Deep Dive Episode 37 ( Matt Phippen Ragbrai Director )

Deep Dive: RAGBRAI with Ride Director Matt Phippen

Iowa's biggest summer tradition is 13 days out, and we sat down with the man steering it all. Matt Phippen has served as RAGBRAI Ride Director since January 2022, guiding what's known as the oldest, longest, and largest recreational bicycle touring event in the world across the state each July. This will be his fifth ride at the helm.   Phippen grew up in Oelwein, where his parents once hosted a ride team that pitched 50 tents in their front yard during a 1990 overnight stop. That childhood memory hooked him for life, even though his own first RAGBRAI ride in 1998 was, in his words, "the worst experience of my life." 

Before taking the reins, Phippen managed the cycling division at Scheels sporting goods, joining the annual June route-inspection rides that precede every RAGBRAI. Now he's the guy who took riders off-route into Minnesota for the first time in event history, opened up Iowa's gravel roads to the pack, and launched new weekend rides that spread the RAGBRAI spirit statewide well beyond its official week.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Matt breaks down:

• What RAGBRAI really is — Iowa's rolling family reunion, connecting small towns of 70 people to riders from 50 states and 20 countries, plus the unscripted magic of it (like the year he ended up selling ice cream out of the back of a Peppy's van in Waterloo)
• The safety machinery behind the fun — how RAGBRAI's relationship with Iowa State Patrol, DOT, and county law enforcement starts every September, why 20,000 registered riders really means planning for 40,000 people on the road, and the "super sag" protocol (semis, school buses, and staged pickup points) built after the grueling 50th-anniversary ride
• A day in the life of the director — up at 3–4 a.m., waking Dream Team kids with a cowbell before sunrise, then riding the route town to town in a state trooper's cruiser until the last riders roll in at night
• Dream Team — the youth cycling program that pairs kids from all backgrounds with mentors, gifts them a bike if they complete training rides and RAGBRAI itself, and gives Matt one of his favorite parts of the day
• His fingerprint on the ride — expanding gravel routes across the whole week, and the story behind taking RAGBRAI across the border into Minnesota for the first time, including the logistics nightmare (and reward) of coordinating two states' worth of troopers, ambulances, and vendors
• Celebrities, politicians, and the "20,000 celebrities" line — how RAGBRAI handles VIP requests without turning into a political event, and why guests from David Robinson to Patrick Dempsey have quietly blended in with the pack
• The evolution of RAGBRAI's culture — from the harder-partying "Animal House" years of the '80s and '90s to today's more family-friendly ride, and how Matt's approach has changed the relationship between riders, law enforcement, and host towns
• Rig-of-the-week stories — from decrepit yellow school buses to six-figure RVs towing Jeeps towing side-by-sides, and the time a support-crew wife got an RV "high-sided" on the bike route and raced the tow truck to fix it before her husband rolled through

Grab your helmet, fill your water bottles, and — if you're in spandex — know that this is a judgment-free zone. It's RAGBRAI, straight from the ringmaster himself.

#Ragbrai #Ragbrai2026 #Bicycle #BikeTour

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:07

So Brad, give me a little audio. Brad one more time. One, two, three. Okay, and John. Jack. No, Matt. Actually, that didn't come through for me.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Um right here. And listen, I'm the last person. And Griswold has it plugged in. IT.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

We only wasted 30 minutes of Jan's time without her plugged in before we go.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Matt, I'm not mechanical.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

And I'm still not plugged in. Oh, there we go. Now we're in.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

We all have roles on the show. And mine is a couple of things. I'm IT and mechanical things, and then I'm also the weather forecaster. Okay. So if you need anybody for rag brai to kind of give you a heads up when there's going to be a storm coming or something like that, I'm all over it. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

He's saying that in a sarcastic accent. If you haven't picked a curve, he'll know it's raining when it hits his helmet.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Let's just put it this way when it comes to mechanical stuff, I dropped by his house yesterday to help him put up easy uptents. The brand easy uptent. Or that's easy to put up.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

And yeah, I was reading the emanal to try to figure out how to understand.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

I just don't understand. Alright, here we go, boys. How's the go going? Shrim, shimano. Hey, Ray, going well. Everybody has their preferences. So we're just coming off the 4th of July weekend. Let's do a finger check. Everybody got what their mama gave them.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Yeah, we're all good. I think we made it through.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Unscathed. So if you are a Gen Xer, if you are 50 years old, you have lived one-fifth of our nation's celebrated history. How about that? Yeah. That is something. I think the 4th of July is probably the most dad holiday of all the holidays. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Yeah, for sure. And I really quick, we don't want to get too off topic on this, but I was struck the other day when I went to Hyvee to grab some stuff and there's the big fireworks tent in the parking lot. Oh yeah. And as dads, one that's a cheat code for them, but as kids, these days you had to talk your parents into that run to Keukuk across the border to load up on black cats in the M80s and whatever they'd let you do. Or as a dad 10-15 years ago, you had to rotate to stock up for Fourth of July shenanigans. But now you can just go to your local high V and get stocked up. Right. It seems too easy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

But then I mean there's grilling talents, there is games talents, there's all of this stuff that dads can really say, like This is my domain. Right. Kids watch me. Yeah. This is how it's done. This is how it's done. I always I love the stuff that I get sent, the Instagram stuff. I'm on a fireworks crew, and and I love this the like the July 5th Instagram stuff of people like the fireworks tipping over and firing into the house and getting shot at kids. But you're right, John. I mean, even if you lived away from uh a decent sized city, now that their fireworks are legal in Iowa, you could see a pretty decent fireworks design. I watched it for my deck last night. There's no reason not to.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

