Camping...or where do 30,000 people sleep every night?

The answer is everywhere! On every street in these small towns, someone is camping on the lawn. School grounds, parks, fair grounds, football fields…they all become tent cities when RAGBRAI comes to town.

In Greenfield, the smallest town on this year’s route (2,700), it seemed as if most of the residents hosted a few riders in their yards. Local volunteers coordinate the home stays and, according to Cathy, they match the hosts with teams based on their needs. Some only want yards and access to showers, if possible. Others, like us, want to use the kitchens to cook a meal. Dan Reinboldt coordinates the arrangements every year, and sends a biography of each team member, along with our offer to cook a delicious dinner for the family. With the exception of Chariton, it was successful this year (but Cathy and I didn’t feel as though Chariton had as many campers in the yards as other communities, so perhaps they didn’t get the host family turnout).

Most communities have the large campgrounds scattered all over town, but Ottumwa was different. A bend in the Des Moines River created a large open space that the community turned into a park. So everyone not staying at someone's home was grouped together and the effect was impressive. When this shot was taken, it was still early in the day, so the tents and RVs that are in are set up under the trees for shade.

One of the most interesting things we saw was a “tent city” put together by one of the tour companies. As a rider, you pay a fee and they transport everything for you across the route. When you arrive at the next site, there’s a tent set up for you. Pork Belly Ventures (PBV) has a sophisticated operation. Cathy and I counted 190 identical tents set in neat rows.

Bikers’ bags were all unloaded from a semi trailer, ready to be claimed. They were grouped by when they went on the truck so it was easier to locate one duffel in a sea of identical ones.
The tour companies sent a team ahead the day before to stake out an area large enough to handle things. All the tents were out in the open area (no one can complain that they’re not in the shade that way), so it can get pretty hot inside. Not very fun when you want to rest after a long ride.

So they set up dining/resting tents in shaded areas to give the riders a place to rest. Some have beverage stations. PBV also has a massage station set up for their participants.

Showers are nifty little canvas tents that pop up. Of course, it’s not the warmest water! PBV also has small washing stations where you can brush your teeth, shave or wash your hair. Participants on a tour like this eat at the churches or from the town square vendors. And they rake in the money! We saw this guy sitting in a semi counting the cash. He couldn't believe we wanted his picture.

Many riders have RVs that go along as support vehicles. Like tents, these are parked everywhere. I was amazed at how Bob could park the motorcoach in the tightest places. In Chariton, one place that I thought was an RV dealership turned out to be a church parking lot crammed full of RAGBRAI campers. Other areas had them packed in like sardines. Every place with hookups is reserved and extra dumping/fill stations are set up in every community along the ride.

Of course, this many people also requires lots and lots of portable toilets. Many were transported from town to town, usually going one day ahead (so they needed twice as many to accomplish the task). Unlike our guys who got an early start, many riders didn’t get on the road until later in the morning, so they couldn’t remove the toilets until the campgrounds had cleared.