Aside from one mishap ? my own crash when I hit a big crack in the road 4 miles from the tire dip ? RAGBRAI's 2023 route inspection ride ended uneventfully as the riders arrived in Davenport on Saturday.
But that doesn't mean it was a dull ride. Our seven days on the road showed us that the 50th anniversary edition of the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa will have more variety of scenery, history and people than perhaps any other in RAGBRAI history, and some of the most memorable stops.
It will begin six weeks from Sunday in Sioux City, Iowa's westernmost metro area, on the Missouri River, where long before it stood, Lewis and Clark journeyed through and left behind the remains of the only member of their crew to die on their epic journey to the Pacific. The grave of Sgt. Charles Floyd, who succumbed to appendicitis, is marked with a sandstone obelisk on a high bluff over the river valley.