There's great fireworks. Um did you see the Brooklyn Bridge? They had a little fire mishap. Right. The New York City fireworks. I was thinking about you lighting off the third over in the knolls.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

No fires on the berm. The berm did not catch up. We had trouble getting the stuff to stay lit that we did have, but uh every once in a while there is an errant product that fires off the side, but we're usually pretty safe. But yeah, I saw that. The Brooklyn Bridge is uh going to need a bit of a repair. So we should probably talk really quickly about your party, your Fourth of July party, Brad. Brad is uh has a 4th of July party that I attended for the first time, and it's pretty it was everything you said it was going to be. Chaos. Chaos.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Yeah, it started off. I guess we've been doing this. We moved here in 2013, like on July 3rd of 2013. So that first fourth, I think we went to the Coralville Parade and so forth. Um and then the next year, uh a lot of the neighbor kids were young. My girls were little, and so we got the um we ordered up a I did I actually went and picked it up. Now I have it delivered because as we know, I don't want to put it up or make it back into the sleeping bag that it that it needs to be to get into a car or a van. But anyway, we order a a wet slide and the neighborhood kids come around and it's good fun. So that thing runs for, I don't know, six, seven hours. Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

It's like two and a half stories tall.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

19 footer called wipeout is what we went with this year.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

You like turn the corner and it looks like you have a carnival in your front room.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

And funny, I uh actually mentioned this. I don't know if I told you you guys yesterday, but you know on Google Earth they take a picture of your house. Yeah. So one year that they came by. They must have come by on like July 5th because the the deflated slide. It's like something went down here last time. It's like the Carnies. So I don't know what that's done for like my Zillow housing. Zillow went down to like a $3,000. I and this won't surprise you either. I I wanted to do a dry run with my grill because there's been issues with the grill in the past. I had a small fire last year. We overdoused it to uh put it out with baking soda or cornstarch or something. And so I was wanting to make sure that we were good to go, and of course, I had run the propane out. So, like, this is right before the thing's starting. So I get in my car, go this year? This year. Oh, yes. So I so I was so yesterday morning I'd zip down and get propane, and on my way back up the hill, I see the car it's got like a giant um satellite on it. And I think the guy was out doing I don't know if it's like like a thing, right? But they actually take those those Google Earth things in in July, if that's his like his regular scheduled Coralville day. But anyway, good party. A lot of people came over, we had some beers, we uh kids got wet, good barbecue, only a minor fire at the beginning, and uh we managed that.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

I what as I was there towards the back end of it, I thought it was funny that your neighborhood kids were trying to convince you to make it more dangerous, the the inflatable water slide. Like it they were already like jumping off the top of it and landing on the first bounce. They had figured out a way to make it even more dangerous. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

And each year I say to Stephanie, now, and I've joked, I've said, All right, parents, you need to sign. You know, you hereby relieve it. Yeah, exactly. It is because those kids go for it, and I love that they do, but yeah, luckily no one's been hurt. You know that some scrapes here.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

Those kids are gonna get older and they're like, you remember that dude in our neighborhood that's that weird guy. Yeah. Well, thank you for having me. It was everything you sold it, and I had a great time. A lot of fun. Yeah, good times. All right. We have a guest in the Deep Dive studio this week, so we're gonna get to it. Uh this week, the Deep Dive Podcast, we're talking about one of Iowa's greatest summertime traditions, Ragbri. It's been described as a carnival on a bike seat, and our guest just happens to be the ringmaster of that week-long traveling circus. Matt Phippen has served as a Ragbri ride director since 2022, making this summer his fifth ride at his helm. In a relatively short time, he's left his mark on this event, introducing the riders to Iowa's incredible gravel roads, and he made history by taking us off-route into the Minnesota border. He's expanded the Ragbri experience just beyond the Ragbri week to launching several new weekend rides that brings the same ragbri spirit to communities across the state. So grab your helmet, fill up your water bottles, and if you're wearing spandex, well, this is a judgment-free zone. Ladies and gentlemen, the ride director of Ragbry, our good friend Matt Phipp. And Matt, welcome. Thank you very much for welcome, Matt. Well, great to have you. Matt, listen, we know how impossibly graced we are with your presence right now. We are how many days out? Uh 13. 13 days. So to get you within two weeks of Ragbry, man. This is a personal gift to us. I appreciate it. I was trying to think about it. I think you and I have been friends for close to 20 years because my first Madone is a 2007. So, I mean, it's not necessarily 20 years, but it's been a while. Uh, I knew you before you had gray hair. But most of your gray hairs came from Ragbury. Yeah, it's all from Ragbri.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

It's like being a president.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

All right. Well, let's start this off by let's say that you were in your bed sleeping, and then at three o'clock in the morning, someone shook you awake and said, Matt, Matt, explain to Zebulon Walton what Ragbri is.

SPEAKER_03 8:35

What would I say? It's Iowa's largest family reunion that connects bicycles and community together. You know, it's this magical event that takes place in Iowa that starts on one side of the state and ends on the other. And we navigate the roads of Iowa together. At the end of the day, you know, it's it's all about community. It's finding ways to show up for rural Iowa, a town of 70 people that are hosting riders from you know 50 states and 20 countries and showing them why we love Iowa, why we live in the in these towns. So, you know, you put that all together and it happens in July. And, you know, I I do believe that people think it's just this this magical event that overnight it just pops up and it's torn down and it goes across the state. But um, you know, as you guys know a little bit, you know, it it's a little bit more than just a pop-up. It's a pretty cool thing to have in Iowa, and I think sometimes we take it for granted because it just happens here. And whether you love it or you hate it, you know, you love it if it's in your backyard, you hate it, you know, because it's gonna cause you problems, you don't, you know, and through things throughout the day. But you know, our job is to make sure it's as smooth as possible. So if there are you know things that do pop up, they're they're blips on the radar and then we move on.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

Right. It's always the last full week of July, the vert last Sunday to Sunday, and you basically take all year from the day after Rag Bry is done, that then the next year starts planning, right?

