A Half Century of Cycling
This year marks the fiftieth anniversary ride for RAGBRAI…the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. The general route and overnight host cities were announced Saturday night. One of the overnight stays this year is in my hometown of Toledo, which will host with its next-door neighbor, Tama.
I recall when RAGBRAI first stayed overnight in the Toledo-Tama area; it was the seventh ride, back in 1979 and I was a 16-year-old high school student, barely able to drive. That year, cyclists came from Story City to Toledo; then braced for the “century ride” the next day to Fairfield.
The general campground was at the high school athletic complex, built squarely on the shared city limits line—a concession in the middle 1960s when the two towns merged their schools into a regional, consolidated district. The high school building is in Tama, but the parking lot and athletic complex is in Toledo.
I have two vivid memories of that visit. One had to do with serving food out of a remodeled trailer. My father was devoted to Lions Club efforts, and he was in charge of setting up a mobile lunch wagon that could be taken to various events to raise funds for their various projects. As I recall, the maiden voyage of the lunch wagon was at RAGBRAI…I took orders at the window and passed them on to the back, where he and others cooked up grilled burgers, fries, and the like. He had built and operated an A&W in our hometown, so he knew his way around a grill.
It’s a four-decade-old memory, but still a fond one…even when they had to relight the pilot on the grill and just about sent me to a burn unit. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much.
The other memory is of meeting Donald Kaul for an interview on the grounds shortly before he left on the following day’s ride. He was sipping a cup of coffee, looking around at this thing that had already grown well beyond expectations. I asked if I could interview him for the newspaper; he sized me up and said he charged for his interviews. I stammered and asked how much. He looked to a nearby vendor that was selling donuts and replied, “How about a donut?” The price being agreed upon, we had a nice conversation, despite my nerves…and I enjoyed retelling that to him when I next saw him, as a college student a half-dozen years later.
I still have a bright red souvenir t-shirt from that day, at RAGBRAI 7…here’s hoping others back home, and along the route, have similar memories of ride number 50.
