“On your left! ... On your right!”

by Con Lynn

As far as I could see ahead there were bikers and as far as I could see behind there were bikers. And it stayed that way all day long, regardless of how many stops we made.   As we entered a town we had to get off our bikes and walk because there were hundreds, sometimes thousands, of bikers enjoying the variety of food and entertainment, and riding was impossible. What was this event? RAGBRAI 2000!

RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) started in 1973 with 120 riders and grew the next year to 2,000. By 1985 it had grown to 10,000 and has held fairly steady at about that number ever since. It is considered by most to be the granddaddy of all cross-state rides. Some view the ride from the Missouri River on the west side of the state to the Mississippi River on the east side as a family outing, others a vacation; some are just in it for the challenge. This 28^th RAGBRAI attracted over 10,000 bicyclists from all 50 states and 12 foreign countries. Most days there were closer to 14,000 due to one-day riders. And the two days that we were close to Des Moines, radio stations were estimating over 25,000. The oldest rider was 82 and the youngest just 5. The routes over the years have averaged about 470 miles with this year being 490 miles (I finished with 501 after some trips into town).

My RAGBRAI experience began back in January when I submitted an application to see if my name would be one of the 8,000 selected in the lottery held in April. On May 1, I received confirmation that I was in. Then the anticipation of the ride began and I started feeling like a child waiting for Christmas. I knew only one other person who was going, a good friend from Georgia.

 Finally July 20 arrived and I was on my way to Iowa and very excited about the week ahead (it doesn’t take much to excite some of us). We arrived at Council Bluffs, the beginning town, on Saturday afternoon and set up our tents.  The next morning the ride began and I had never seen anything like it. The roads were full of thousands of bikers, but no cars (most all roads were closed to traffic).  Hundreds of riders were strung out from one town to the next. You were never more than a few feet away from many bikers from the beginning of the day to the end. This is definitely not a ride for those who don’t like crowds.

What makes RAGBRAI so different? To me it was the enormous size of the ride.  It was also the great food; there was a tremendous variety of food and plenty of it. We were hooked on the sweet corn, rhubarb pie and homemade ice cream. There were 1½-inch pork chops from the “Pork Chop Man”, rib-eye steak sandwiches, pork loin sandwiches and “Walking Tacos," not to mention all kinds of homemade cookies, brownies and cinnamon rolls.

I thought that at first this would be an inexpensive bike tour, with its $95 rider fee. But after paying for shuttle buses, showers, souvenirs, food, food and more food, I spent much more than I had anticipated. Was it worth it? Absolutely! I had a great time! And the people of Iowa were fantastic! They love bikers. They sat in their yards and watched and waved as the bikers rode by. Little kids lined the streets in some towns and gave “high fives” and shot bikers with water guns. Many towns had decorations and signs welcoming us. They would holler and ask where we were from. One local lady asked some party guys from New York if they had trained very much for the ride and they replied, “Yes, we did, we started drinking back in January."

Would I recommend this ride? Sure, to those who have plenty of patience, don’t mind crowds and are determined to have fun.  I know that having a friend to hang out with on this ride had a lot to do with making it such a memorable experience. So round up a friend or two and plan a trip to Iowa the last full week of July and experience RAGBRAI for yourself. You’ll be glad that you did.