me that it used to have
a Playboy club in it. He would sneak in when he was 14. But it closed. (There used to be one in St. Petersburg, but it closed too.

I apologize in advance for any typos etc during these posts, but trying to read screens, get connected in tight spaces and more are going to make getting this to you tough. But it will happen as available.



We are guests of the Des Moines cycling Club. Two large Uhaul trucks are being loaded with bikes and gear. And a bus or two or due to arrive soon for the 4 hour ride to Iowa's western border. Hopefully by about 4 today my tent will be up, my bike assembled, and
I will take my first bike ride in Iowa for 2006's RAGBRAI. It is starting to become fun now.