Orange City

 We arrived  in a quiet Orange City last night which will soon turn into a bustling metropolis of bicyclists  and their support vehicles.  Chef Tonys menu included blueberry pancakes and maple syrup this morning, others chose to dine on oatmeal and fruit.   We're glad we came in the day before, we will get to see all the people arrive with their bicycles strapped to their vehicles today.   Just to give you an idea of where we are camping, we ended up in the parking lot of the church with the grassy area next to the motorhome where Lisa and Jeff can set up their tent.   Last night we dined at the eloquent pizza Ranch, and tasted their lovely buffet of fried chicken, pizza, dessert pizza, ice cream and any other type of junk food you wanted.   The big expo starts today so we will  hop on our bikes and head downtown to check it out.

Jeana brought A symbolic gift along with us on this trip.   She is involved in a program to save monarch butterflies, which involves  collecting the eggs on the milkweed plants to save them from predators and chemical environments.   She then nurtures them throughout their life cycle and releases them after they hatch.    She brought along two chrysalis which we are hoping to see hatch while we are here. We have one about to hatch any minute, and she will release it in honor of her late father, who passed away on July 23, 2004.   This is also the day we begin our journey and spread our wings to ride across the state of Iowa.

The Expo was an incredible experience, there were many vendors who took away our money and gave us wonderful things. The town had the red carpet rolled out for us, a beautiful Town Square decorated just for us with all kinds of bicycle things.  We attended a meeting for newbies and drivers, ate junky food, saw many colorful jerseys and dipped our rear wheels in water brought in from the Missouri River to signify the start of our journey.   We had many people comment about our shirts, several stopped to take our picture. We finished the day by eating delicious grilled swine segments cooked to Perfection by Chef Tony and his secret seasonings! Tomorrow is the day, we leave town on two wheels. We will keep you posted as to what's going on as soon as we can get around to it. The internet can be sketchy here in the middle of Iowa! LOL. That's all for now folks, see you on the flip side!....... We might be incoherent tomorrow So therefore you may not hear from us for another day!  Keep the prayers coming we need them!