July 23, 2008: RAGBRAI riders enter the west side of Tama.
FORTY YEARS after its first and only visit to Allamakee County, RAGBRAI is going to end in Lansing.
From Orange City (which is new as a starter town; others started in Hawarden) to Charles City, not much is totally new to RAGBRAI, with the exceptions of Sutherland (on the gravel loop) and Thornton. But then the route opens up to many new sights.
The route has been to Chickasaw County only once since 1993, and hasn’t routinely trod any ground northeast of West Union except for 1977, and both those change this year. New Hampton, Waukon, and Lansing are both on the route for the first time since 1977, the latter two as host cities (making Allamakee the first county to have two overnight towns in one year). Lawler, Castalia, Waterville, and Harpers Ferry are all new, as is Postville, heretofore the 10th-largest place in Iowa the ride had not visited.
Wapello becomes the least-recently-visited once-host city (1979), followed by Akron (1982) — which, given the trends, is likely to be here permanently — then Keokuk (1992) and, surprisingly enough, Marion (1994).
Finally, with Ionia on the route this year, 1977 becomes the third year for which every town passed through then has been passed through at least once later (1975, 1980).
My list of yearly RAGBRAI towns has been updated based on the Register’s daily maps issued last week.