♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ Been cooped up in this office all year long ♪ ♪ My vacation starts today and I'm gone ♪ ♪ Gonna grab my Cannondale, collect my pay ♪ ♪ Gonna ride across the state of ♪♪ ♪ Cuz I'm going on RAGBRAI, gonna leave today ♪ ♪ Going on RAGBRAI, gonna find a way to get away ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Gonna take the trip to the Mighty Mississipp - ♪ ♪ Gonna ride through the corn fi ♪ and the hills of Ioway ♪ ♪♪ RAGBRAI is eclectic.

RAGBRAI is community.

Frenetic.

Organized chaos.

Adventurous.

RAGBRAI is awesomeness.

Adult camp.

RAGBRAI is a time to get together with my teammates I see once a year and to wear feathers.

♪♪ Adam: This name kept coming to m I've done RAGBRAI.

Back when I did RAGBRAI.

Happy RAGBRAI!

Adam: I finally had to look it up and see what is RAGBRAI?

Thank you for being here.

Adam: I saw that it was the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.

Yee-haw!

♪♪ Just get that back tire in there.

Adam: When I got here, the amount of people that were cycling is mindblowing, 20,000 plus cyclists from first timers to people who this is their 49th year doing it.

It has just been wild to see the diversity of people in ages and their likes and their dislikes, but this one remaining thing has been the glue that binds us all and that is the bicycle.

♪♪ I'm from Oakland, California.

I am from Austin, Texas.

I am from Indianapolis, Indiana.

Cincinnati, Ohio.

Aurora, Colorado.

San Francisco, California.

Bentonville, Arkansas.

I am from Ridgewood, New Jersey.

I am from Bell Buckle, Tennessee.

RAGBRAI is America at its best.

It's communities coming together, volunteering.

You don't have to be the best rider, you don't have to be the best athlete.

You don't even have to even ride to be a part of it.

Welcome to Battle Creek, you're in heaven.

It brings communities together.

I'm envious.

I'd like something like this for my community.

I share the story of RAGBRAI with everyone.

Andrew: RAGBRAI is the greatest bike ride in the world.

Criss-crossing around rural Iowa, through big cities, through tiny towns of 100 people, all ready and excited to welcome whoever shows up at their doorstep.

♪♪ Ian: RAGBRAI is epic.

(laughs) You just get to be in the middle of rural America with the wind turbines and the corn fields.

There is something kind of therapeutic about that.

For somebody who doesn't know what RAGBRAI is, well, it's a bike ride, but it's so much more than that.

♪♪ Torie: One of my favorite things when I'm riding is you ride up on somebody and you never know what kind of friend or what type of story that you're gonna get.

Everybody out here has a story and a why, why they're here.

The one thing that I really like about RAGBRAI is that you feel like these big goals are attainable because of all the support that is along the way.

Come on, you're almost there!

Don't quit!

Let's go!

Torie: Even when you don't feel like smiling, or even when you don't feel like riding, you just keep riding and it all gets a little bit smaller in the distance.

♪♪ Dayna: You don't leave the ride the same way as you began it.

I know from my life over the experience it has been a transformational experience.

Each ride changes me more into the person that I'm supposed to be.

♪♪ Ian: There are a lot of people who are on this ride.

For some of them, it's a process of gaining something, some of them it's letting go.

That ending, finish line, dipping of the tires, raising the bike over your head is that triumphant moment.

(cheering) Ian: Recognition of what you've gained or what you've let go.

And you leave it with the river.

♪♪ ♪♪ Seven tough and glorious days testing lungs, heart and legs.

The challenge, 440 miles of hills, and wind, and flat lands and rain, and lemonade stands, and good times and bad times, and sweat and sore muscles, and a lot of fun for just about everybody.

It begins with the ceremonial dunking of wheels in the waters of the Missouri.

It ends seven days later overlooking the broad Mississippi.

But whether they ride one day or seven, not one will ever forget it.

♪♪ That's columnist Donald Kaul, one of the Register's hosts for the ride talking to the mayor.

There's John Karras, the other host, yelling at someone.

Karras yells a lot.

Chuck Offenberger: Certainly, back at the start of RAGBRAI nobody dreamed that it would be going on for 50 years.

It started out because Donald Kaul and John Karras were both writing columns for the paper and they were both among the early people who got involved in the adult biking boom back in 1973.

Then they got the idea that they would propose to the bosses that they give them a week off to ride across the state and they'd write stories about it along the way and Karras always swore that the whole idea was to get the bosses to pay them while they were riding their bikes across the state for a week.

Especially in the small towns, they were not used to having a national kind of event coming to their town and it was a real hoot.

At first, they thought it was the strangest damn thing they'd ever seen.

Who wants to ride a bike across Iowa the last week of July?

Don't you people know it's hot out there?

It's an adventure.

It's an adventure for people who would like adventure in their lives.

They're getting out here and they're doing something, they're really doing something.

You can't plan a bicycle ride and say, boy, if the sun shines and it doesn't rain and there's no wind I'm going to have a good time.

You say, man, I'm going to have a good time no matter what happens.

And that's what this is about.

