Its time to put in what our guesses are for the “Guess the Route” contest. Since this is not a RAGRBRAI ending in a 0 like the 40th, I think they’ll stick with the northern-central-southern route rotation making this year a central route. I’m working on mine. I think this year we’ll be enjoying some of the Iowa’s slightly larger cities. Starting in Council Bluffs, going through Ames and ending in Dubuque. Let’s start putting out our full route predictions we’ll actually enter the contest with!
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I’m going with a diagonal trek. Sargent Bluff-Ida Grove-Jefferson-Valley Junction-Newton-Sigourney-Fairfield-Burlington.
Bellevue is past due for an ending too.
FYI… Onawa in the past, hasn’t
submit an application request for RAGBRAI.
Is nobody anticipating a route that ends with a Mississippi River tour? We have the eagle that is alleged to be a hint. My guess is the ride will end with an overnight stop on a Mississippi town and end on the Mississippi. How does this sound: overnight at Dubuque and end the ride at Gutenberg?
TM,
A last full day along the Mississippi sounds great and the Eagle could be the hint. Guttenberg though is a northern route end town. We were there in 2014. Plus this is a central route year. I suspect after last year’s traffic jams in tiny Lansing they’ll want to end in a larger town like Dubuque.
It’s awfully quiet out there. Normally by now someone has picked up on some scuttlebutt from a local or a city council meeting. Maybe towns are getting better at keeping a secret, or everyone’s holding out to win the guess the route contest.
I have submitted Onawa as A start town many times. No wonder I don’t win! Thanks for the heads up gbtrektn! I am thinking maybe a Missouri Valley start then. Or possibly Sioux City. No Missouri Valley! That will be the start. Usually I only pay attention to the start town. All the other towns are the journey headed towards the destination! LOL have a great day everyone!
This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by
Amanda.
Every year I would have Lansing as my last stop guess, that was until last year…
The guy at the meat counter at my local grocery store said Onawa put their request in so Onawa will be the start. He knows his steaks so I am sure he is right!
It’s been well over a month since my last prediction, so here’s an updated one:
Missouri Valley – Denison – Jefferson – Ames – Newton – Marengo – Mt.Vernon – Clinton
I will probably change it again.
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, IOWA……
“I think this year we’ll be enjoying some of the Iowa’s slightly larger cities. Starting in Council Bluffs, going through Ames and ending in Dubuque. Let’s start putting out our full route predictions we’ll actually enter the contest with!”
There’s a contest?
BTW, RAGBRAI don’t care!!!!
Yes, there is an official overnight town guess contest. Search “Guess the Route Contest” on the RAGBRAI website for prior years info. Seems like the blog post announcing this contest should be posted soon as it was posted in early to mid December in past years. In 2009, someone guessed all 8 overnight town correctly – much better than 2006 when the winner correctly guessed only 3 overnight towns.
In 2006 the first and second place people actually tied with 3 town correct each. To break the tie, the RAGBRAI staff put the two names in a head and drew 1st and 2nd place. I cant remember who got first but I remember who got second place…ME!
It was nicely pointed out to me that my post contains a typo. Two names were put into a hat not a head…. I hope this made you all laugh, just like it made my cousin laugh.
Contest is OPEN. I put in my 1 guess.
Tomthebike,
Greetings and felicitations of the season, ragbrai’ers
I like your route:
However, let’s not forget our brethren and sistern who travel from the west: California; Nevada; Utah; Wyoming; and, Nebraska before reaching the promised land of I-O-Way.
I have dusted the snow off of my ever-unreliable crystal and it revealed this route: Missouri Valley; Atlantic; Guthrie Center; Winterset; Chariton; Bloomfield; Keosauqua; and, Keokuk.
All of the talk on other threads about the significance of the eagle in the logo, references to astronauts, etc are just fine examples of TJ’s red herrings, designed to throw us off track (remember all of the Mark Twain/steamboat references last year?).
I’ll go with my crystal’s prediction. We shall see if it’s right when the route is announced next month. If it’s wrong again this year, as it has been in prior years, I may switch to a Magic 8-Ball next year.
See you along the I-O-Way in July.