SPEAKER_03 9:57

Oh, yeah. I mean, I I think when I got hired for this job, I was told I'd have downtime. I don't know, I don't know when that happened. Yeah, still waiting on it when you retire. Um, but no, yeah, it's definitely one of those things where you know we'll get through the you know, the week of July. You know, I struggle with sleeping anyway, so you know, from for me, it's you know, we still plug through and do things because I would love to tell you that you know, after the ride's done, I'm done until the ride happens again. But literally that next you know, the Monday, I'm getting phone calls, I'm getting emails from towns asking questions. Hey, we have a lost bike, we have this, you know, lost and found. How do we do this? How do we do that? So I can't just hop on a plane and just eject from you know my life for a little bit. So uh you know, we we dive right back in and you know we meet with towns one more time in August and kind of do wins and losses and talk through what that looks like. So it's you know 38 one-hour meetings in you know five days that we we knock out, and then I do have a little bit of a break. But you know, for me, then it's back in the a room with State Patrol in September talking about the next year's route. So yeah, there's not much downtime.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

So in September, you're already thinking about what the route looks like. So when you plan it, do you have like maybe four routes, or do you have three routes or two routes?

SPEAKER_03 11:09

Three to five is what I'm looking at right now. And you know, the the tough part is you know, we don't live in a perfect world with perfect weather and you know, construction projects don't stay on time. So my three to five year plan may look great in my head or on paper, but until you start asking some questions, you find out oh that bridge never got done. So now we can't do this. You know, we have towns that you know Dyer Zealand Dubuque three plus years ago were in my office saying, Hey, if you can make this work, we would love to host because our our big projects are going to be done and we want to show these off now. So I'm then you know taking my three to five year plan and going, Can I make this work and and get in there? And a lot of it comes back to the answer is yes, as long as Mother Nature and road construction helps with with the process. But you know, I would love to be able to get into any town on route and have my plan not change at all. But like this year's route changed seven times, you know, from when we started and announced. I mean, we started this year with the shortest route on record, and now we're not the shortest anymore because of construction projects and bridges being out. So you try to make it as easy as seamless as possible. But over the course of you know five or six months, when you start diving into the route, you truly find out what's in play and what's not in play. And then the worst part is you know, county and state don't always talk together. So you you know what the state projects are, but you also need county roads too. So then you start diving in anymore and you go, Oh no, there's there's a county project now. What is what does it mean? So you have my state guys kind of working behind the scenes to keep it quiet and bring the right people into the room, and you find out, yeah, this road's gonna be tore up. Okay, now what do we do? Well, we as you guys know, I can't put everybody on gravel, I can't have mandatory gravel, they lose their minds. And that's the easiest answer is oh, yeah, we'll just find a gravel road and just knock it out and be done. Well, that can't happen. So it may come to a point where you change an entire day based on one town or one road being removed.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

Yeah. So if you're not familiar with Ragbri, there are seven overnight towns, the host cities. Ragbri ridership, you're looking anywhere between um 15,000 and 20,000 people all together. So you're looking at a small city slowly plodding through the Iowa countryside, and at night they end up all at the same place, and they all need showers, they all need fed, they all need restrooms, and they're gonna be entertained. What are those discussions like with a town the size of like 5,000 people?

SPEAKER_03 13:31

Well, I think 5,000 is like the sweet spot, you know, for me. If I can get into a town of 5,000 people and be able to pull rag bri off, it's it's it's great because it's not too big, it's not too small, they have they have the infrastructure. When you get over that 5,000, you know, population range, they do events on a regular basis. So you're not just another event to them, but sometimes you're just another event to them because they're they're literally coming off of one event or two events prior, and then they have an event after, so it all kind of just it all rolls together. So they get one event done, they kind of put it to bed, they focus on their next event, they kind of put it to bed. And during that whole time, we're planning with them. So you're you're in the room, but you're not technically in the room until their their mind their mind has moved on. Um, you know, part of it too is changing the thought process of what Rag Bri is. Um, you know, I still fight the battle, it is a bunch of drunks that come to our town, they trash our community, they drink all our beer, they leave us with a tab, and then they they move on. Right. And it's not even close to that anymore. It's you know, cyclists from all over the United States and the world come to Iowa to experience Iowa and they show up for these communities because this is a vacation and they know that this is a major lift for these towns, and they don't want to lose this. So they find ways to give back, they find ways to pick up trash, they find ways to help in in all these different things. But I have to one, find the right person in the room to have that conversation with first, because if I find the wrong person, the door's closed. Right. If I find that cyclist that loves Rag Bry and can get me in the right, you know, in the right people in front of me, then the process is easy. But but that's where it's it's just one of those things where I could be dead in the water before I'm I'm I'm even started. And then you know, losing one town could change everything. You know, you lose the start town, okay. Well, maybe we can find another start town, but you lose a town in the middle of the ride, yeah. That could blow up the entire day before and day after.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