Chuck Offenberger: And then Donald Kaul and John Karras discovered that this was an idea that was bigger than the two of them or this was an idea that would move a whole state and really the whole country and bicycle riders around the world, that this would become the biggest, longest, best bicycle touring event in the world.

Would we do it again?

You bet we would!

(cheering) Torie: We got RAGBRAI old school and the next gen. Torie: 23 years later I'm here with my 70-year-old mom and my 20-year-old daughter just doing nothing but biking.

Just outside Emmetsburg, it is a beautiful day.

Torie: I wish I could share it with him.

There's just part of me that just really wants to be riding through towns like last year going hey, this is Daniel, this is Daniel, I wanted him to be well enough to do it, it just didn't look like it.

Torie: I'm Torie Giffin and we're here in my home above the lodge at the Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Biking has always been a constant in my life.

I think it takes me back to that childhood joy of just doing tricks on a bicycle, I still ride with no hands a lot.

It's definitely where I go to recharge, to dream, to mourn and just get away.

Sometimes I worry about keeling over.

I'll have my papers in order on my desk in case anything happens to me.

You're in the best shape out of any 70-year-old I know.

Torie: My kids are always telling me, you are not just a bicyclist.

Well, I am.

I really, that's the best version of me is when I'm on a bike.

It's where I picture my retirement, my future and I built my business dreams around the dreams that I've dreamed on a bicycle.

It's not like you have work, it's not like you have plans, it's not like you're worried about cooking for yourself.

You have the entire day from morning to night just to ride it out.

Try and stop at a lot of stops and just the fun ones because that is going to make your trip.

Torie: Daniel was always the one that would just get out and enjoy a long bike ride with me.

He had been my biking buddy since he was a baby.

We've been riding his entire life.

I was even spinning in a spin class with him 11 hours before he was born.

So we kind of just think that he was always born to bike.

Daniel: Biking for me is just a way of connecting with people.

Biking itself is all right, but I love it as a way to go out and see the world.

I'm Daniel Giffin and I'm 15.

I have like a melanoma with fusion or something like that.

Torie: Daniel has anaplastic ependymoma with rella fusion grade three.

I think it's still grade three.

Daniel: I was 11 probably and a half.

It was one of the best years, besides from that.

The first signs was the headaches constantly and I didn't think anything of it.

And then my foot, my left foot started to go numb a lot.

Do you have something to drink to take your medicine with?

Nope, but I see your Diet Pepsi.

There you go.

Torie: The MRI was horrendous for him.

He could barely hold still.

And it took forever.

Did you have a nice time?

Yes.

Torie: But it was long enough for them to see that there was a mass.

And so the next morning they're letting us know that we're going to take him right into surgery.

And it was very surreal.

He had his first of what was going to end up being six, so far, brain surgeries.

It's one thing to know that you're dealing with a brain cancer.

It's a whole other thing to find out it's a super rare, aggressive form of brain cancer that is likely to keep coming back over and over and over again.

What does that mean for our lives?

Torie: When Daniel first said that he would do RAGBRAI with me, I couldn't wait to show somebody in my family this ride.

Mom, you're the tie down expert so I'm going to let you work on that part.

Okay.

Torie: You can have all these experiences, but if you don't have anybody to share them with it's almost like it's not real.

Daniel: I was actually praying at the time that my life would change and that I could do something and just, I don't know, just live out and do something crazy.

Torie: I had a friend with an E-bike company that agreed to outfit him with an E-bike.

These are E-assist bikes, it's not like you can keep a battery and throttle all day and never pedal, like you actually have to still work.

It was very important to him that it was something that he was still going to achieve.

He's not riding in a car.

He's not on a tandem.

He was gonna still be doing it by his own power with a little assist.

One, two, three.

Yee haw!

We ask that you just put your protective hands around us from front to back to everybody traveling to Iowa for RAGBRAI.

All right.

Torie: With very little training, fresh out of radiation, we set out with a team of 24 from the lodge to go do RAGBRAI.

I had no idea how amazing of an adventure it would be.

We love you!

Safe travels!

Ian: When I think of rural Iowa, I think of places where people always have each other's back.

They're always looking out for each other.

There is always this kind of sense of wonder in the vastness of space a little bit.

It's like you look out and you can see for miles and you're not seeing cities and skyscrapers, you're seeing kind of this canvas that God and the universe put there for you and it's really awe-inspiring.

Andrew: My name is Andrew and this is -- Ian: I'm Ian.

We're in Lansing, Iowa.

We are getting ready for the 49th ride of RAGBRAI.

We're a small town, 850 people, that are going to have nearly 20,000 people here.

Lansing is, it's quirky, it's full of innovators, it's a river town in Eastern Iowa surrounded by these enormous bluffs in a greater region called the Driftless area.

Andrew: The river runs right through our community, which is, I think, our biggest feature.

Obviously the Mississippi River is world-renowned for its beauty.

It's a tourist-centered town, especially in the summer.

And we take a lot of pride in our welcome.

Ian: RAGBRAI, it shines a light on rural America.

I don't know of any other organizations that do something like this, that send people into rural America, thousands and thousands and thousands of people into rural America from all over the world.

