July 21-27 was RAGBRAI and my parents and Kimberly were going! On Monday I drove to meet up with them and spent the rest of the week as their driver. If you haven't ever heard of RAGBRAI, it's a HUGE bike ride (both in distance and participants) that starts on the west boarder of Iowa and ends on the east boarder of Iowa. The route changes each year, but even so, every day is anywhere from a 50 mile ride to 85 miles. And it's NOT flat. It is FULL of rolling hills! Anyways, each morning I would get up and take down both of our tents, pack everything into the car, drive to the next stop (which was more miles than the bikers because we had to take a round-about route so we weren't driving on the same roads the bikers were on). The traffic was always horrible! Then, I had find a camping spot - which proved VERY difficult on many days because of the city's lack of communication/organization. Set up the tents and camp site. Most days I had other tasks too, like going to the laundry mat to dry all of our bedding that was SOAKED the night before in a crazy rain storm, pick something up from the grocery store, etc. My family would make it to the campsite in the early afternoon. They'd shower, then we'd head into town, go into an open building and play games, or just relax. I rode one and a half days of RAGBRAI about 5 years ago, and watching my family ride it made me want to do it again! The endpoint of RAGBRAI was only 2 hours away from our house, so afterwards, my family came and stayed with us for a few days!
On Sunday we went to church and did a bunch of relaxing and visiting.
Monday we went over to East Peoria. First we went to Bass Pro Shop and did their shooting range (it's indoors and the guns shoot lasers). Afterwards we went to Costco and a couple of grocery stores to get ready for the awesome FHE we had planned for that night! Then we went home and relaxed before heading to Mark and Carrie's house to set up for FHE. Unfortunately, my dad got sick that day and missed out on the activities! For FHE we (both Dietz families, Eggetts and Powells) played water kickball. To kick the ball you stood next to home plate (a mini pool), then ran to first base where you had to sit on a bag of ice (we couldn't find ice blocks!), second base you weren't safe until you got a water balloon out of the cooler and sat on the folding chair; popping the water balloon with your butt. Third base you had to stick your nose/head into a bucket of water (we said nose because I wasn't sure if it would scare Rigdon to stick his whole head in the water - but come to find out, he LOVED sticking his whole face in the water!), then run home to the baby pool! Then we had a BBQ of Brats, Polish Sausages, Chips, Salads, Corn on the Cob, and lots of other yummy foods! Then Sadie gave us a cute lesson from the Friend.
On Tuesday, Ammon took the day off of work and we went to the CAT Museum in downtown Peoria. It was really interesting! Then we went out to eat for lunch at a restaurant that use to be a Speak Easy hidden underneath a Performing Arts Theater. Then we took a little drive through some beautiful neighborhoods. We came back to our house for a little bit then headed back out to Bass Pro Shop to go bowling at The Fish Bowl. My parent's car was making some funny noises throughout the day, so after bowling we went to Mark and Carrie's house and Mark and Ammon fixed the car.
Wednesday morning we went to the Wildlife Prairie Park and then to Safety Town for a picnic lunch. Safety town is a public park that is for bikes. It has all sorts of traffic signs/lights, lines in the road, on-ramps, off-ramps, divided roads, etc for kids to ride their bikes in.
Thursday came and my family had to leave. We had such a fun time having them here!
What a great trip that was. It wouldn't have been possible without our great support person who drove our car across the state, set up and took down our tent, bought us ice cream treats, washed our wet clothes and bedding after a major rain storm, etc. :-)
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