I was just gonna have two two follow-ups, Matt, on your comments there. One, I think for me, when I look back at Ragbri overnights, I feel like the smaller the 5,000, the 7,000, the the medium-sized towns, those are often the most memorable because it keeps the herd together when you go through Des Moines, you go through some you know, bigger communities, then it feels like the Ragbri energy, the the nucleus of you know the activity is kind of dispersed. That's that's been my experience, is that it's nice when they go through those towns. Of course, you can it's easier to find places to stay. Yeah, you know, there's there's advantages, of course, but then you just don't have as much of the uh the sprit of corps you know in a centralized area. And then the second thing I was gonna say about like Iowa and showcasing Iowa to people who are not from here. I you know, I I was raised in Washington, Iowa. I'm from here. I I did my first rag bride right out of college, did it with a buddy who had been doing it since he was twelve years old. He kind of taught me the ropes because his parents had had done it many times. And so when I was uh I had a chance to live uh overseas for a little bit, and I came back and I did a rag bri and I brought folks from from London, you know, from the UK, from Belgium, who first of all, you know, they didn't know what it was. I described it to them, but they were absolutely, you know, gobsmacked, if I can use the British expression, by how people just open up their homes, you know, and in in in fact, we were trying to find housing, and I wound up through like a friend of mine's roommate's parents, right? They weren't even home. They were, I think they were in Minnesota or something, but they lived on a country road and they like literally just said the keys, you know. I don't even know if the the house was locked, I'm trying to remember.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

But keys under the mat type deal.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Yeah, and so we went and stayed in their home, you know, turned the air, you know, they had a little yellow legal pad and wrote down the instructions to turning the thermostat up and down, help yourself. There's pizzas in the freezer, and they're like, Are you kidding? Like they're looking at me like, is this for real? Like this would never happen in the UK, or this would never happen in in Belgium. So I just think it is to them, it was like they couldn't believe it. And you know, going through these small towns eating pies that were made by church ladies. I mean, it's just it's just something you can't you gotta experience to uh to appreciate. But definitely Iowa, you know, ragbry showcases the best of Iowa.

SPEAKER_03 17:47

Oh, my hands down, and you know, you go into these bigger towns, like you know, it's tough because there's so many different ways to get in, so many different ways to get out. And you know, I remember during the 50th when we had record numbers in big communities, you know, we had our our state patrol pilot flying over Des Moines and kind of helping just kind of get eyes from above. And he made a comment, it looks like you know, ants ascending on Des Moines because riders are coming on bike trails, they're coming from side streets. I mean, it just there's so many different ways to get in and get out. It just made it tough from the standpoint of you know, here's the route, but I know a buddy, so we're going out on this side street, we're taking this bike trail in, and then you know, all this all these dots are kind of making their way towards the festival.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

It's it's pretty cool. You know, it's what you were talking about. The best part about Rag Bries it's vacation, you block it off, it's seven days, but every morning when you wake up, you have no idea what your day's gonna be like. You know the towns you're gonna go through and kind of the general gist of what each town could be doing, but like one of my very favorite stories is we were up in Waterloo and we rode to the casino in the back of an ice cream truck, and we vented ice cream for Peppy's ice cream, and as we were selling ice cream bars, I thought, I did not know this was going to happen to me today. Like when I woke up and took my tent down, I had no idea that I was gonna end in the back of a Peppy's van. So I mean, that's what makes ragbry so absolutely special, those stories. But so, you know, I think that a lot of ragbry riders focus on the fun part of it and the route selection part of it. But the other thing that I'm really amazed of is the detail to what you guys put into our safety. And I know that you work with the Iowa State Patrol, they have been a great partner since Ragbry number one, but even just the details that you put into like it's July. You don't know if there's gonna be a tornado, you know, so you've got to find shelter for this tent village for 20,000 people. Maybe you can talk a little bit about that aspect of your job is the safety chunk of it.