It would not, could not be possible without community buy in.

Andrew: The reason we moved back to rural America and rural Iowa specifically is I think we both believe in its potential.

Whenever RAGBRAI comes through a town it kind of forces you to examine who you are and hopefully translate that into some form of change.

This is not what I was planning on today.

I've been called into duty here to shuttle riders from their general parking lot into their charters.

We have three running right now but they apparently are full.

So I have a bus driving license, I work for the district, so that's what I get to do right now.

Andrew: We want to incentivize our 20,000 guests to come back to Lansing.

We want to showcase our town, we want to show them everything that is good and great about our community in hopes that they come back.

Lansing is the last city this year on RAGBRAI and as the last city we hold kind of the keys to the end.

Whenever someone goes on a journey or whenever someone goes on a trip or especially something like a seven-day bike ride, getting to the end can be quite an emotional experience.

Being host to that is really important and it takes care.

We want to celebrate that for people and be a space where they can celebrate and find joy in dipping their tires or falling to the ground or lifting their bike, whatever it is that they do to mark the end.

This is Bratsel and this is Argo.

See you in a week.

Adam: When I'm riding on the regular days, the non-RAGBRAI days, one of my favorite places to go is a gas station.

I'll just sit out front of the gas station and eat a little taquito or drink a Coca-Cola and just spend some time there.

And people will walk up and ask me, so where you riding to?

Because I'm an oddity, I'm out of place to them.

I've got this bicycle with kitty litter buckets on it and Sun detergent buckets on the front.

It's obvious that I'm traveling.

Adam: My name is Adam Lineberry and I'm riding my bicycle 48 states over four years for addiction recovery awareness.

Each day I pedal for someone who has passed away from addiction and the whole end goal is to build a rehab.

It's going to be 105 degrees today.

I'm concerned about putting you in that kind of heat.

Adam: This spring I rode with my son, who is nine years old, his name is Liam.

We've only got to go 20 miles today.

Can you handle that?

Yeah.

Adam: This ride is my Midwest ride.

I'm doing a big 4,500 mile loop around the Midwest.

Now we're on the cowboy trail headed to RAGBRAI 2022, which will be my first time.

(train bell sounding) We are now waiting on this train.

Once this train goes by we're going to start RAGBRAI.

Adam: Bike riding to me, when I first started I never really realized that it would become life.

That's the best way I know how to put it is bike riding is life to me.

That's super long.

You're holding up 20,000 cyclists.

Adam: The bicycle has been the perfect vehicle for getting people to open up and talk and share, whether they're on a bike seat or not.

All right, RAGBRAI here we go!

Adam: The way that I fell into addiction way back the very first time really created an Adam that is not the person that you see sitting here today.

That was a hard life.

My first intimate girlfriend, she smoked pot.

We went to a party, she mentioned that they had marijuana and I just was thinking to myself, well what can it hurt?

I may as well just try it.

All right, we couldn't get here without doing the customary tire dip.

Because the bluff is I guess so tall they don't have a place that we're going to dip the tire in the river.

So they have brought the river water to us.

Adam: That moved to a habit with cocaine.

That moved to a habit with ecstasy.

It moved to a habit with pills.

It moved to a habit with really anything that I could find at any time.

It got bad very fast.

♪♪ ♪♪ Adam: I ended up going to a Christian rehabilitation program called the Mission of Hope in Mobile, Alabama.

I went through that whole program, graduated and spent my first paycheck on cocaine.

I knew better.

And I think there's a lot of people out there who do know better, they're just trapped.

They have made the one wrong decision that traps them.

I really want to help people understand that if you can love the person through that moment, that's not the decision they're wanting to make.

It's in those moments that their brain gets hijacked and you can take someone like me who had no desire whatsoever to be in addiction again and it can take over that quick.

God put it on my heart right then to build a rehab by bicycle.

I went to YouTube and started looking up can people ride their bikes long distance, all this kind of stuff.

I started the YouTube channel, the Redeeming Eden YouTube channel.

You'd be surprised what all you can think of and pan out by yourself for days on end on a bicycle.

Like I have dreamed the whole rehab in so many facets.

At this point it's just waiting on it to be reality.

Adam: Now I'm coming up on 13,000 miles just to share with other people and love on them and their situation.

It's an amazing feeling and the bike helps out so much.

I think I'm more alive on the bicycle seat than I am alive at any other point in time.

It's just so freeing, it's just freedom on wheels.

Dayna: When I ride my bike, what I feel physically at this moment in my life is literally joy.

There's just a sensation through my whole body where I can feel my lungs and the air, breathing in it.

I can feel the pulsing of my heart.

You feel the blood pumping through your body.

I feel the weight of everything that is waiting just dissolve.

That's what I love about it.

I'm here.

I'm alive.

Life is good.

It's not easy.

But you just keep peddling, just keep going.

Dayna: Spiritually there's just so much revelation, so many insights, so many connections.

When I see blue jays I think of my husband, because there was a blue jay that stayed around our house for a lot of years.

Dayna: My name is Dayna Chandler and I am 52 years old and I live in Des Moines, Iowa.

Our love story, with my husband, we met when we were, I was 18, he was 19.

