Opinion : RAGBRAI: Sit back and enjoy the ride-through

"RAGBRAI is not like it was years ago," said an organizer who came to Washington, Iowa, a dozen years ago.

I was working for the newspaper there when RAGBRAI riders spent a night in that county seat, 87 miles south of Vinton, a few miles west of Highway 218.

As they do each year, event organizers from The Des Moines Register visited Washington and all the other overnight cities to help them prepare.

Someone asked a question about the partying that some associate with the event.

That's when the organizer explained how he had seen RAGBRAI change over the years.

"Back then, nobody even wore helmets," he said.

But by 2000, he explained, the people who liked to party as much as they liked to ride in the 1970s had grown up, settled down, and worn out. "It's now more of a family event," the organizer told me in 2000.

Sure, there are those who still bring their adult beverages and get a little loud. But they will be saving their energy and refreshments for their overnight stay in Cedar Rapids.

I think the most serious criminal activity that took place during that overnight stay in Washington in Y2K was the theft of a green "Madison Avenue" street sign by a club from another state which had "Madison Avenue" in its name. (It was my opinion that the city officials should have, in the spirit of hospitality, offered to sell that group a sign instead of filing misdemeanor charges.)

I thought of these things while reading the comments about our story announcing the RAGBRAI ride-through on July 26.

Regardless of what happened in Vinton in 1978, and whether riders or local people were partying too much, there will not be any of those concerns this year.

The thousands of riders passing through will maybe spend an hour, maybe two or three at most, in Vinton. They will be tired and sore after riding for several hours a day for the past several days. They will be thirsty and hungry. The segment between Marshalltown and Cedar Rapids is also the longest and most hilly of this year's route, according to the people who count miles and measure hilltops.

A few years ago, RAGBRAI rode through Keystone, Van Horne and Newhall. I was in all three cities for several hours. I saw nothing that would cause anyone to complain about the visitors, with the notable exception of some extremely awful karaoke singers in Newhall. (By the way, you'd think they'd get tired of singing "YMCA" and "Sweet Home Alabama" every single year, but so far, it seems, they have not.)

So, like I often say when one of my kids gets uptight while we are traveling some place, sit back and enjoy the ride. Get involved with the groups planning the event (it's a great fund-raiser for local service organizations, as well as a chance to show off the great people and stuff we have here in Vinton). Come out that day and hang out. You will meet many fascinating people, see an intriguing collection of bicycles, and learn a lot about people, and cycling.

You may even learn a bit about forgetting 34-year-old first impressions.