SPEAKER_03 19:48

Sure. Without State Patrol, without DOT, without all our different partners, this ride just doesn't, it just can't happen. You know, I mean from a scale standpoint, when you said, you know, 20,000 people show up, that's registered riders. Right. So if you do state patrol math, they say double whatever that number is, so that means there's 40,000 people that could be on the road. Right. 20,000 that I can physically account for because I they've they've pit punched their ticket, but another 20,000 that I don't know where they're at. You know, they're on the bike trail, they're wherever at, but they're part of the ragbry experience somewhere. So we have to nail that aspect. You know, if something does happen, it's not well, we'll just figure it out, you know, when the the county overturns red. No, I mean we're having meetings prior to this. So it really starts for us in September when I show State Patrol and DOT the route of what I'm thinking for, you know, 2027 or our future year, and we start looking at what really makes sense. Is this something we can we can pull off? And you know, there's things that they see that I don't see, there's things that I see that they don't they don't see, but together in a room when you have you know this small group of of individuals, they're all looking from you know from a the perspective of the safest route possible. And I've said multiple times, I don't I don't give a shit if it's a county road or a state road, it's the safest road we're gonna we're gonna put these people on. So in some cases, you know, like we were on highway 30 during the 50th, it was the safest option. It was and it was really one of the only options based on everything else, but we made it a safe option. Now, when something like that happens, I can't stay on highway 30 across the entire state. I have to get off quick. So we need the riders to work with us too, so it's not everybody just lingering out of carol for five hours. We need you on the road as soon as possible so life can open back up in in Iowa. Um, so when we look at the roads that I've picked, we go mile by mile and look at okay, it's not just the bike riders, it's the vehicles. Where are the vehicles gonna go in some of these communities? So you start looking at that side of things, and then once you know, once you get to a point where the route is finalized, we want to make sure that before we bring anything from a public safety, law enforcement, EMA, you know, homeland security, you know, into a room, we have as much finalized and as much good to go as possible. So somebody doesn't go, what about this? And you go, Oh, I didn't think about that. You know, we we talk through every possible scenario, and you know, a lot of it comes back to. Is the towns, you know, Turin, Iowa, first time out of the gate this year has 70 people in it. You know, 20,000 people, if we need to evacuate, where are we gonna go? We just can't. So it's you know, looking at that town going, okay, it's the first time out of the gate. Chances are, you know, knock on wood, we're not gonna have a massive thunderstorm, you know, first thing in the morning. But if something does happen, where where do we go? And that's where it comes back to, okay, it's Iowa nice, right? I mean, you get into somebody's garage, you get in somebody's basement, we open up you know, hearts and houses to strangers and say, Yep, come on in, this is this is safe, right? And we figure it out. But you know, we from a safety aspect, it's it's the biggest thing that we focus on because you know, the day of, as you guys know, in Iowa, it could be 70 degrees and beautiful with a tailwind, or it could be 95 degrees, right? Massive humidity, headwinds, and people are dropping like flies. And if we don't have our stuff together, that day looks very different for every partner agency trying to pull this off. So, you know, we we travel or I travel roughly 20 plus times across the state. You know, we have specific meetings that are for public safety and all this where we have everybody in the room together, and we just talk through the plan and what it looks like. And you know, the the the tough part is, you know, I I see you know law enforcement pictures in here, my dad's retirement from law enforcement years ago. Like I I absolutely love law enforcement, but I'm the problem. I'm bringing them a problem. So, you know, when these big towns find out, and I I I've always I tell these towns, hey, you need you need to bring in your local law enforcement and and have these conversations prior, so it's not a surprise. Ragbries come in and now it's like now they're behind the eight ball. And you know, the the tough part for me is my planning and my my partners and everything is is is is strong and it's solid, but they look across to the table with their arms crossed and like I'm the guy that's gonna cause them nothing but issues this day, right? So I have to basically show them from my perspective that I am good at my job, that I am thinking about things outside the box and and limit the amount of stress that law enforcement and these agencies have in in their towns, and you know, part of what I said earlier is the right has changed so much. You know, you look at a town that hasn't hosted rag brai in 15 plus years, they remember what happened last time. Yep, these drunks came, they closed our bars down, they trashed our community, and they left us with a mess, and you know, they're nothing but problems for us. That doesn't happen anymore. Right. It's a different rag right now. It's a different rag right now, and they don't believe it until they see it. Right. And you know, at the end of the day, when I pull into a town and you know, I I come face to face with some of these law enforcement chiefs and you know sergeants, the temperature in the rooms change because they they see how it's all working now, they see the process, and now you know we're we're now in this together, and it's it's not me versus you, it's it's okay, we we got this. So you have to kind of hit the reset button in a lot of these communities, especially with some of these older sheriffs and some of these older, you know, um chiefs that have been around the game for a while because they just remember what happened last time and that it was a mess and it was stress and all these things, and then you get through it and go, Oh, it wasn't that bad. Well, it's not that bad because we've been planning for the last you know nine months together and talking through this. So, you know, when you look at everything, you know, if something does happen, Rag Bri is the catalyst that brings all these partner agencies together. I get out of the way and say, This is your show, how can we help support you guys now? And then the State Patrol turns on and you know, EMA turns on, and all these agencies just turn on and we fall in line and help wherever wherever we can. It's not you know, get out of my way, it's this is Matt's show. No, this is something you guys do every single day. Help us now be successful, and we'll do everything in our power to fall in line.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

Have you found yourself late in a day having a conversation like that with a local law enforcement uh official in the room?

SPEAKER_02 25:41

The temperature in the room, as you said, has changed, and then all of a sudden Team Solid comes rambling in late in the day with blinkleys on, temperature changed back, somebody in a brownie, somebody is in a brownie vest with a whole bunch of merit badges. You're right, it's a bunch of drunks causing problems.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

I'm actually re I'm rethinking that I actually wore my my my branding today. That might have been a bad move. No, I think Team Solid's been okay.

SPEAKER_02 26:06

As somebody that's ridden 38 Ragbries, I will tell you you will forever battle the decade between 1985 and 1995. That was, in some opinion, the high the high water mark of Ragbri Fun, and it was not family fun. And but you that is the Animal House years, and I think that you know it slowly kind of gravitated towards family fun. There's still a lot of people that you know come back to Ragbri and think that it's going to be that, and it's not there anymore. It's you know, a bunch of uh men and women that are in their mid-40s and mid-50s that make you know $180,000 a year and have comfortable bikes and want to have uh an enjoyable weekend. They don't want to shoot out the lights at 3 30 in the morning. So you know, you were talking about something, you know, I've been through a couple bumpy nights where it's stormed and rainy and stuff like that, but I've also been through, I think, three days, three of the kind of what's considered three of the four hardest days of Ragbry, where you've had to bring livestock trailers in and semis and buses. When does that decision start happening for Ragbri? Is it that morning? Is it even before the ride starts? Is it you know and this is basically headwinds, but that's Sigourney Day?

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Was that Tuesday?

SPEAKER_02 27:28

Yeah. Well, that's the days that I've been familiar with wasn't necessarily rainy. It's been hot and windy.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

There was a headwind day from Sigourney into Coralville because I hosted people that year. Right.

SPEAKER_02 27:38

So when when does that happen when you start saying, all right, let's get some school buses together and get some people off the route?