We were in a dance club and he stood taller than all the other guys, all the people in the room and I turned to my best friend and was like, who is that?

I had to get to know him.

It was just sparks and love at first sight I would say for me and I'm pretty sure him too.

He was coming home from work just two days after Christmas and he was involved in an automobile accident.

The young lady, she realized she needed to be in the other lane.

She was 17.

They were going to the mall down in Des Moines, so they just got over and my husband was there and they hit him.

He went over into the oncoming traffic.

We were a young couple.

He passed when he was 32, I was 31.

My daughter was a year, the twins were three and my son was eight.

The first year you're just numb, just figuring out what's life like.

Year two, for me, the emotions kind of came back in, I was still journaling a lot and thinking about, okay, you need to do some things to kind of help us heal, help the kids heal.

They were still growing.

There was still joy in the kids' heart.

As a mom, I felt responsible to help them still experience that.

To be honest, it was hard, but getting outside on our bikes was a way to do that.

I think it gave me a way forward.

It gave me time to process and feel a myriad of emotions, because sometimes you're just flat out, just joy and freedom in my heart.

And other days there was pain, but you pedal through the pain.

You have love and support.

You have a community around you.

You've got beautiful things to look at.

You know that people love you and they're connected to you even though we don't always think about that.

It's nice that when I've done RAGBRAI, I feel those connections out there in addition to the pain at times.

It's totally a metaphor for my life how I see it.

♪♪ We're gonna try Daniel.

(phone ringing) Hey.

Hi!

Everybody say, hi Daniel!

Hi, Daniel!

Hi!

How are you?

Torie: That first day of RAGBRAI in 2021 just kicked his butt.

We were all rolling out of our host home and it was just beautiful, clear skies, still just cool enough that we knew it was going to be a hot day.

Daniel: It was just trying to get all the jitters out.

I can actually do this.

I have all day.

I can't wait to see what I look like with this buffalo on my head.

Is it appropriately hilarious?

Torie: I still just remember coming into the last town, the sun is setting, and there's nobody on the road anymore.

Daniel just starts full throttling it and weaving in and out of the lanes on this wide open road and I remember he's just like, yee haw!

Torie: We made it and I could see it on his face because we could see the finish line and we had really done it, we had achieved that first day.

Yee-haw!

Welcome to Sac City!

Woo!

87 miles.

Daniel: I think that was the most enjoyable part of the ride because I still remember my mom was playing music and I'm just shaking my butt like on my bike, swerving side to side, just enjoying it, dancing on my bike.

It put a different perspective for the rest of the ride.

I'm not just doing this ride to get through the ride, I'm doing this ride to enjoy the ride along and to dance as I'm doing it.

♪♪ Daniel: We got some food and then everybody was heading out to our camping spot for the night.

This guy rides by me and he calls me a cheater.

I was like, really, you're going to call me a cheater after 10 hours, it was a 10-hour day of biking.

Torie: He called him a cheater and I watched his face sink and that guy in one word stole that day away from my son.

My son comes up to me and he says, that guy just called me a cheater.

And I'm like, what guy?

Where?

I mean, I would have clobbered him.

Daniel wouldn't tell me where.

Daniel: She ended up doing the only thing she knew.

She wrote a Facebook post about it.

Torie: To the RAGBRAI cyclist in Sac City who greeted my 14-year-old son who just finished 89 miles on an e-assist bike with a snarl and the words cheater, know that this amazing young man who once at 11-years-old rode up Pikes Peak on a unicycle is now in a three-year battle with an incurable brain cancer and he's twice the man you'll ever be.

He was there to support my ride on our summer vacation and this ride could be one of our last.

Torie: I start getting these messages from our team and they're like, have you seen this, it's blowing up all over the place, hundreds of people are sending you messages.

So when I could I looked and there's all these people responding, go Daniel, and don't let anybody take it away, and hey we're going to be in this city, we're at this stop, come see us at our booth, we're cheering you on, Daniel, and don't give up.

Daniel: I remember riding into a lot of the towns, there was signs that were just like, oh, go Daniel!

And I'm like, these people don't even know me and they're saying, go Daniel, and it felt really heartwarming.

What a sign!

We're in Clinton and this is amazing.

This sign actually came from a family in Thompson who recently lost their daughter to leukemia.

They saw your post about Daniel and they wanted to put a sign in their yard so I offered my yard up because I knew that we were at the end of the ride.

You even got a sign here.

Yee haw!

♪♪ Welcome to DeWitt.

There is Daniel and his escort into town.

It is fun riding through and just being especially grateful for the people for how they welcomed you when you came.

Yeah.

I love you.

I love you.

All right.

You're proud of your mom, right?

Love you.

Oh, and your grammy, you're proud of your grammy too.

You're proud of everyone.

You have the rest of the day to do 40 miles.

You guys got this.

That's right, the rest of the da We got it.

All right, I love you sweetie.

Muah, bye bye.

♪♪ Adam: RAGBRAI is really a great thing at producing as good genuine conversation.

When you get to spend as much time as you want to cycling next to someone and either they have to condescend and slow down to your speed or you have to speed up to their speed, I did not see that on the radar.

