2009 RAGBRAI passes through Stanton

RAGBRAI XXXVII Visits Stanton

After leaving Council Buffs Sunday morning, July 19, and overnighting in Red Oak, RAGBRAI riders passed through Stanton on their way to Greenfield. This is a brief history of RAGBRAI:
RAGBRAI, Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, began in 1973 when Des Moines Register feature writer/copy editor John Karras suggested to Register columnist Don Kaul that he ride his bicycle across Iowa and write columns about what he saw.

Kaul and Karras made the ride together, and they invited the public to ride along. About 300 people showed up for the ride. The ride then became an annual event, this being the 37^th year. The RAGBRAI routes have passed through all 99 Iowa counties.

RAGBRAI was the first cross-state ride, since copied by a number of other states. Riders come from every state and many foreign countries. A lottery is held to limit weeklong riders to 8,500. 3000 daily passes are also issued by lottery. Many nonregistered riders also participate, especially for a day or two near their hometowns. As many as 23,000 riders have been estimated to ride on a given day. Read more at Wikipedia: http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/RAGBRAI_-_History/id/5403673

This site has some interesting pictures and videos, especially of Red Oak and Stanton.

http://ragbrai.com/index.php/2009/07/21/the-twister-and-the-tent/comment-page-1/#video-2303

These are a few pictures of their visit as they passed through Stanton with 65 miles to go to their overnight stop at Greenfield. In spite of that distance to go, and threat of rain, riders lingered as Stanton again (for the third time) showed them a great time, and provided many refueling stops that left thousands of dollars in profits for Stanton organizations.

Seen on the back of a T-shirt—a good title for this page.

He said the concrete block was real. I guess it’s just to prove he could.

Just in case they don’t have his favorites along the way.

Valkommen

I had to stop for a picture to prove that I made it to Stanton.

Highly visible headgear helps keep riders together.

Where would we be without our cell phones?

This is where the ride ended and the walk began.

A fire truck and sign advertised pancakes at the other end of town.

The line at the left is riders waiting for repairs at one of the ten shops that accompany RAGBRAI.

Swedish dancers guide riders to the Swedish History and Cultural Center for refreshments.

The former “Old Main” school. It’s now the oldest public building in Montgomery County still in use.

Food Preparation

One of the generous riders contributes to the freewill offering at the History Center.

Great! A Swedish tea ring. That was my choice.

One of our guests last night, (right in blue), visits with members of Teem John Deere. A John Deere engineer is watching me.

I took our overnight guests on a tour.

The line at the left was people waiting to have their bicycles repaired at one of the shops that accompanies RAGBRAI.

There were many teams wearing team jerseys.

The Livestrong team was recording names of cancer victims that were written on ribbons worn around this woman’s waist. The man has a cancer victim’s name on his back.