SPEAKER_03 27:44

Um it's already happened twice, and it happens in the public safety meetings when I have them in the room and I have the executive committee in the room too, and I talk about what a super sag is and why that is a thing on that's you know a very true thing that happens on Rag Bri. And it's just you know, I'm um we're not putting a plan together today, but just know if you get a call from me that you know the day or two prior to this event, and I'm thinking it's gonna be a windy Wednesday with 50 mile an hour sustained headwind going into Iowa Falls, and it's gonna be 95 degrees, we're gonna have to think think of things different that day. Right. So I need school buses. Here's what I'm what I what I need to look at. Um, my my planning has changed. So, you know, the 50th was an event that was pretty incredible for the state of Iowa. I mean, to say that I helped pull off 50 to 75,000 bikes on a road is amazing, right? But I never want to experience that ever again. Right. It was just it was we we learned so much about our systems and about our partners and how it all can work out. But living in the moment of how in the hell am I gonna get 30,000 people off the roads into Iowa City when they're dropping like flies right now? And you know, from from that moment on, everything in my planning changed from the standpoint of I now have seg locations in every town, so I know exactly where our seg wagon's gonna, you know, to be put. Now that is a 15-passenger van and you know, uh a trailer, yeah, not a school bus and a semi, right? So, but I have the location. So if and when we need to activate that plan, my team knows in every town because there's a pin drop, this is where the semi is gonna go, this is where the school buses are gonna go.

SPEAKER_02 29:23

Now because you just you gotta have school bus drivers in the waiting. You just don't whip those people up. They've got to be ready.

SPEAKER_03 29:29

Insurance, and that's the first thing they ask is well, we we can't just pull you know, John Doe that's gonna drive a school bus, it has to be someone with a school. So, like that it's it's it's a deal, man. It is a big deal, absolutely. But it's it's one of those things where you never want to activate it, but if and when you need to, it's it's it's ready for you, right? Yeah um, you know, part of the process too is we're using our semi-trailers to make this work. So, you know, we open up you know the campground at you know 5 a.m. You can start loading bags at 5 a.m. But I gotta get that that semi to the overnight town unloaded to be able to even utilize that, right? So I I get their bags first, and then I'm gonna bring them the the bodies later, right? So you know, during you know, last year, like Windy Wednesday, we had I knew based on my calculations in my head, I had to get semis and school buses to the second town because I couldn't get them to the first town. Yeah, so I knew that we need to load as quickly as possible. I need to get a semi down the road as fast as possible, get it unloaded as quickly as possible. So it's it's calling ahead saying it's whatever you can line up for bodies, have them waiting at Bragg Brian, because we have to unload this because I need this to then bounce back and be ready to go for the rest of the day. School buses were ready to go. We had that little secure than it before, but it was just one of those things where we need the semis to bring the bikes in. So, you know, once that process is going in, you know, it got to a point where I was getting close. I was like an hour away from this, and then it popped. And literally the sun came out, and you just you you felt it hit your face, and you just knew from that moment on this was not going to be good. Right.

SPEAKER_02 31:03

Because you've got to make that call like a couple hours before it's bad.

SPEAKER_03 31:07

Yep, absolutely. So, you know, I I need if I I almost timed it perfectly. We almost had the semi and the school buses in that time frame, but it was you know an hour past what when I needed it, and you know, as you guys know, that hour can mean a lot, you know. I mean, it feels like it it time just paused because it people are dropping like flies, and you know, the you know the tough part too is you know our riders aren't eating and drinking like they they need to, and that's part of the issue too, is you know, they're not doing right by the ride in themselves, they're not putting enough calories, they're not putting enough H2O into their body, and then they're they can't figure out why their body doesn't want to work anymore. Right. So there's that. But once it all kind of gets activated and it it goes, you hope that all the you know 20 trips across the state and all the planning, it it all kind of just works out and then it's able to make it happen. And you know, you look at Iowa Falls that night, great night. We got we got in, got everybody unloaded. A storm hit after the concert got done, so we had another storm after that. But you know, it was just one of those things where it all worked out.

SPEAKER_02 32:05

Lots of lightning that night. Oh, there was tons of lightning that night. Yeah, for sure. From a tent standpoint, you were down by the river, dude. You had one of those setups where like people just give you a key.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

It was a meatlock.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

You had a coffee bar. It was a meat. Like I saw you in the morning, and you're like, You want some coffee? And I had like a $10 cup of coffee.

SPEAKER_00 32:23

I don't know if these guys are listening, but the Schmad Boys, Tom, Tom Schmatickey, Schmatickey. You're so lucky. I think that hookup might have been through Tim Koenig, a friend of mine that I worked with at Baxter. The ragbright gods just absolutely love you, man. They absolutely love you. The name of the game is like I I did the tent scene early on, and if you can find housing, it's it's all I mean that's that's full head of hair, the great voice, and the ragbright gods love you.

SPEAKER_02 32:49

What more do you think?

SPEAKER_00 32:50

It's just I've been I've been lucky to have the schmez. You were saying, Matt, 20 uh 20 trips across the state, and I know there's a pre-ride, maybe there's a couple of them. Do you actually ride it or how much of the do you do the whole thing? Okay.

