The best 7 days of my life-      ...but let me qualify that.  Back in 1977, when I first had the idea to do RAGBRAI, Eddy Merckx was the winning the Tour DeFrance, I was working in a bicycle shop - Southwest Schwinn - for John P Keyes and ultimately Arch Kowalik.  John said he had never seen anyone so in love with bicycles- thought I was going to marry a bicycle- he laughed, I can see you walking down the church isle with a bicycle in your hand.        In December 2002 it became quite evident that the futeur we (as BIcycle Sports) were looking forward to in our present location was in perril.  The shopping center had changed hands twice while we were there and it was for sale again.  That meant a move and more than anything that meant it was time to invest in a piece of real estate to prevent this situation from arising again.        All this meant negotiations, applications, certifications and details that this poor bike shop guy was just not used to having to deal with.  fixin' flats, havin' fun pedaling bikes, that's what i love, all this other stuff was rough.  then the build out of the new location, but first we had to do "demo" (demolition) on the old restaurant.  the building we bought was a Denny's and that aside, it made me think twice about eating out.  we carted off over 90 cubic yards of debris before we could begin the re-construction.      A friend of mine, ben stafford helped me immeasurably with a business plan and the whole real estate deal.  there were many tedious hours spent preparing a business plan- which i had never formally done before, and among other things, he wanted me to prepare a resume which i hadn't done since... ever!  i had been the fortunate victim of circumstance all of my life so far- i was working in a shop that had been sold and that's how i met the man who took me as his partner and who taught me "everything i really needed to know about being in business, dan floeck".   John Holiday was our contractor.  he wanted to know then there was the move... bike parade floors weren't ready dust everywhere settling in climbing interest rates hurricanes hal gained 15 lbs then he only gained 8 lbs hold my hand it's time i did nervous getting ready getting there - setting up the first evening walking tacos the first morning first day 54 miles- first 8 miles flat, 35 miles of hills and the rest flat (until you get into town) the first 10 miles the first hills corn & Margerine! the first road kill forgot my vitamins high school on top of te hil across town our campsite my tent placement chicago & California the hogg trough nice dinner day two, 77 miles my first nap alaska end of day chicago, wonderful translucent showers guitars & banjo day 3 68 miles it's a good day for a bike ride day 4 70 miles day 5 77 miles you can't eat that! mama is a guy day 6 48 miles day 7 50 miles