In Which RAGBRAI Will Follow the River

Photo posted on Facebook by RAGBRAI. The Jan. 26 announcement.

The big surprise is now out—I wondered if they would do something really new, like a north to south route—but no, the surprise for RAGBRAI 2019 is the final day—Burlington to Keokuk.

Honestly, I’m not 100 percent on how I feel about that. I do like the idea of a day along the mighty Mississippi, but it ends in Keokuk. Granted, that’s a city of some size, not some isolated hamlet like Guttenberg or Lansing, but by accident of geography (being at the tip of a peninsula formed by the Des Moines and Mississippi rivers) Keokuk manages to be geographically isolated. We’ll have to mount an early summer scouting mission—how hard will this city be to get into and out of?

And it’s just way, way down there. Clinton-Davenport-Muscatine, heck, even Burlington—those are easy cities to get to for CR Biker, and easy to enter and exit. Keokuk is way the heck down into Missouri, a strange, exotic and (maybe) isolated town.

2019 RAGBRAI Logo from DesMoinesRegister.com.

Which may not be entirely bad news. I have been by the city K often in my life, but never into the city (no major north-south highway leading from parts of Iowa to parts of Missouri goes through Keokuk—it is a city that is not on the way to anywhere). So for me, it is an unexplored corner of Iowa.

The start in Council Bluffs is not bad—that’s a big place with lots of ingress and egress options, and they have a pretty cool by-the-river facility to start this sort of thing.

Other overnight towns include Atlantic, Winterset, Indianola and Centerville, in addition to Burlington.

Ah. And Fairfield. A nice little town, with a pretty town square—but last time RAGBRAI stopped there, ape excrement cray-cray, too. The was the city where an officious gate guard would not let our clearly legit support vehicle in because we could not name a team on her odd little list, and so others in town had to conspire to sneak us in via a back alley to get to the official camp site we were entitled to in the first place.

Fairfield—the land that brains forgot.

OK, OK totally unfair and not accurate, either. That was an uncalled for rant—an unfair smear against a fine, slightly off-balance, Iowa town. One crazy gate guard does not a crazy town make, although it says something about the level of Fairfield Crazy (one step below Trump Crazy) that the other organizers, instead of correcting crazy gate guard lady, found it easier to sneak us in a back way.

Never argue with a crazy lady wielding a clipboard in Fairfield. That’s a rule, like never get involved in a land war in Asia.

One of my images from RAGBRAI 2018.

Anyway, I’m a bit mixed at many levels. RAGBRAI is a southern route this year—not the far south route of a few years ago through the most impoverished areas of Iowa, but close enough to Missouri that it will feel a little less like Iowa.

And I’m just a bit up in the air in riding the whole thing, anyway. I’ve done the whole RAGBRAI for enough years now that I’m starting to look for the off ramp. Not that I want to give it up—I would like to celebrate the year of my 80th birthday with a full RAGBRAI, if I’m physically able, and if I’m will probably ride part of the route most years—but the time, expense and sheer wear of an entire week seems less attractive to CR Biker as he ages.

I don’t need that mark on my bucket list. Been there, done that, it was great fun and I think I’ll do it again sometime, but do I need to ride the full week every year? How about starting in Winterset or Indianola?

What do you think, Team Joe? Are we ready for a more truncated ride?

Group photo of Team Joe, Boone, 2018.

This was the year that I might have missed RAGBRAI completely. We are planning to visit our daughter in England, and had thought of doing an Ireland tour and meeting her in Dublin. Given their school breaks, late July was looking as the time to do it.

Then, we decided that while we do want to tour the emerald isle, it will just not be this year. We want a little more time to plan that adventure. So our England trip this summer may not conflict with RAGBRAI (although, to be honest, it still could because dates are not firmly set yet).

Still, between registration, bike maintenance, meals, travel to the start and finish, etc., I probably invest something around $750 in RAGBRAI each year, not counting the training cost (and I should not count the training cost because I would plan to spend my whole summer on a bicycle even without RAGBRAI). I’m good for the money, but my wife and I had a ball traveling to Missouri last year—we’re getting to a life phase where doing more joint travel is a priority, and my wife is not interested in riding RAGBRAI.

Maybe it would make sense take $300 or so of the RAGBRAI fund and use it for the elderly couple travel adventure fund. I bet I could do 3 to 4 days of RAGRAI for around $450, give or take.

Anyway, I still have to confer with the team (and the spouse). I did buy two camp chairs just for RAGBRAI use. But I would like to have part of my late July week back home, too.

Still, there is Keokuk. Hmm. I might enjoy seeing you on two wheels.

The route was announced tonight, and I watched it live on The Gazette’s web site. Here is RAGBRAI 2019:

• Day 1, 58 miles, Council Bluffs to Atlantic.
• Day 2, 68 miles, Atlantic to Winterset.
• Day 3, 39 miles, Winterset to Indianola.
• Day 4: 68 miles, Indianola to Centerville.
• Day 5, 65 miles, Centerville to Fairflield.
• Day 6, 57 miles, Fairfield to Burlington.
• Day 7, 62 miles, Burlington to Keokuk.

It’s 427 miles total, with 14,735 feet of climb, according to the announcement today. That may alter slightly as details of the route are fleshed out, but there you have it.