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Mike Conklin's Diaries - Part 2 - Departure

It's dark. It's chilly. It's so early on a Saturday morning you can't tell a.m. from p.m. You are also sitting in your car in a school parking lot in Lincolnwood, yawning.

There are only one or two vehicles in the lot, but you, a rookie, are beginning to wonder if you're in the correct location. You're also beginning to wonder:What the hell did I get myself into?

But the parking lot suddenly gets busy. Vehicles with bicycles strapped to them begin arriving in flurries. People get out, hug, and the parking lot, now a beehive of activity, resembles a giant class reunion. Bikers, and their significant, non-riding others, who haven't seen each other since the last RAGBRAI, makethe rounds getting re-acquainted.

You? You feel like an outsider crashing someone else's party. Soon a big rental truck, vans, and coach bus arrive. There are cheers from the veterans and the pace quickens. Shuttle lines assemble and bikes, bags, and equipment start to get loaded efficiently, and it suddenly dawns on you-I better get in line with my stuff.

You watch in horror as your new, $3000 Waterford is jammed into a truck with 75 other bicycles. (Don't worry; it works.) At least one rookie, without fail, forgets to bring a blanket to cover his or her bike in the truck and, in the middle of this orderly chaos, Jerry runs around, screaming orders everyone but first-time CUBS ignore.

Meanwhile Anna Hanley and Rickie Cowin, two veterans, walk around with lists to be compiled, checking off license plate numbers for the car you leave in the lot, passing out ID stickers for your car, and asking whether or not you wish to become an organ-donor before departing. Within a half-hour of their arrivals, the truck and van are packed, you've trooped onto the bus, and, in a cloud of exhaust fumes, we've pulled out of the parking lot-quite possibly with a police escort this
this year, given that Jerry is now the Lincolnwood mayor.

Hard to believe only minutes ago you wondered if you were in the right place.