Even in Hedrick, it's location, location, location

Hedrick, Ia. — Bonnie Johnson needs to sell 2,500 breakfast biscuits this morning to help pay for the rennovation of a local ball diamond.

Even in a modest city park in this town of 800 — the first stop on today’s ride — Johnson and other parents and coaches learned that breakfast food doesn’t sell quickly when RAGBRAI riders don’t see you first.

So they leapfrogged the other local organizations and moved their stand about 100 feet to the south, closer to where the riders were coming into town.

“We’re looking to redo the fields, to make them a whole lot better,” said Johnson, whose 9-year-old daughter Whitney plays softball in town. “The biscuits are starting to sell now that we found a better spot.”

“We’re selling lots,” said 10-year-old Nate Kielkopf, who coaxed riders to the stand with the help of two friends.

Away from the commotion on a nearby children’s playground, Haelee Zook, 9, was killing time until her mom was done helping with the biscuits.

She didn’t see what all the fuss was about.

“It’s not a big deal,” she said of the thousands of cyclists who pedaled past the park, adding that she rides her bike “sometimes” and would “never” consider riding it across the state.

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