Rocking the RAGBRAI road with the Iowa State Patrol

ROCKWELL, Ia. — A swarm of bicyclists pulls up to a busy highway intersection on RAGBRAI. Iowa State Patrol troopers bring them to a stop so that they can wave through long lines of cars in both directions waiting to cross the route. Cue the dance party and standup-omedy routine.

Another feature of this wacky ride is how we have come to rely on troopers and other law enforcement not only to keep us safe on the road but to boost our morale. Especially at trooper intersections, you never know what you might hear from the men and women in the brown polyester uniforms.

Early in the week I waited for traffic among a biker throng as Trooper Shelby McCreedy strutted to Prince’s “1999.” The crowd cheered her on. Meanwhile, Trooper Jon Stickney joked with riders over the PA.

Another day, another intersection, I was stopped again as McCreedy facetiously asked bicyclists if they’d like to pause for a deep philosophical discussion before they started rolling again.

She gets the ethos of the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. McCreedy, 45, rode it a couple times in the 1990s, she said, “when I was still young.”

MORE RAGBRAI COVERAGE: Stories | Photos | Route Tracker

And she made what I thought was a perceptive observation: “Even with milliseconds at a time, you and the cyclists build relationships throughout the week.”

Wednesday was declared “Law Enforcement Appreciation Day” on RAGBRAI, but I’ve been appreciating them all week and through the years for their benevolent presence along the route. Whether it’s the troopers, or the Iowa C.O.P.S. (Concerns of Police Survivors) team that I rode with last year that lends a helping hand to the families of fallen officers, they’ve provided crucial support.

Not to mention that RAGBRAI is a rare chance for the officers to show that they’re people, not just authority figures.

The big controversy here tends to be which trooper gets to choose the roadside music to blare from one or more giant speakers that sit atop a cruiser.

“Oh, we argue,” McCreedy said of her time spent haggling over the playlist this year alongside Stickney.

She warned her colleague that he could play DJ “until he had two duds in a row.”

“If Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber were back to back, he was permanently barred,” she added.

BRIGHT’S BIKE-FREE FUTURE

Sgt. Scott Bright with the patrol was one of the key people to deploy the tactic of music at intersections.

“A lot of people think it’s for the riders,” he said, “but it’s for the troopers.”

If you think it would be boring to bicycle across the state, what about spending all week standing at rural intersections?

But Bright, after 28 years as a trooper and 14 with RAGBRAI, is retiring. This is his final ride.

Sgt. Scott Bright with the Iowa State Patrol talks with riders as they wait to get on the route Wednesday, July 26, 2017, on the fourth day of RAGBRAI. This is Bright’s 14th and final year working the event. (Michael Zamora/The Register)

He never has pedaled a single mile of RAGBRAI. He has no desire to become a bicyclist.

But he has loved soaking up its culture. He remains amazed at the friends he has made while keeping watch over the brightly colored blur that streams by. He ended up tailgating a football game in State College, Pa., with a fellow Penn State fan whom he met on the ride.

Bikers he has befriended through the years — that magic of milliseconds at a time — make a point to stop at his intersection each day.

Bright this year leads a team of a dozen troopers from the patrol’s education unit who represent more than 100 years of RAGBRAI experience among them. He’s proud that there never has been a bicyclist hit by a car at a trooper intersection.

He moved from his native Pennsylvania in 1990 to begin his career with the State Patrol.

He worked RAGBRAI from 1995 to 2001, and then seven years ago he was asked to come back and run the unit.

So in recent years Bright has embarked at the end of each year with RAGBRAI Director T.J. Juskiewicz and Assistant Director Scott Garner on long drives around the state to scout a new route. Long before he stands vigil at intersections, he’s out there eyeing every curve and crack in the road.

“It’s amazing how many friends I get when they know I come back from the route,” he said.

But Bright keeps the information out of sight in a locked filing cabinet and doesn’t utter a word.

Bright also spent seven years on Gov. Tom Vilsack’s security detail, another job that took him not only to every corner of the state but to China, New Zealand and the Super Bowl.

He has dined at the White House and met five presidents.

Yet his most exotic adventure and the one that will define his time in Iowa may be RAGBRAI.

He’s keeping mum on his specific post-retirement plans, except that he’s looking at opportunities with “different companies.” He and his wife plan to move to Virginia, to be closer to their sons and other family.

His bosses will decide who replaces him at the helm of RAGBRAI traffic.

That trooper will have a lot of new friends each year eager to learn the RAGBRAI route. And can settle arguments over RAGBRAI intersection playlists.

RAGBRAI Day 4 Photos: Clear Lake to Charles City

Related Articles