I thought that it was going to be me amongst all the other people.

How am I going to reach out?

How am I going to let people know that we're riding for addiction recovery awareness?

Riding 48 states over four years for addiction recovery awareness.

48 states, four-year ride for ad awareness.

My whole end goal is to build a rehab.

Each day we peddle for someone w away from addiciton.

Adam: And not only have people asked about my beard -- Locks of Love.

I've thought about that.

Adam: Or my kitty litter buckets -- (indistinct chatter) -- or any plethora of other things, they've asked about the YouTube channel.

We've got a YouTube channel called Redeeming Eden, go check it out.

Adam: And I cannot tell you how amazing it has been to have conversations every day with people who have watched the channel -- I've been following you for the Adam: -- who have wrestled with their own personal addiction or lost a loved one to addiction, who have cycled next to us or wanted to take a selfie -- -- or rode up and said, thank you for what you're doing.

You're making a good positive difference in the world and we need more of that.

Good luck to you guys, man.

I think what you're doing is great.

Good job.

All right, way to go.

Love it.

Adam: The volume of people that are dying from addiction is, I can't even come up with a good word for it because there's no word I can think of.

Catastrophic isn't good enough.

Heartbreaking isn't good enough.

There has to be something done to make it stop.

What's next?

Route 66 this fall and then next year I'll finish with Las Vegas, Nevada to Utah, Monument Valley.

I've got a lot in common with Forrest Gump.

I'm finishing where he finished his run.

I'm from Mobile, Alabama.

My ex-girlfriend's name is Jenny and it's actually tattooed on my wrist.

Adam: I want to see more resources in some way go from penalization to rehabilitation.

I think if we could move some things away from, well you've done wrong and so now we're going to do this as retaliation, I think if we moved, you've done wrong and here's how we want to help you not do that again, I think it would make such a difference.

I mean, I was in the hospital for 11 days and I said, I'm here for a reason.

So, that's why I'm sticking around.

And so now I'm all about gratitude and giving back to people and be of service to other people.

So, man, I'm so glad to see you guys on this trip.

Adam and Liam, have a great ride.

I'll see you guys in the next town.

Adam: I really do feel like it starts with one person and as long as we can just keep working with one person at a time, it's got to take hold at some point in time.

So, what was it for you?

What made you quit?

Jesus Christ, like literally.

I went to a Christian rehab.

I like you.

I like you, man.

What did he say?

I said, are you going to share a little of that pork with me, little man?

He's like, uh, my dad has one, he can share his.

(laughter) I love it.

Adam: I'm coming up on 350 names.

350 days of cycle tours and haven't been without a name.

They hold a very special place in my heart.

There's some reverence there to it, to the connections that are made.

I've tried not to forget a single one.

I try to, as I go throughout my day, pray for and think about the people that I meet.

You have a safe trip.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, have fun.

So, Johnny, Steve, Cindy, Johnny is from Ohio.

Nina from California.

It's her first RAGBRAI.

So I'll be looking for her.

I keep little notes of the people that I meet.

Dayna: When I think about my goals, and specific to cycling, the goal was healing for me, finding a way forward out of a really sad, unexpected tragedy.

What I realized really quickly is the platform and the opportunity to grow in diversity in a sport that I love in cycling.

For me, what we did a few years ago was bring a chapter of Black Girls Do Bike to Des Moines.

Thank you!

Dayna: We found that it was an opportunity to get more brown buns, black buns on bikes, get more folks of color on bikes.

Dayna: When I see people of color I want to know how their ride is going.

Tell me what you think.

Tell me what you know.

What would you do different?

It's always like this lock eye moment like, hey, there are black people in Iowa.

I'm like, yep, we're here.

Hi there.

Hi.

Are you an Iowa Stater or just -- Yeah.

Oh, nice, me too.

Dayna: It's just a little different.

There's the camaraderie.

What's your name?

Carla.

Hi, I'm Dayna.

Dayna: The conversation in the sense that you know how twins have their own language, there's just this language that just exists where you don't have to say too much, you just give a look like, girl I'm tired.

(laughs) I'm not kidding, I'm spoiled.

Oh my gosh, it's so much easier.

The first three years -- Yeah I did that.

-- trying to rush back and find a space.

I did that and then when you get in you're tired and you're hot and you're putting your tent up and you don't want to sit down because you know you won't get up.

Oh yeah, I've been there, done that.

Dayna: My belief in why we see so few black women in cycling has to do with exposure.

People think that it's a sport for white men, that you have to look a certain way, your body shape needs to be a certain type.

To each their own, but that's not the only point of entry.

I believe that at times that becomes a barrier.

The other one that I think is really, really big when we speak about outdoor recreation as a whole and cycling being a part of outdoor recreation is that outdoor spaces have not always been safe for black women or people of color in general.

Dayna: So, when I'm rolling into small towns there's the wonderment.

How will I be received?

Are folks really okay with me being in this area?

So, I'm mindful about where am I going to stop and fill up my water?

What park am I going to stop at?

For me, riding into the small towns, even on RAGBRAI, what I have seen for me is that people turn.

They'll clap for the group that is ahead of you.

