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Question
and Answer
- Why should we use your
charter?
- What are the
different options for the charter?
- This is my first
RAGBRAI experience, what do I do?
- What happens once we
arrive at Le Claire before the ride?
- Can I join you if I
park in Missouri Valley for the week?
- What happens during
the week?
- What happens when we
finish the ride?
- What do we do if we
are joining you for camping for the week?
- How do you transport
our bikes?
- What should I pack and
is there a baggage limit?
- Who are your helpers
during the week?
- What is your daily
towel service?
- Why do you charge more
for a recumbent bicycle?
- Do we have a
way to charge electronics during the week?
- How do we find food
and entertainment during the week?
- How do I find a
shower?
- Do you assist us
in acquiring a RAGBRAI wristband?
- Can I bring my own
vehicle during the week?
- How do I ship my bike?
- What about refunds?
To make your RAGBRAI experience more
enjoyable!
The trip across the state is on an
air conditioned charter bus and your bikes will be transported by a
professional bike packing company with over 25 years of
experience.
For those of you that stay with us
for camping we go out to all the overnight towns ahead of time to
select preferred campsites. In
the majority of cases this is away from the main group of 5,000 riders
but close enough if you want to spend some time in the main campground.
Once arriving at our campsite after
biking you will have your luggage waiting for you along with canopies
set up for you to relax in. This
area will have numerous coolers stocked with a wide range of cold
beverages. There will also be papers
available that describe what is happening in town.
A generator will be set up for those
of you that need to charge an electronic device and we will have a
bulletin board with information and maps of the town that you are
spending the night in.
We try to locate all of our campsites
within a few blocks of a shower facility.
Our staff has several years
experience with running the charter and are available to assist
you. We limit the number of
campers we charter to keep the group size manageable.
Our goal is to help make the ride an
enjoyable and memorable experience for you.
Option 1 ($225) SOLD OUT: Charter transportation along with daily
baggage service. This provides bus and bike transportation from Le
Claire to Missouri
Valley on July
19th and daily baggage service for the week. The bus ride will
include movies and free beverages. With the daily baggage service
we will provide the following items:
- A separate camping area when available
- Dry luggage in case of rain
- Canopies with chairs to relax in
- Drinks including water, sports drink,
pop, and an assortment of beer
- Flashlights and bike pumps
- Itinerary of the evenings activities for
each town
- Limited sag service
Option 2 ($140): Transportation for you, your
bags, and bike, from Le Claire to Missouri Valley
on July 19th. On the bus we will have movies and free drinks.
Option 3 ($125) SOLD OUT: Daily baggage service along with
the camping for the week. No bus ride from Le Claire to Missouri Valley. The daily luggage
service will include the items listed under Option 1.
By joining us you can make your trip
easier. Just follow these steps:
- Register with RAGBRAI for the ride.
- Sign up with Brancel Charters.
- Get a week parking pass from Le Claire
(when it is available.)
- Drive to Le Claire and join us, and we
will help you out the rest of the week.
You will park your car at the RAGBRAI
designated parking area and then find Brancel Charters. We will
notify you in our letter sent out in early July of our distinguishing
features so you can easily find us. The Le Claire typically has
camping, food, showers and week-long parking. The parking will be
available near the charter departure site.
Le Claire website link
You drop your bike off with us on Friday
from 2:00 PM until 10:00 PM. Then Saturday morning you drop off
your bags at one of our air conditioned busses and get ready for a
relaxing ride across Iowa.
The busses will leave at 8:15 AM. The ride will go by
quick as you will watch movies, talk with other passengers and enjoy
complimentary beverages.
Once we arrive at the Missouri Valley in mid afternoon we will
unload your bikes and we will set up our camp site for the night.
There will be an expo going on and the RAGBRAI opening
ceremonies.
Yes! You can join us for camping
during the week (Option 3.) Then if you need a ride back to Missouri Valley after the ride you can
join a separate charter. You can get a parking pass for the week by
going to Missouri
Valley's website,
after it is available.
Each morning you will load your
luggage on our truck to be transported to the next town. You can
then take your time riding to the next city. When you arrive at
the end city for the day we will have signs up as you enter the city
pointing you to the location of our camp site for the night.
Once you arrive at the camp site, we
will have canopies set up for you along with cold drinks in a
cooler. The drinks will be there for a small fee. We will
also have bike pumps and flashlights available. We will provide
limited sag service for passengers that need it. In case of rain
we will keep your bags dry during the day. We will also provide
carts to help you transport your luggage to your camp site. (Sore
muscles appreciate assistance with even the shortest distance.)
