Joel Tille's Blog at LumberJocks.com http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/roosterscoop/blog Sun, 22 Jul 2007 13:45:51 GMT Population Explosion in Rutland, IA http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/roosterscoop/blog/1520 Monday, July 23rd will be a very busy day for those of in Rutland. My joinery challenge project has been hampered by the event. The event is RAGBRAI XXXV. It is a 7 day bike ride across Iowa. It has been 22 years since the last time the always changing route brought them trough our small community. Expected numbers this year are 10,000 to 15,000, several thousand support people and media. Rutland’s population is around 130 residents. We cover about 13 city blocks, with 3 streets running north and south, and 7 running east and west.

Preparing for it has been many meetings. Since the route changes every year, you don’t get to say ”well last year we did this”. We are the last town before the overnight stay at Humboldt, IA. It is hard to know how to prpare for such an event. How much ice, water, food, beer. It’s hard to sell anything else as they don’t want a lot of weight added to thier bicycles.

RAGBRAI's webcam ( not sure how often this camera moves but it does refresh every 60 seconds)

Notables: Lance Armstrong will be riding the entire route this year. Many Presidential canidates will be making appearances at the overnight towns.

Provided we survive the influx of people I will be back online Tuesday, after the cleanup.

]]> Sun, 22 Jul 2007 13:45:51 GMT http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/roosterscoop/blog/1520 Joel Tille Joel Tille