Council Bluffs

We’ve been in Council Bluffs for over a day now. It’s the Saturday before the start of RAGBRAI, though in fact, this Saturday is a big part of the deal. The big bike expo is today; think major retail opportunity. I may or may not buy a couple of things, depending on what’s available, but that’s later today.
Last night was fun. Erich and I went to our traditional dinner at Cascio’s Steak & Pizza. I’m not sure they actually serve pizza anymore, at least I haven’t noticed it on the menu. But that’s how they started many years ago. Cascio’s looks like something out of a 1960’s movie set. It sits at the top of 10th Avenue in Omaha’s Little Italy. A family run restaurant, it has a loyal local following. And, while it does serve good steaks, the prices are reasonable. They also serve you a lot of food. They’re menu isn’t dedicated to the latest food trends or health conscious items. It’s comfort food for steak lovers. Yum.
Next up was a Triple A baseball game out in Papillion (yes, it’s a place). The Omaha Storm Chasers play at Werner Park. As far as I know, and I could be far off the mark, the team asked Omaha to build them a park and Omaha declined. Papillion, a few miles out of town said, “heck, yes.”

The home team’s dugout is on the third base side of the park, just like back home for my own – I’m taking liberties there – UH Rainbow baseball team. I suspect they do it as the sun sets behind that bit of the park so it’s in the shade. That’s been important because it’s darn hot here.
It’s been in the 90’s pretty much the entire time I’ve been here. In fact, the ‘feels like’ temperature has often been up to 105 F. Yikes. The good news, as such, is that there are thunderstorms predicted tonight and the temperature tomorrow should be in the 80’s. We can only hope.
We did get to watch the sun go down in the west (it’d had better have been the west) as we left the park.


Okay, it’s not a Hawaiian sunset, but it was still pretty good.
Today both Erich and I are up and have a plan! The gods are laughing.
We’ll be headed out in a bit to put his car in long term parking. That means one final pass through our stuff to make sure anything we don’t need doesn’t come with us. I’m having some of my things mailed home when Erich gets back to Evergreen. Basically it’s some bike stuff I didn’t need and some dressier clothing I won’t be wearing the rest of the week.
First though, we’ll be headed to Greenstreet Cycles. This has been a bit of a tradition ever since I bought a helmet here years back. I also get their t-shirts and need a new one. It’s been 3 years since my last.
We’ll also be cycling back from Omaha to the Council Bluffs side after the bike shop and dropping the car. It’s a lovely ride and we’ll probably dip our rear tire in the Missouri. While one would usually do this on the day of the ride, Erich and I are just enough out of step with the herd that this works for us.
When we get back we’ll check-in and begin the process of actually preparing mentally for tomorrow. This means rigorous avoidance of buying too much stuff at the expo because we’ll have to carry it with us to the end of the week. This is perhaps the most harrowing part of the ride – TOO MUCH CR%P.
Then this evening we’ll spend some time on our own. I’ll be off to meet with some friends I see regularly on RAGBRAI…or at least as regularly as I ride it. I’m really looking forward to that part of this event. I won’t be writing about it much as I don’t have their permission, but they’ll be a source of strength along the way…as will my most excellent friend Erich.
That’s it for now…time to be out and about.