the (Des Moines) REGISTER's Annual Bicycle Ride Across Iowa
It is considered to be the oldest and largestnon-competetive bicycle touring events in the world.
It's not the only across-the-state rides... there's similar rides across Oregon, some around-the-state in Ohio, a ride from Chattanooga to Atlanta (BRAG)... Back in the late 1980's, a similar event (Bike Across Missouri- aka BAM) was organized as an endurance racing event, where riders started at the west side, rode to the east, and back. You had a certain number of hours to make the trip, if you didn't fall in UNDER that time, you were indicated as DNF. That was a tough ride... I managed to complete ONCE, the other two was a challenge for most everything, as weather came through at the worst possible circumstance, stifling basically all. They changed it into a tour. RAGBRAI is considered to be the 'grandfather of all across-the-state' bicycle tours.
RAGBRAI started in 1973 with two guys deciding they just wanted to do it. Over course of the next 6-or-so years, it evolved into an organized bicycle tour. It grew significantly over time. With last year being the 50th, there was a very high participation in both registered, and unregistered riders. Ridership is a bit lower this year... but there's still plenty from every place on the globe.
RAGBRAI brings in a significant amount of income into small town organizations- local churches, volunteer fire departments, fraternal organizations and other charitable groups, and frequently, the area towns AROUND, that aren't ON the route, come to assist. The Wiota, Cumberland, Massena, and Fontanelle Fire Departments had help from other small town FDs running their refreshment stands. Not many had FD T-shirts for sale, and few of those that DID were out of 3XL... I wear a 2XL, but one of my transport crew is a county deputy who, since he doesn't get to ride, doesn't get to go through the small towns, so I support the small town FDs by buying him 3XL shirts from each town. I spend about $20 a town for his FD shirt collection.
Back in the '80's, the ride had grown such that many of these towns lacked the infrastructure to support the ride's visit. Communities worked with ride organizers to find ways to make it happen, and along the way, riders contributed to the towns' economies such that those infrastructures saw significant improvement... and many of those towns were in southern Iowa, where for agricultural reasons, community economies are significantly lower than the northern counties.
I rode with people from every state, including US and Hawaii, Canada, Puerto-Rico, Guam, Jamaica, Brazil, Belize, Guatemala, Argentina, Portugal, Italy, Russia, Germany, Egypt, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand... Farmers, truckers, lawyers, doctors, a navy aircraft mechanic, a biologist who makes oxygen scrubbers for submarines, a nuclear power generation maintenance engineer, a guy who manages a Happy Joe's Pizza, a gal who flew A-10 Warthogs in Iraq, a retired sailor who got half his face burned away when the USS COLE got attacked... another guy, parapeligic veteran of Afghanistan, on his hand-pedaled sled rollin' down the road every bit as fast as me... (and I'm not slow). I met a gal 81 years young, making her 41st trip across the state, she was considering getting electric-assist drive for next year... there was two blind riders, each stoking a tandem with a not-blind captain.
We rode through Greenfield, and saw the tornado's destruction path, and met the resilient folk who were rebuilding there. Only SOME of these riders understand midwestern tornados, most only know what they see in movies and on TV news, but this visit showed them what nature's power of EF-4 really does. Fortunately, they were also able to visit the restored Greenfield Opera House (Warren Cultural Center)... a real treat, if you're in the area, do stop in for a visit, but take off your cleats (or spurs) before setting foot on the floor. The Cattleman's Association steak sandwiches were DIVINE!!!
I was saddened to find that the Atlantic Bottling Company Museum was no longer in existance... :-\ The Catholic Church put out an excellent spaghetti dinner... and I was hungry again at 6, the Lutheran church had an equally excellent lasagnia... I'm not certain what was better, the double-chocolate pie at the first, or the Lutheran Peach... Both sold out everything they had. From a business/sale perpective, spaghetti is usually a better choice, because the lead-time for lasagnia is fixed... it's a batched process... spaghettii can be made continuously, as long as the components for sauce are available. One of the other churches i was at had ventured about $3600 in ingredients and input, they cleared over $60,000 in meal sales in 5 hours. They FIGURED on $15/plate, but found that most would drop a $20 in the bucket and say 'keep the change'.
There's lots of food-trailer sales, lots of mobile vendors... and there's lots of farms along-the-way that host rest stops that offer a shady place to sit down, mebbie a garden hose for some water, all the way up to slip'n slides, petting zoo (I don't remember where, but someone had an adult lion, and he was gentle and sweet...) to stages with live music. Macksburg had a skillet-toss range set up... something I'd never seen done before, it was fun to watch, but my hands were too tired to grip safely.
Along the way, there's LOTS of tractors- every color- on display. I photographed over 200 tractors... 5 Model T trucks (I need them for shaping my project TT truck's future), I got a ride in Jim Coe's REO Speedwagon pickup truck (Fun!) and a tour of his collection and shop.
There's lots of people who voice hate over this kind of an event. The reality here, is that these are taxpaying people who have a very special appreciation for what happens in the agrarian landscape of the Midwest. Many of them never get truely outside of urbanity any other time of year, save for this ride... and if it weren't for the VERY ground-level exposure to the circumstances of what some people refer to as 'fly-over country', they would be totally blind of what happens here. In contrast, they know VERY WELL the aroma of corn and alfalfa, cattle and swine, they know the grit of the land upon which they camp, they understand the pleasant kindness that we share outside the concrete jungle. Each day I ride, I find myself an ambassador of our little place in the world, and each year, I see the city people... the mountain people... the international people... all guests to our environment. They love this, and they carry that part home every year, in a special little place in their heart. They realize what happens around them in the cities, and understand truth firsthand.
I realize it's an annoyance... just for one day a year, but still, that's terrible... If those want to cancel this kind of thing are in overwhelming majority, I'm fine with shutting it down- but to be
fair, we should also cancel Tractorcades, horse trail rides, motorcycle
rallies, hotrod poker runs, marathons, horse shows, go-cart races, NASCAR,
professional football, polka festevals, farmer's markets, canoe-kayak paddles, fireworks displays, homecoming parades, county fairs, and
Trick-or-Treating.
Once that was done, What would our world be?
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im4racin wrote:
