RAGBRAI ’25 is Coming!

The annual pilgrimage of biking enthusiasts will soon begin. Hefting their bikes and their gear into cars, trucks, buses, and trailers, they are coming en masse to Iowa. Specifically, they’ll be gathering in Orange City. Where the Dutch heritage is thick, and so are the tulips. It is July, and July means RAGBRAI!

Once again, I’ll be escorting the Buff Riders on their journey from one side of the state to the other. As their devoted SAG (Support And Gear) driver, I’ll be driving the Buff Bus through towns across the state. If you’re attending this wild gathering of bike enthusiasts and see this bus, stop by!

A Multi-State Affair

Although this will be one of the shortest RAGBRAI routes on record, we’ll be going across two states…in a way. This year, the event will become RAGBRAIM, in a way. We’ll be crossing over into Minnesota and riding north of the border for about 18 miles on Day 2. We won’t be stopping at any towns, but there’ll likely be a pile-up of people taking pictures in front of the Welcome to Minnesota sign. Others might try a tire dip in Loon Lake as we pass by that day.

Towns I Look Forward to Checking Out

They’re are a few towns along the way that I’m looking forward to checking out as we ride eastward. First is Estherville and the series of water trails it plays host to. I’ve posted about the water trails in Norfolk, Nebraska, in the past. So, it’ll be intriguing to see this one.

One of the meeting towns is Bancroft. A town of 680 residents that lost its battle with school consolidation. But they’ve made lemonade out of lemons by adaptively reusing the school as a community center.

Speaking of adaptive reuse, I’m also looking forward to checking out Bike Tech in Cedar Falls. This former Carnegie Library is now a bike shop.

But there’s one selfie moment I’m looking forward to. When we stop in the town of Crystal Lake, I’ll be taking a pic with the largest bullhead in the world!

Check Out Each Community Along the Way

Like in past years, I fully expect RAGBRAI ’25 to provide a treasure trove of potential content for the Rural Resurrection blog. I’ve started looking at towns along the way that might provide inspiration. But if you know of any unique aspects or stories about the following communities, let me know.

I’ve also included links to each Meeting Town’s and each Overnight Town’s Facebook page for the event below. Check them out. Every community approaches the annual event differently. Regardless of whether your community is in Iowa or another state, it is a good practice to see what each community does for such large events. You can also see how each community handles marketing. After checking out a few websites or Facebook pages, you can typically tell who does a good job and why.

Meeting Towns

Meeting towns are communities that usually provide a lunch stop. Well, except for those crazy riders who start at 4 am. They’re usually too small to hold riders overnight, but big enough to handle the influx for a few hours. It’s usually a nice mid-point for riders and their support crew to meet up.

Overnight Towns

Overnight towns are communities that host most of the riders for the evening. These communities are large enough to handle all the riders and are typically the county seat for their respective county.

Hopefully, I’ll have time to post to social media channels along the way. So be sure to subscribe and check Rural Resurrection’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts for short bits of content along the way.