If I'm rolling in and I'm not in a group, I'm by myself, they just kind of turn and ignore, not even acknowledge you're coming in, not all towns, but there's been plenty on my RAGBRAIs that that's happened.

Dayna: Would I love for every time I roll in to just not have any of those thoughts?

Oh yeah.

But that's not the skin I was born in.

Kecia: I've always heard that there was not a lot of representation of people of color in RAGBRAI.

It just encouraged me to come out here and want to do it and I asked a couple of friends to do it with me.

If no one said they were going to come with me I was still going to come out here anyway because I feel that it is needed in these places and I want other people to know that this is where we belong, this is our place, this is our space.

This is our experience as well.

Are you ready?

On three.

One, two, three.

I love it!

Dayna: I feel like it's an honor to hear women's stories, to be a part of their struggles, to celebrate their joys.

Having that accomplishment when they ride their first 10 miles and celebrating that because you've seen where they started.

And then it trickles over into the confidence that it builds.

Then you see that it's going to impact their family.

It's not just like a one and done, like it's just that one life.

It spills over in how they do life, how they live out their life and that's an honor to be a part of that.

Andrew: We've been working 14-hour days almost every day.

Okay, close to the edge.

How's that?

Sounds good.

How are you today?

Wonderful, wonderful, excited, excited.

Iam: It's a really big spotlight into this community.

I think a lot of people sometimes think of rural America as flyover country.

But that's not true.

There's a lot of stories and creative things and innovative things that are happening here.

So, it's really great for people from all over the world to bike across Iowa and see these rural communities and see the innovation that is happening.

Maybe they look at a community and say wow, you know, I could actually see myself in a community like this, this is a beautiful place to live.

Andrew: I grew up in Walker, Iowa, which is a tiny town of like 400 people just north of Cedar Rapids and not even in town, so I grew up on a farm.

I am a gay man.

And that wasn't a thought in my mind until maybe I was 17 that that could be a thing.

It was something I was trying to fight, honestly, something that I was trying to not be.

I didn't fully embrace myself until my sophomore year of college.

It was a great moment but it was also a terrifying moment because that is me facing myself but also facing my community, which I was so close to.

It was difficult.

There were mixed reactions and I think the whole experience though obviously made me stronger, but ultimately made my connections with people stronger because they now knew something core about who I am.

Ian: I am from a little town in southeastern Iowa called the Amana Colonies.

I felt nothing but acceptance in my community.

And I'm not saying there weren't tension, there wasn't fear.

Did I know a lot of gay people growing up?

No.

I think that was the impetus for me leaving Iowa shortly after graduating high school.

Andrew: I left Iowa, I got out when I could, and I did that on purpose.

And I think a lot of people have that thought when they're in high school.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Thank you for doing this.

Awesome.

Good morning.

Andrew: I lived in London for six years.

I had close friends but I didn't ever feel like I had a community around me that would be there whenever I needed it.

And I really missed that and that is probably the number one reason why I returned to rural Iowa.

You do rely on each other.

You don't just rely on the services that are provided for you.

Having that support is a relief.

Ian: I knew that I really wanted to resettle in eastern Iowa, somewhere in rural America.

I was kind of settled on the fact that if I came back to Iowa I was like there's a really strong chance that I might just be a single man for a really long time.

Andrew: I'd been living back in Iowa for a year.

We were both at Dash Coffee House in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

But he was off in the corner being really loud, because that's just who he is, he has a big personality, can't miss him, but I glanced over and I thought he was really handsome.

I mean, and pretty much out of my league.

We did go on a date.

It was a lovely time.

We shared a lot of similar interests.

Ian: Knowing that we both had that passion, we both wanted to be active members of the community, I feel like we could dive right in and make a difference to the people there.

Knowing that was a huge thing that brought us together.

This summer is a big event called RAGBRAI, which most of you know is coming to town.

Myself and Mr. Zahren are both organizers of that event and we're going to take this opportunity to try and recruit some volunteers this evening.

Miss Stephanie is in the audience, she's right there.

If you are ready to sign up, she's ready to sign you up.

So, please go talk to her.

She is our volunteer coordinator.

Thank you in advance, it's going to be a really spectacular event.

Andrew: I got a job here in Lansing as a teacher and he also got a job.

He worked in the elementary school for a year and now he's a teacher.

(kids singing) Ian: When we came here into the school district, we said, we will not lie to kids.

We won't do that.

That's not who we are and that's not a value that we are okay with.

We're going to be truthful in who we authentically are.

If a student asks or if a parent asks if we have a girlfriend or a wife, we're going to say no, but I have a husband.

Whatever that stigma is or that perception of what a gay person might be, they see us as two people who are working to cultivate something in this community, giving back, working with their children every day, inspiring their children to be better people, more whole-hearted, compassionate people.

(applause) Ian: The demographics of this country are changing.

People need to see themselves in places like this.

And I think for a segment of young people here who have grown up here who are saying, I can't possibly see myself in a place like this, I think they're now having some second thoughts.

They say, actually, you're here and it's going really well for you guys, people really like you.

The more that young people feel verified, like they have a place in rural America, that's when you're going to really see the tide turn for rural America.

