RAGBRAI LII July 19 - 26, 2025

Kingsley channels Mardi Gras spirit on Day 1 of RAGBRAI

  • 25 July, 2010
  • RAGBRAI

Kingsley – The Main Street here transformed into a small-town Bourbon Street Sunday, filled with costumes, beer and beads.

Local resident Danika Janssen, 20, and five of her friends waited at the front end of the street ready to greet the weary riders with an array of colorful, plastic-bead necklaces. While several offered to earn the beads in the typical New Orleans-fashion, the girls asked only that they stop by the Abubekr Shriner booth and grab some corn or water.

“Everyone thinks it’s Mardi Gras,” said Alex Brummer, 20, of Council Bluffs.

Brittany Kelly, 20, of Lawton; Alex Brummer, 20, of Council Bluffs; Landie Willer, 24, of Lawton; Danika Janssen, 20, of Kingsley; Shawndra Stratman, 20, of Lawton; Morgan Shumansky, 20, of Sioux City

The girls’ friendly greeting was enough to entice Brent and Robbie Mozak of Milo to pause on their journey to Storm Lake to snack on some corn-on-the-cob. Robbie, a first-time RAGBRAI rider, welcomed a moment to catch her breath.

“It’s a workout,” she said of the couple’s journey across the state on their tandem bike.

By 9:30 a.m. the beads adorned hundreds of necks. A sea of bikes still flooding through the streets promised there would be many more.

“That’s what it’s looked like since 8 a.m. this morning,” said Brittany Kelly, 20, of Lawton, motioning to a line of riders that far outnumbered the town’s population of 1,245. “It’s just been a really cool way to meet people.”

-Cynthia Reynaud

1 Comment

  1. Danika Janssen

    YEAY US!!!!!! :)

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