July 23, 2008: RAGBRAI passed through the center of Iowa (well, close enough) in 2008 and will again this year.
The Register’s preview appears to be trying to tell me something.
If you can locate Ute, Aspinwall, Dana, Peoria and Harper on a map, you should launch a candidacy for statewide office.
*clears throat, raises hand*
If nominated, I will not run; if elected, well, you’ve done worse.
Since the Register switched to releasing daily maps on the RAGBRAI website, there’s been a little less of the history invoked in the main route stories. This route passes through five towns that have never been on it before, and despite being a short central route travels some roads that haven’t been used either ever or recently.
- Towns RAGBRAI has never been to but will hit in 2018 are Aspinwall, New Sharon (on the century loop aka Karras Loop), Wellman, Kalona, and Blue Grass.
- Towns not visited in the last 30 years are Soldier (1987), Moorhead (1981) (gravel loop this time), Ute (1987), Charter Oak (1987), Melbourne (1976), Harper (1986) and Keota (1986).
- Given the map, if Lambs Grove ends up on the route, the ride will pass through 46 incorporated places including 2 on the loops.
- Parts of the Lincoln Highway in Greene, Boone, Story, and Marshall counties will be followed. The segments from Scranton to Boone and Ames to State Center repeat 2008.
- Segments RAGBRAI has never used before: IA 141 through Aspinwall, through Ledges State Park, the roads in the Karras Loop, Keota to Riverside (mainly IA 22), and Wilton to just north of Blue Grass.
- Bettendorf gets stiffed AGAIN. This is just mean. The city should lobby hard to be the endpoint in 2022, after the I-74 bridge is completed. The cycle would be just right.
- Because the ride passes through Kalona this year, Traer is now the second-largest community not adjacent to a metro area that RAGBRAI has never been through, behind only Alta. (Alta’s been left out of FIVE separate Sioux-City-to-Storm-Lake segments; is the railroad crossing an issue?) Overall, Traer is the 12th-largest city completely unscathed by the pie-eating hordes, although there are five larger that haven’t seen riders in at least 30 years.
I have updated my RAGBRAI towns list to include the 2018 list.