Good.

Let's do -- Andrew: There's no doubt it's going to inspire our community to keep going, to keep coming up with new ideas and to keep improving our town, because there's so much to offer.

It's all there.

RAGBRAI will showcase that in a singular moment.

Hopefully it will be people going, wow, I had no idea we could do that.

And therefore, what else can we do?

I just got a call that there was a dead carcass in the road of an animal.

Okay, well I guess I'll get somebody on call to get that dead carcass off the road.

It looks like he partied a little too hard last night.

What do you think, Liam?

Roadkill photo op.

Get down there and say cheese, buddy.

All right.

Adam: Liam has blown my mind.

That was my longest ride, my dad's longest too.

He's only done 101, that was 108 point something.

Adam: To watch him learn all the different things that he's learning and he's starting to build the idea of kind of leaving childhood behind and taking on the responsibility that it takes to be a teenager and then an adult.

♪ Happy Birthday to you.

♪ ♪ Happy Birthday Dear Liam.

♪ ♪ Happy Birthday to you.

♪ ♪ To you.

♪ You look taller this morning, Liam.

Man, you're like, are you six foot tall today?

(Liam giggles) Adam: I can see those gears starting to turn in his mind.

I've watched him learn how to conquer mountains.

He'll tell me, I don't know how to do it.

I'll let him know, well just keep turning the pedals and it will work itself out.

And he does it.

He's got so much potential and he's such a social person.

There's not a situation where he's not inserting himself and finding out what's going on with people and sharing his story and asking him about theirs.

I am so glad that he's been able to be at RAGBRAI to experience it.

♪♪ Who was that?

She came up to me and said, can I have your autograph?

(giggles) You should ask her for her phone number, buddy.

Be like, the only way I'm giving this autograph out is if I get your phone number.

Adam: Seeing his joy, it's a smile I don't think I've seen before.

I love it so much.

I can see the freedom in him.

I'm going to do the track backwards.

Adam: It's a beautiful thing.

I have not been able to experience Liam be so happy as he has been on a bike.

(Liam laughing) Just wait, I'm going to get you on the bike.

Adam: There is a deep realization in me that none of the bike ride with Liam would be possible had I not found sobriety and stuck with it.

Yee haw!

Torie: We're wearing our Daniel shirts.

I just wanted people to be praying and thinking about him as they ride today.

Torie: Since he wasn't here with us this year we just wanted to have him here in spirit.

Torie: So, we had a rider today that rode up on me and said, are you from Colorado Springs?

And I said, yeah.

Say, Daniel!

Daniel!

Torie: She said, are you Daniel's team?

And we're like yeah, we're Daniel's team, I'm his mom.

And she said that she followed us along on our journey last year and really just was inspired by Daniel's story.

It was really neat meeting somebody who had met him, heard about him and -- He'll love that.

Torie: -- was looking for his presence out here this year.

I sensed Daniel's presence the most today with the people that were sitting on the side cheering everybody on.

Okay, ya'll keep it up, your mama's proud of you.

Your mama's proud of you.

Keep it up.

Your mama's proud of you.

Torie: I was thinking about how I was going to miss not having people cheer me on like they did when I was riding with Daniel last year, but they were still out cheering us on as we rode through the communities.

They were cheering everybody on.

Welcome to Mason City!

Torie: I wish Daniel was able to come.

Thank you guys for riding for Daniel.

He's feeling really good today.

He still hates chemo, it stinks, but he said he's feeling pretty good.

Torie: I hope that his family will be there to ride on for him for years to come whether he can or not.

Dayna: This morning I was super, super weepy.

I always have a mini meltdown day four or five.

I just wanted to shed a little tear.

I don't want you to think that this is like easy work.

It just isn't.

It's fun, it is.

But it requires you to dig deep, it just does.

Dayna: I'm so grateful because you see the beauty, the sunrises never get old.

Yesterday in the overcast there was just parted clouds where you saw the beams of sun come streaming down and it's just really miraculous and just beautiful.

Dayna: You can get caught in that, in nature, in all that's happening around you to ground and remind you what are the important things in life.

So, my kids text asking, Mom, how's it going?

We're so proud of you.

My cousin is saying, you've got this!

(laughs) Keep doing it, we're happy for you.

Those things are what are important in life.

Dayna: I know that no matter what struggles or challenges come, I can find a way through it.

And I'm saying I, but the reality is there's a community next to me, beside me, around me and all I have to do is reach out and they're there.

I'll get up the hill.

It may take me a little bit.

I know it doesn't matter how big it is, how long it is, I'll get up the hill.

♪♪ (cheering) ♪♪ You did it, woo!

♪♪ Adam: That's the Mississippi River.

That's proof right there.

♪♪ Oh man, what a wild ride.

♪♪ Adam: RAGBRAI, I can't explain it.

I can't put it into words.

I never expected RAGBRAI to be such a community, like it's its own community, the Iowans, the people that have come out to help, the people that have hosted, the people that have just done all that they could to make this the best week ever for us have succeeded completely.

Adam: I've had two major relapses in my life.

I'd like to be able to say oh, well you know, I'm impervious to addiction.

