Route Inspection Ride: Day 3 – Carroll to Boone

by T.J. Juskiewicz, RAGBRAI Director

We had a huge group of riders join the RAGBRAI Route Inspection pre-riders on our 71-mile jaunt from Carroll to Boone.  Most of the riders were from the Carroll area including our local RIDE RIGHT chair Mary Jo Steinkamp.  Mary Jo and her committee have done a great job of getting the town of Carroll more excited about cycling and educating the community, making Carroll more bicycle friendly.  It was nice to hear that Carroll will be putting together a bike club so the enthusiasm can continue long after RAGBRAI comes through Carroll.  We were also joined by our friends from Team Spin, sans the purple wigs, who joined us for most of the day’s ride, Vern and Vicky Willey from Altoona and the Brancel Family from Wisconsin.

The day’s ride is roughly 71 miles and about 1,800 feet of climb.  That is about 40% of the climb we experienced the day before.  We were very fortunate that the winds were mostly favorable for us again, especially since the temperatures were still in the 100 degrees range.  The hills were relatively easy, well easy compared to the first two days.  I stayed in my middle and big ring the entire day and only dropped down to granny to climb Twister Hill outside of Pilot Mound.  Just so you know, Twister Hill sounds tough, but it was much easier than last year’s Potter’s Hill.  I guess Potter’s Hill is the measuring stick for all future RAGBRAI hills.

We noticed some great construction work has been done on the roads for this day.  The county road east of Lidderdale was just freshly asphalted, making a real smooth roll for the pre-riders.  We also biked by construction crews filling potholes and other road hazards in Boone County along the RAGBRAI route.  We applaud the efforts of the county and state engineers who do everything that they can within their means to make the roadways safe for riders.

Here are some facts and points of interest from each town.

Lidderdale

RAGBRAI has visited the community of Lidderdale twice before, the last time occurring in 1994.  This town of 186 will be the first breakfast stop just 10 miles outside of Carroll.  Lidderdale will be serve breakfast treats from their Fire Station and the Community Hall.  The town will be serving a variety of croissant breakfast sandwiches and fruits.  Local farmers will proudly display their tractors and you might ever see some farm animals around. 

Lanesboro

Lanesboro will be the seventh and final Carroll County towns that riders will enjoy during RAGBRAI XXXIX.   This town of 152 people has hosted RAGBRAI three times before, the last occurring in 1994.  The community will be serving a variety of food in the park and in the downtown and the church will have breakfast burritos.  Chris Cakes is scheduled to be at the town’s Fire Station.  The town has recently opened a new bar and grill named The Real McCoy, which happens to the team pub for Team Spin.  The bar will be serving Sausage-on-a-Stick, a sausage dipped in pancake batter then deep fried. 

Churdan (Meeting Town)

The town’s name is pronounced SURE-DAN and the town is still Churdan-dy.

Churdan has hosted RAGBRAI on four occasions, the last time in 1998.  This town of 418 people have some great activities planned in their downtown and the park. 

Nine non-profit organizations of Churdan will have a vendors booth.  Groups included are the United Methodist Church, First Baptist Church, Catholic Church, Churdan Public Library, Churdan Appreciation Day Committee, P-C Spanish Trip kids, P-C Junior Class, Churdan Fireman & EMS, and Cedar Reading Rockers 4-H.  The booth will be located in front of the Churdan Public Library on the north side of the main street.  They will be serving pie, cinnamon rolls, cookies and bars, and beverages.

The town will also showcase an agriculture theme with a variety of make and models.  For a special attraction Churdan will have BIG BUD 450/50, Case 80hps stream engine, 9^th scale miniature Rumley stream engine. 

The Churdan Centennial building will be open to tour.

The park just north of Main Street will host number of events such as the Town and Country Band, Redneck swimming pool, peddle tractor obstacle course, the Kick ASS photo stop, along with much more.

