Knee High by the Fourth of July
August 8, 2017
One of my adventures this summer was a trip to America’s heartland for the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, otherwise know as “RAGBRAI”. The ride is the world’s largest and longest running organized cycling event. 2017 was RAGBRAI’s 45th anniversary with about 20,000 cyclists. Having recently turned eighty my dad decided it was time to join this annual pilgrimage across Iowa. This year’s RAGBRAI route covered 412 miles in northern Iowa from Orange City to Lansing. I decided to join dad, and convinced my nineteen year old son to come along, so we had three generations of Martins spinning across Iowa.
Following a day of preparation we departed Orange City with our 20,000 fellow cyclists. For seven days we’d be averaging 60 miles per day with four to five stops per day in small, rural towns ranging from 400 to 11,000 residents. Most towns had prominent grain elevators with a rail line going through town. If you had a doubt where you were the name on the grain elevators was always visible.
Our bike club was usually on the road by 6:30 am, and the veterans left even earlier. Leaving early allowed a slower pace and the avoidance of the day’s building headwinds and heat. I soon realized it wasn’t about the race but the journey along the way. Food, conversation and vista views were the week’s highlights. To my surprise (I had expected flat), Iowa is beautiful rolling farmland with fields of corn and soybeans.
The week included tasting many local delicacies like homemade pies, scratch cupcakes, ham balls (think meatballs), maid-rite (sloppy joes), free roadside chocolate milk, grilled ribeye sandwiches, barbecued turkey drumsticks, skinless bratwurst (best ever), and homemade ice cream sandwiches to name a few.
Adding to the food experience were the many pleasant conversations with the locals. Every town came out in force to welcome their 20,000 guests. Neighbors sat in their lawn chairs and cheered us along, ringing cow bells and always thanking us for being in Iowa. I wore an ATLANTA Cycling jersey and often people came up and said, “Welcome to Iowa, thank you for being here”. It was a memorable trip in so many ways. I was touched by the many smiles and was constantly reminded of how friendly folks are from Iowa. Besides the many food attractions, towns were creative in their local fund raising, which included human foosball, pet a baby pig, shower dunking, and rubber duck races with squirt guns.
It was great to experience the Heartland with my son and dad. The trip reminded me of my grandmother saying, “knee high by the fourth of July”. RAGBRAI was the last week of July and the Iowa corn crop looked to be well over six feet. I’m thinking dad will want to have another crack at RAGBRAI and maybe recruit more of his eight grandchildren for another adventure.