That wouldn't be anywhere near the truth.

I'm so proud of you, buddy.

I'm so proud of you.

454 miles in seven days, one week.

That's amazing.

And you shared that with me.

It's phenomenal.

I am so proud of you, man.

Adam: I struggle day in and day out with my life, just like I always have, and just like I always will.

I can't make any promises that I'm going to be sober the rest of my life or on the right track for the rest of my life.

I don't know, I don't know the future.

But I do know that if I wake up today and I'm going out and trying to help people, then it makes tomorrow a whole lot easier.

For all the families that we rode for, we love you guys.

We're praying for you.

We're keeping you in our hearts.

If you know anybody who has passed away from addiction in any form or fashion, please do drop their name in the comments and we will ride for you on a future ride.

If you know anybody who is actively addicted, share this with them.

And who knows, it might save a life.

Adam: I cannot explain what RAGBRAI has done for my heart.

And to leave it, it's almost like it hurts.

I'm jumping in that water.

Adam: It has really taught me that I can do a lot more than I ever thought possible by just putting my nose down on those handlebars and keep on peddling.

It can change your life and it has changed mine.

Good job Adam and Liam!

(cheering) (cheering) Andrew & Ian: It was a resounding success as far as we can tell.

We broke $200,000.

Oh my God, we broke $200,000.

That's amazing.

Yeah, $200,000.

Oh my God, that's amazing.

That's incredible for this small town.

Andrew: It's partially about the money, but it's also about showing these people this place because it's beautiful and these people need to feel like they matter because they do.

This place matters.

Andrew: I've said it many times, we can do this here.

Yes!

Yes!

This is the plan.

Andrew: I think people can doubt small towns and really show up in places and go, oh gosh, how are they going to do this?

We did it today.

We really represented that place, that kind of place that people might just overlook when they think about where to live, where to work.

We can do amazing things here too.

And today we proved that.

Andrew: Moving here and becoming involved with this community like I wanted to do in a rural town where my work and my ideas might have an impact, that has really come to fruition with organizing RAGBRAI.

My passion for this town and to see it grow and continue to change for the good is very strong and RAGBRAI has really brought that out in me.

I know that will continue.

I hope our community and ourselves are reminded because we believe this at our core, that anything is possible.

Torie: I called Daniel by the side of the road.

I let him know that I'm weaving in and out of all the dotted lines in the highway for him and thinking of him because that's what he really likes to do.

And I did that a lot this week to just think about him.

Torie: I used to always get away by bicycle and when I was going through a divorce it took me a long time of biking to feel joy again.

But I just kept doing it and then eventually I felt it again.

Torie: At some point you have to let go of all the fears and just live.

We could have stopped living three and a half years ago with a diagnosis and look how far we've come.

We've been able to have all these amazing experiences because we chose to make the most out of every day versus give up.

Torie: RAGBRAI last year for me showed me that Daniel's life could matter, not just for us, but I had so many people reaching out telling me that they had lost a child or that they were going through some kind of sickness or battle of their own and that they were inspired by Daniel's story.

I dare you.

It's a heavy bike, huh?

Try it.

But it was good for Iowa.

Torie: And I will forever remember riding with Daniel on a bicycle across Iowa, most especially with the sun setting and him smiling and weaving in and out of the lanes and just yee haw!

I'll always be back in Iowa for RAGBRAI.

As long as you're putting on RAGBRAI I can't imagine not coming back for RAGBRAI.

I don't know if he'll ever get to ride again.

It doesn't look like it.

But what a grand last ride.

♪♪ Dayna: RAGBRAI either reveals your character or builds character.

For me, it just built on what I knew, the strength that I have to accomplish the goals that are before me.

♪♪ Dayna: I believe the seed that was planted for me to do RAGBRAI was my opportunity for growth and healing.

♪♪ Dayna: One of the things that also came to me when I think about my grief, even though it's been 20 years, because I love my husband dearly, I realized that I could let him go and make space for something new.

All right, another one done.

♪♪ Dayna: I had that conversation with him and know that it doesn't impact the love I have for him.

It's just a new chapter.

♪♪ Dayna: It's a beginning, it's not an ending.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ Fresh air feels so good, must be a sin ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I hit my first hill at Pinky's Glen ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Lost my cadence but I made it to the top ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Ain't nothing under this old sun can make me stop ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Because I'm going on RAGBRAI, ♪ Going on RAGBRAI, going to fin ♪ Going to take the trip, to the ♪♪ ♪ Going to ride through the corn ♪ and the hills of Ioway ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Up at the crack of dawn every ♪♪ ♪ Flat tires and broken chains a ♪♪ ♪ Though headwinds and heat slow ♪♪ ♪ It's all worth it every night ♪♪ ♪ Because it's the people that you meet ♪ ♪ The happy faces in the crowds ♪ The new friends that you make ♪ is what it's all about ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Going on RAGBRAI, going to lea ♪ Going on RAGBRAI, going to fin ♪♪ ♪ Going to take the trip, to the ♪♪ ♪ Going to ride through the corn ♪ and the hills of Ioway ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Going to ride through the corn fields ♪ ♪ and the hills of Ioway ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