SPEAKER_03 33:02

Yeah, no, I I need to be able to look a rider in the eye and say, I did every mile just like you're going to. So suck it up and ride your bike. I mean, that's it's it's doable. It's it's definitely doable. And you know, for from my perspective, I want to ride every mile. I'm you know, I'm a cyclist at heart, I I love riding my bicycle. Um, I experienced the you know the roads 20 plus times, you know, in a truck. So it's it's a you know it's a great view, but there's nothing better than being on a bicycle, as you guys know. So for me to be able to get on a bicycle and ride every you know inch of the route, um, it's it's my rag bri. You know, it's you know, I I'll tell you that for me, pre-ride is you know, in some cases better than rag bri. I mean you're you're eating. How big's the crew? It's 25. Okay. 25 people. How do you get on it? So there is a long list. And you know, it's it's one of those things that my email every year blows up, and it's people that I want to ride pre-ride, how do I do it? You know, I bring I can bring a lot to the table. And the answer is no. You know, and until someone on my team either is removed or you know, they just can't physically do it anymore. I have I have my squad.

SPEAKER_02 34:06

And you and the guys that the crew that's on it, the men and women on it, like Kathy and Oh, they're solid. They're like funny people. Yeah, it's and they're and they kind of come into it kind of knowing the ragbride theme. So if you meet with the town, they kind of have some answers. No, that's not true.

SPEAKER_03 34:20

Yeah, we just divide and conquer, you know. And that's the I tell the towns, you know, anybody on my team can answer any questions like I like I would answer. So be confident that if you pull Kathy Murphy aside, she can talk through experience and give you and give you good good facts. And it's not a deer in the headlights. Well, I'm just here to just drink the beer and ride with the bread with the group. It's they they all play a role. So yeah, it it's our job on the the pre-ride is it's it's a safety thing too. You know, based on my shutdown times, can we make it in and hit these time cuts just like the riders are going to be in July now? It's 25 cyclists on the road. We're not fighting 20,000 people on the roads. But if I am able to leave at 6 a.m. based on how I build a schedule, can I make it into these towns and be able to get off the road by six if and when weather plays a role? And you know, once we look at that from a safety perspective and we check that box, then it's making sure the towns are feeling feeling good in a good spot. But you know, it it is a ride where you know I can walk right into a restroom and not have to worry about standing in line. Yeah, I we we get tons of food. I mean, there's there's been days where we've had four breakfasts before noon because they want to serve what they're serving the day and they want us up with portion size and you know the pie. I mean, we have more pie than we've ever eaten, you know, rag bracket. Yeah, yeah, we gain, yeah. That's right. That's why we're riding a bicycle so we can lose weight. But you know, for for me, it's it's truly the at that point, you know, you find out that towns are ready. You know, they're the stress is kind of behind them now, they're feeling good. Um, most of the towns could, you know, if the the ride happened the next day could could pull it off. But you know, from my team's perspective, it's it's it's truly our one of our last big check-ins as a as a as a team or a squad to make sure that the town feels really, really good. And it's really where the social media push then happens because we are documenting everything about this journey on the the pre-ride. We're showing them you know the riders of Freedom Rocks and all the things that the the towns want to showcase. We're showing them the pie, we're showing them where they get the pie and the the lady that made the pie and then all these things. And you know, we've learned that social media you know just shoots through the roof because everybody then pulls out their notepads and starts listening to the podcast and listens to the the day of and following us and making kind of their bullet points of in this town I need to go here, and this town I need to go there.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

I was gonna ask you, do you have tips for this year's ride? Like what what are your favorite, what were your favorite cycling days, or do you have any super highlights that you know it's it's I know it's it's probably hard to ask you that question.

SPEAKER_03 36:47

And not having a favorite, like I don't play favorites, but you know, there are definitely towns that you know and are just are just ready and they're they're excited. Um, you know, I I think just based on the field of dreams, that's probably gonna be one of the biggest, you know, most magical experiences of um of of life. I mean I get I get you know goosebumps thinking about it because you know to to be able to pull into the property and see the MLB stadium and how cool that is now, and then to ride to the field and then like the flashbacks of you know the movie, which is obviously iconic and you know it's it's a big deal, and to be able to sit on the bleacher where you know Kevin Costner carved a heart into the the bleacher and it's like right there, like and then you look up and then the ghost players are walking on the field, like that's yeah, crazy, right? Yeah, um yeah. So I I you know if if I can say that that's towards the end of the week, but every every town along the way has something special that wants to show off why they feel their town is the most special. And you know, if these towns showed up like they showed up for us, we'll have a pretty pretty awesome ride.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

Awesome. So we've talked about the fact that a ride director manages the fun of 20,000 people over a seven-day bike ride. We've talked about the fact that you are the liaison um with these communities that are gonna host us both the pass-through and the uh overnight communities. Tell me about your amazing ragbri crew and when you start working with them, what it's like that week, their expectations. So just the ragbri crew from vending sales to the kids that throw the bags off the semi.

