RAGBRAI LI and southern Iowa's 'Pac-Man Problem'
In south-central Iowa especially, finding a route isn't easy as pie
RAGBRAI LI is going from Glenwood to Burlington, a southern Iowa route, but not all the way south. Between Red Oak and Ottumwa, the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa stays north of U.S. Highway 34.
The last southern Iowa ride was in 2019, and when the ride visits the area, large segments in the middle have been used repeatedly. A likely explanation is the area’s rolling hills; RAGBRAI LI is the hilliest ride ever. That can be a weakness in an analysis looking at the map in two dimensions and not three.
But there’s another issue as well: South-central Iowa has a Pac-Man Problem.
Consider the famous pie-shaped video game character who has nothing better to do than go along paths he hasn’t traveled and get chased by ghosts he occasionally turns the tables on. Pac-Man eats through the entire grid to advance levels. There’s always a way from here to there. It’s not a perfect analogy — unlike a RAGBRAI rider, Pac-Man must take every route and can backtrack — but it can be useful here.
If you visualize Iowa’s paved county roads as a Pac-Man map, it’s a lot easier to get from one point to another without backtracking or “dead ends” in the northern two-thirds of the state than the southern one-third.
See that gap south of Corydon in Wayne County? That’s about 6 miles between Allerton and County Road S40. Back in the 1910s, Idaho Avenue was part of the Waubonsie Trail, but in the century since, it’s remained gravel. A paved connection there, and use of about 4 miles of U.S. Highway 65 north of Lineville, would create an unbroken string of concrete and asphalt from Lamoni to Centerville all south of Iowa Highway 2. As things stand, though, the ride’s five trips into Wayne County have only used County Road J22 across the northern part and a section of Iowa Highway 14 south of Chariton to get to that road.
Corydon and Logan are the only two county seats RAGBRAI has never visited.
In addition, compared with the rest of the state, far southern Iowa has many more bituminous/“blacktop” roads. This type is lower quality than concrete/asphalt and often lacks pavement markings and shoulders.
A short gap east of Braddyville recently became a longer one. Page County Board of Supervisors minutes from Oct. 6, 2020, later printed in the Clarinda Herald-Journal, revealed a change in the status of County Road J55, and said “If and when the wind farms stop tearing up the roads it will be returned to a hard surface road.” Google Street View has two views of the road, in July 2015 and November 2021, and the change is obvious.
The long, straight road west of U.S. Highway 71 to Hamburg a mile north of the Missouri border, which at various times was part of Iowa Highway 333, has never been used at length. It could be because Hamburg is too small to be a starting point for today’s RAGBRAI crowds.
This year, the RAGBRAI team may have found a partial solution to the “Pac-Man Problem” by leveling up and using some state highways.
Notes on the RAGBRAI LI route
The house in RAGBRAI LI’s logo has a window with a shape recognizable as one seen on the “American Gothic” house, and for good reason. For the first time, the ride will go through Eldon, where the house from that iconic painting is located.
From midday Thursday, July 25, to past midday Friday, July 26, about 85% of the path from Albia to Pleasant Plain has never been on the RAGBRAI map before. That includes Iowa Highway 137 from Albia to Eddyville and Iowa Highway 16 from near Agency to County Road V64. The latter road has a low daily traffic count.
The other significant segment that’s all new is on Tuesday, July 23: County Road N28 and Iowa Highway 92 from Wiota to Fontanelle.
The long never-before-used segments open the door to six incorporated towns being on the ride for the first time — Elliott, Cumberland, Massena, Eddyville, Agency, and Eldon — and one unincorporated town, Selma. Contrary to Register reporting, St. Marys is not a first-timer. It has been on the way three times, most recently 2009.
Two communities haven’t been visited this century, Griswold (1989) and Coppock (1992). The latter, population 36, isn’t marked on the daily maps, but both Iowa Highway 78 and County Road W47 for the Karras Loop pass through the city limits.
Wednesday’s optional gravel route out of Winterset will pass by two covered bridges, and all riders will see the Imes Bridge just east of St. Charles.
Riders will pass through Lacona, whose school building just closed, and Orient, whose school will close next year. Greenfield will be pulling off a herculean effort to be a meeting town two months after being devastated by a tornado.
Unlike how building a new NFL stadium earns a city a Super Bowl, paving a stretch of road here or there will not guarantee a RAGBRAI visit in the future. But just like Pac-Man eating dots, riders will find a way to munch a path across the state.
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What an interesting route. I wish everyone a great trip.
Fascinating detail. Thank you!