We will have a separate camping area
in the cities that provide this. In other cases we will be with
the larger RAGBRAI group. In the times we are with the larger
group we will still have a roped off area for us to camp in. This
is common for all the charters. In the past four years, we were
only with the main RAGBRAI group on one night.
RAGBRAI provides a list of activities
going on in each city and eating places. We will pick you up a
copy of that so you can plan your activities for the rest of the day.
Each city has several places set up
for showers whether they are high schools, parks, gyms or car
washes. We have never had a problem finding a shower facility and
will make sure you have access to showers.
You will locate Brancel Charters just
like a normal day by following our signs and pick up your luggage to
start a successful trip back home.
In July we will provide you with our
camping location in Missouri
Valley. If
necessary, contact Missouri
Valley for week
long parking information (after it is available.)
Missouri Valley website
link
We use a professional moving company
that has over 25 years experience in transporting bikes with excellent
results. They transport bikes
each year for the two bike Wisconsin
bike rides. Each bike will be
protected by a packing blanket. We do not require you to disassemble
your bike, if you would prefer to do so that is okay too.
Well you should definitely bring your
bike! Bring along your normal biking gear and camping
items. A few items you might forget but are nice to have are an
extra tube and a patch kit, sunscreen, rain jacket, two bottle cages
for your bike, a roll of toilet paper in a plastic bag and
earplugs. You will also need cash to buy food and drinks along your
daily ride. You can usually find an ATM machine in most towns.
We do not have a baggage limit as we
would prefer you bring two small to medium sized duffel bags than one
large, heavy bag. If you are
using the Register’s baggage truck (option 2 with us), you are
allowed one bag to which you may strap your tent.
Debbie and Bob rode RAGBRAI in 2002
and decided to start a charter. We are both active in Ironman
triathlons and other crazy endeavors. Although our passion is
RAGBRAI, Debbie has a job in insurance and Bob is a full time
entrepreneur.
Nicole, Bob's 16 year old daughter,
will be a bus host and support during the week. She is busy going
to school and competitive cheerleading. She is trying to get in
all 50 States and is currently at 41.
Also joining us during the week will
be Uncle Tom, a math teacher, and his son Tim. Tim is currently
16 and enjoys playing soccer in Wisconsin.
Tom will be willing to assist on any math related problems people run
into like how much easier is it to bike with the wind at your
back. Debbie's parents John and Linda and brother Joe assist with
the first weekend and John joined us for the entire week in 2007.
Other helpers are Bob's nephew, Ryan,
Nicole's friend Vanessa, and Tim’s friend, Charlie.
This is an optional service where we
provide a towel and then wash and dry it for you each day. This option
is $15 for the week. The towel
service is limited to the first 180 people that pay for the service due
to laundromat constraints. We
will post “sold out” on our application form when this
option is no longer available.
The recumbent is more difficult to
pack and takes up more room than a standard bike.
Yes.
We have a generator available during the daylight hours to
charge cell phones, ipods, and other small electronics. We set it up so there are 50 outlets
available for people to use.
There are always ample
places to find food and entertainment in each overnight town. Every overnight town has spent a
great deal of time preparing for the arrival of RAGBRAI. They all do an outstanding job of
making food / entertainment available.
We
do not provide food and entertainment as part of our charter as we want
to support the town and the efforts that they have put into making the
event a success.
Each overnight town
sets up several locations that have showers. As we are traveling through each
overnight town to select campsites one of our main goals is to get
within a few blocks of a shower location. We posts maps of each town on our
bulletin board that show the locations of showers in that city. Please keep in mind that shower
locations have and can change up to the day before RAGBRAI arrives in
town.
Each person that uses our charter needs to
send in an application to RAGBRAI for their wristband.
In case someone does not get selected in the
lottery we may be able to assist them in finding a wristband. We sometimes have people that are
signed up with us that need to cancel and we pair them up with someone
that is looking for a wristband.
The wristband transfer then takes place between the two parties,
we are no longer involved.
You must still transfer the
liability waiver with RAGBRAI.
No. One of the purposes of a charter is to help limit the number
of vehicles in the overnight towns. The towns allocate space for
parking for each charter according to the number of vehicles we say we
will bring. Remember, the towns have shuttles and many of them are
small enough to walk to food and entertainment -- or you can even
bike!
RAGBRAI publishes information about bike shipping in the booklet
you will receive in May.
We will provide a full refund to those passengers who are not
selected in the RAGBRAI wristband lottery if we are notified before May
31st.
We will provide refunds to our passengers, less a 10%
cancellation fee, through June 30th.
From July 1 to July 13 we will provide a refund, less a 20%
cancellation fee, only if we are able to fill the spot.
July 14 and after we have a no refund and no transfer policy.
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