RAGBRAI® in Allamakee County
Waukon RAGBRAI seeking volunteers to host riders in homes or yards overnight
The Waukon RAGBRAI Housing Committee is seeking area individuals who are willing to open up their homes, yards or driveways to riders or support crews for RAGBRAI's overnight visit to Waukon July 28 of this year. Those interested in providing such hospitality for that July 28 overnight stay are invited to fill out the form available at www.ragbraiwaukon.com under the "Get Involved" tab at the top of that home page and then under the "Housing" link on that drop down menu. A click on the PDF or "Want to Become A Host?" link will take interested individuals to the form they can fill out with their available selection of hosting options. The completed form can then be saved and emailed to ragbraihousingwaukon2017@gmail.com or printed and dropped off at Main Feature Theater on Main Street in Waukon daily during business hours of 4 p.m.-8 p.m. Those with further questions can also send them to that ragbraihousingwaukon2017@gmail.com email address.
Lansing RAGBRAI announces headliner musical acts for July 21 Kickoff and July 29 Final Day
Lansing RAGBRAI has announced its headliner musical acts for the beginning and end of RAGBRAI week in late July. Friday, July 21, Lansing will be hosting a RAGBRAI Kickoff Party for Allamakee County. Everyone is invited to attend, as "Smoking Gun Show" will be performing from 8 p.m. to 12 Midnight at the Lansing Fire Station.
RAGBRAI's Final Day, Saturday, July 29, will feature local favorite "Switchback" (pictured at left) from 1 to 3 p.m. in downtown Lansing, among other activities. DJ music will begin the Saturday, July 29 festivities at 9 a.m.
Area residents share their RAGBRAI experience in an effort to familiarize residents of Allamakee County
In an effort to make Allamakee County residents more aware and comfortable with what will be taking place when the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI®) visits local communities later this summer, The Standard has invited area residents or natives to share stories of their RAGBRAI experience. Below is another pair of installments received, with others planned to be published in the future.
Random Act of Honesty From an Anonymous Rider
On the first day of the 2003 RAGBRAI from Council Bluffs to Harlan. my son, Tim, and I came to a crowded farmstead selling homemade pie and ice cream. It seemed like the perfect place to stop and grab some shade after humping up and down the Loess Hills.
We laid our bikes in the ditch, picked out our pie and plopped down in the shade with 100 other weary travelers. About 15 minutes later we mounted back up and hit the road.
When we got to Harlan I reached into my handlebar bag for my wallet and it wasn’t there. It was a frantic, hopeless search. Credit cards, driver’s license, passport card and a bunch of cash... all gone. I had my chin in my chest for half an hour before someone suggested I go to the Lost and Found and put in a report of having lost it.
I was two sentences into my explanation of having lost it and the gal reached under the counter, opened my wallet, looked at my driver's license picture and was somehow able to tell that picture of the dude in the suit is the same as the sweaty mess in front of her, and she hands me my wallet! My wallet beat me to Harlan!
Everything was there and the person dropping it off didn’t leave their name. Just a random act of honesty from an anonymous rider. There’s a lot of that on RAGBRAI.
~ Todd Moon
Proud to Have Ridden the Whole RAGBRAI Route
Randy and I rode the full week of RAGBRAI in 1993. That was the year of Iowa’s “Big Flood” and we weren’t sure that they were going to hold RAGBRAI that year due to all the rain. Lots of flooding was occurring in the central and southern part of the state, and since the RAGBRAI route was planned as a mostly northern route, they decided to go ahead with it.
We partnered up with a bike club from Iowa City, where Randy was living at the time, and they were in charge of our gear and arranging for camp sites. Sioux City was our starting point, and we ended the week in Dubuque. One of the highlights of the trip was the great food. Spending every day doing nothing but biking and exercising really made us feel like we could eat all day long, and we did! I remember a mixed berry pie in some small town that was out of this world. The food was great wherever we went.
On the first full day of riding, we didn’t stick together when riding to start with in the morning, and for most of the day I wasn’t sure if Randy was ahead of me or behind me. Those were the days before cell phones, so there was no way to contact each other. We ended up finally meeting in the host town that night after being separated most of the day. We enjoyed riding with people that we didn’t know!
After that, some of our friends and relatives joined us for the last few days of the ride. We went through Decorah, then Manchester, and I remember the harrowing ride into Dubuque with my bike’s skinny tires in a rainstorm. That was a little unnerving. Fortunately, no accidents. It was a great trip, and we’re proud to have done it the whole way at least once!
~ Linda Carstens and Randy Petersburg, Waukon
