What's Ragbrai? First, it's an acronym for "Register"s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa". It's been described as a cross between a county fair and Mardi Gras.
Over 15,000 people gather in Iowa each summer, the last full week of July, and ride their bicycles across the state.
It began 38 years ago when 2 employees of the Des Moines Register Newspaper decided to ride their bikes across Iowa, and write a story about the state. A small announcement was made in their paper, inviting anyone who wanted to join in. The day they started, 200 people showed up on their bikes to join them! About 100 did the whole trip!
They received so much interested in the ride, they decided to make it an annual event. The second year, about 2,000 people showed up!
The event continued to grow and grow. One day, it was estimated there were over 23,000 participating! From what I understand, the state police came to them and said, "Hey, this thing is getting uncontrolable, you've got to downsize". So now they have a lottery drawing. You submit your application to be a rider, and they draw out the names of 8,500 who get week long passes. Another 1,500 get individual day passes, so you end up with about 10,000 "official" riders.
Then there are the "bandits", people who ride without registering. The ride is on public roads, so there's no way to limit the ride to the "official" riders. So on any given day, from my understanding, there's usually another 5,000 to 7,000 riders. So most days, there are around 16,000 or so cyclists.
There is a different route each year. The route is planned, so that you go through a small, rural town about every 10-15 miles. When you come into the town, it looks like a county fair! Every church, school group, civic group, etc. is set up selling all sorts of food and refreshments....all sorts of breakfast foods, pie, pizza, "walking tacos", bbq, watermelon, water, gatoraid, burgers, ice cream, etc. Oh, and I don't want to forget the all you can eat pancakes or waffles! Also, along the route, vendors are set up every mile or so. And these are small towns, maybe 300-400 or less in population! It's just an incredible sight to see!
It's like a 50-75 mile long parade!
Each evening, you camp out. Most over-night towns are around 6,000-7,000 in population. Tents are everywhere. Football fields and fair grounds are covered. Sort of reminds me one of those "tent cities" you see on the news, when a natural disaster occurs, and relief organizations come in and set up temporary housing.
Last year (2009), was my first time to ride Ragbrai. I drove to Iowa alone, joined a tour group that hauled my baggage and found us a place to set up our tents each night. This year, 2010, in addition to Karla and Jason riding with me, Lajunta went along and drove a vehicle.
I posted a travelogue on another web site, when I did the ride in 2009. I'll be posting more here...photos and story, about my 2010 ride, when I was joined on the ride by my daughter, Karla, and her husband, Jason McCullough.
Click here to go to next page.
My 2009 ride: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/5329
Enjoy!
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