 Water bottle refill station will be set up at the east edge of Main Street.  A cool water mister will be set up for riders who want to ride or walk through a wall of water. A variety of quality vendors will line the main street.

The Churdan Bar and Grill has the following lined up; large outside beer garden-large tented area within the garden. They will have 5 full service bars serving mixed drinks, wine, beer and apple pie shots, chicken wings and French fries. Music will be provided by the Cedar Creek Tunes.

Great support vehicles parking located close to the route down Main Street.

Paton

The town’s name is pronounced PAY-TON, so let’s practice that everyone.

Did you know that the tiny town of 265 people is the hometown of Astronaut Loren Shriver?  Colonel Shriver will be riding on RAGBRAI this summer!  Shriver has logged over 194 hours in space.

…and did you know that Paton, Iowa was the hometown of the fictional character Private Ryan.  In the movie Saving Private Ryan, Tom Hanks asks Matt Damon if he is James Francis Ryan of Iowa. “Yes, sir. Paton, Iowa, that’s correct. What is this about?” replies Damon. 

The pre-riders were treated to some awesome ribeye sandwiches (also called Wally Burgers) at the Paton Fire Department.  The fire department and the Greene County Cattlemen will be serving the thin ribeye steak sandwiches throughout the day.  The volunteer fire department is dreaming of a new tanker truck.

There will also be an assortment of other food vendors along Paton’s Main Street and a local DJ will keep riders entertained.  Paton last hosted RAGBRAI in 1998. 

Dana (Optional Karras Loop)

Tiny Dana, Iowa (population 84) is our smallest town and will be the only town on the optional Karras Loop.  Riders will make a return visit to Paton on the Loop.  Registered riders will receive their Karras Loop patches in Dana and CLIF Bar will be on site again handing out CLIF products to riders.  Polar Bottles will also be in Dana with ice cold water.  Polar will also be trading a new Polar Bottle filled with ice water in exchange for your old bottle.

Pilot Mound

Pilot Mound was the location that some of the most exciting scenes of the 1996 movie “Twister” were filmed.  The scene where Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton are chasing the tornado up a hill with hail is filmed up the hill just east of Pilot Mound.  Locals dubbed the hill, Twister Hill, after the movie.  Be sure to pop in the Twister Lounge to see the articles from the filming of the movie in town.

This is the fifth time for Pilot Mound to host RAGBRAI with the last time happening in 1998.  The food will be served out of the community center that was helped funded by RAGBRAI’s visit back in 1991.  The town raised over $5,000 that day and rallied the community to raise the rest to build a community center.  There will be plenty of food and drinks for all to enjoy.

Boone

Tuesday’s riders will end the day by “Chuggin’ into Boone” The town’s train heritage will be on full display.  The Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad & Museum will be offering a RAGBRAI special train into the Des Moines river valley leaving from both the Story Street downtown depot and the Museum Depot.   

The Boone RAGBRAI Committee has planned some great entertainment with daytime entertainment in Herman Park and evening entertainment in the downtown.

Boone’s headliner is Hairball, who rocked Chariton back in 2009.  You will not want to miss the Hairball show.

MAIN EVENT schedule for Boone RAGBRAI 2011 (Downtown location- map)

Dale Blue 5:30 p.m.
Damon Dotson 7:15 p.m.
Hairball 9:30 p.m.

Daytime Entertainment 2011 (Herman Park Pavilion location – map)

Myra Henderson 9 a.m.
Ben2k 10:30a.m.
Brad McCloud And The Case Of The Blues 12:45a.m.-3:00p.m.

*Make your own entertainment in the “Pedaler’s Got Talent Boone” talent contest (see event details here)

Times and schedule subject to change.

Day 3 – Wednesday, June 8

Looks like the temps will still hover around 100 for our ride tomorrow from Boone to Altoona. This is one of the back to back shorter days, so hope the legs can recover!  Tune in tomorrow for another report from the Route Inspection Ride!

Related Articles