We've got a month left til the ride. 'Bout time for some updates, eh?
Start/Finish location
The ride will start and finish at Davis park in Mount Vernon, IA, at the end of Webster Street. From there, it's a (very) short ride to my house where we will do our post ride stuff. If you bring food and drink, you can drop it off at my house before the start.
Lodging
We will likely be finishing up sometime in the time frame of 11pm and 1am and the night isn't ending there. Therefore, you'll probably want to know about where to shack up for the night if you're coming from out of town. For those of you that want to pitch a tent in my backyard, you're more than welcome to. I just need to know ahead of time so we don't overbook. I should have room for half a dozen to a dozen tents, depending on size. One thing you should be aware of, I live two blocks from a busy set of railroad tracks (2-4 trains per hour, all night long). Keep that in mind if you're going that route.
If you're looking to get a hotel room, there are two hotel/motels in town. The Mount Vernon Inn and the Sleep Inn and Suites. Both are about a mile from the start/finish. There's also a couple B&B's in town if you're interested in going that route.
Finally, there are a few campgrounds within a 15 minute drive. Palisades-Kepler State Park, Lake MacBride and the Coralville Reservoir area. I don't know how late in the season these are all open though.
Course updates
Two weekends ago we rode a good chunk of the course and came across a closed bridge (see pic above). The railing is damaged on this bridge, but other than that I have no idea what they plan do do on it or when they plan on doing it. Worst case scenario, we'll have a shallow water crossing. If the water is too high, we'll route around it. Shouldn't be too much of an issue. Otherwise, everything is kosher.
Other stuff
For post ride festivities, I'm working on arranging a special treat. I'm not going to go into too much detail at the moment since I'm still ironing things out, but right now it looks like we'll have some extra post ride entertainment to go with the potluck and bonfire.