SPEAKER_03 38:22

Yeah, so we are a very small but mighty team. You know, during the the week leading up, we are you know six full-time people. Uh, I hope to have two more hired by the end of this year just to help kind of pull some responsibilities away from someone else because it's everybody's wearing multiple hats, you know, not only that day, but just leading up to it. So, you know, we have a pretty awesome office in Des Moines, you know, that's kind of home base for us, Rag Bra HQ. It's a very small team. So, you know, Andrea Parrot, who is has the most kind of Rag Bra experience. She was there with you know the TJ years and everything else. Her and I are obviously really, really close. Um, you know, she does our social media, she's our marketing director, she has a good hand on you know the podcast she co-hosts with Kathy Murphy, who just does the Just Go Bike podcast. You know, she's truly the heart of Rag Bri when it comes to our team. From a historic standpoint, she knows all the all the history behind everything that is Rag Bri. You have you know Erica Detterman who does a lot of our back of the house. You know, she is you know, I think the second most experienced with Rag Bri. But she's she's the one that works with merchandise, she's the one that is working with registration, doing a lot of things that when you have an issue, she's the one that you she, you know, you're probably talking to her, getting everything, everything figured out. Uh Cory Much is a graphic designer for us, you know, all the like the logos that we do, it's it is him. So, you know, we spitball ideas and he brings them brings them to life for us. Uh, Charles City guy, he lives in Charles City. We, you know, we kind of got him when we went through Charles City my my first year. He was looking for a new opportunity. He was a graphic design did kind of wore a bunch of different hats with that committee. Um, you know, pulled him in and we were able to you know now make it make it work for us. You know, we have Hayden, uh who is kind of my events manager, events director. Um, he was in the football category. So, you know, he was a ball state uh university on the football team. They he was the one that coordinated hotels and you know logistics for the team. Yeah, um, you know, that coach got you know let go and was when coach gets gone, so does the staff. So he was looking for a job, Marion guy. We felt we got him. You know, for you know, the hotels and everything of what he is able to do and pull off. That's you know, obviously that's a big stress point because you know, for for my team for the most part, and State Patrol, like we don't camp. You know, we we have to be in in nice hotels and we don't sleep very uh I don't sleep very much, but it's just nice getting into a bed and getting into a shower and being able to have that. So he kind of pulls that off, but you know, just very, very high ceiling. He's got a lot of you know vision and thoughts for the the future, but he is you know probably one of the most organized guys I've ever met in my life, which is great for for this ride.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

And he's the guy that when you say it's a go, he's the first guy that starts reserving hotel rooms, right? So he's the first guy that maybe that does anything for Rex, right?

SPEAKER_03 41:09

And that's the you know the tough part is you know, trying to get stuff secured. So when you know we do announce, and I see it when I'm on stage, you know, that last sound gets announced, all the phones pop out, and people are calling, and they're you know, I feel really, really bad for any front desk hotel person that night because they are getting blown up right now, right? They they have no idea that this is coming. So yeah, Hayden you know is d does great from the standpoint of making sure that you know we have our stuff secured and and get it get it done. But that's the tough part too, is because it is such a secret event. Hayden has a lot of family reunions in a lot of towns where I need a Meester, I need to have you know all these rooms close up, but Meister has the last name on it. I need two floors, like and it's like, oh sure, we'll secure this for you, right? And then Carson, who's brand new. Um, we found her right before the ride. She's been kind of you know baptism by fire, kind of just learning things reg bright. She came from Nike, so she has an event side in her background, so she's been doing great there. But you know, there's there's a lot of other people, you know. We have Aaron who does customer service, you know, we have photographers that that follow us on route. I mean, so you know, there's a lot of people working behind the scenes, and then we get to the event and we swell to about 70 people. With that being said, like my my girls are on route with me, so my wife's there. Um, it truly is a family. I mean, it's 70 people all working in in different directions. You know, my baggage boys come from Vinton. You know, it's a lot of the a lot of the boys that are knocking on my house, you know, talk to my girls. Like I want a close eye on them, so I wait I get to know them a little bit. Um but it it it is you know uh six people that goes to 70, and then that's truly what the event is. Now, I would love to say that it's 70 people, no more, no less, and this event, this world event pulls off, but then every town steps up. Sure. Every town brings their own volunteers and their own committees and all these other things, and that's kind of you know, from my perspective, we get to a point where the event's gonna happen no matter what we say, we can't stop, it's already in motion. And you know, to be fair, I really don't need to be there every day because the towns are just gonna actually just they're just gonna do it. Um, but it it's just one of those things where you know we we hand out 200 volunteer shirts to all these overnight towns, and they usually fill those numbers. So you know, and that's just overnight towns, so it's it's thousands of people that come together for you know a week of rag brai.

SPEAKER_02 43:22

So where does the so you meet with the state patrol in September and they're the first people you meet with? So the state patrol and the EMS are terribly important. Um those stretches of intersection where there are secondary roads and main roads, our Iowa State Patrol is there not only to watch out during Rag Bri but all year for cyclists. Tell us a little bit about your relationship with the Iowa State Patrol and the EMS to make us safe every day.

SPEAKER_03 43:49

Sure. So I I believe that we have the best relationship right now that we've in fifty three years with Iowa State Patrol, DOT, um, and then you know, obviously. Care ambulance that does our ambulance service. What I'm working on building strong relationships is with the counties. Like I said earlier, law enforcement in my background, the utmost respect for people in this category. And to have a sheriff tell you that they're going to do real work that day, and we don't really want you in our in our county is tough from a ride that I absolutely love. So I'm working on building those relationships, but without our partners, this ride just doesn't happen. So with State Patrol, we have two teams. We have a route safety team. They're the ones that are working the intersections, making sure that if there are cars out there, they're managing the intersections, they're ones playing the music, you know, directing bikes through intersections so you can truly get lost in the beauty of Iowa and not have to worry about a you know a vehicle on the road. The other team, which is the team that I get driven by and ride with all week, is the route advancement team. Uh they're called Team Buzzkill because they truly are killing the buzz across the state because we are shutting down towns as we roll across.

SPEAKER_02 44:54

So they uh have a picture of John Phipps and their squad guard. Look for this man that it's the end of the route.

SPEAKER_01 45:03

I thought you were going to reference a kind of an infamous picture of some regulators having a negotiation with a couple troopers maybe years ago about another half hour before bar close.

SPEAKER_03 45:13

But but they they they play you know they play a role. So the route safety team keeps you safe on the road, the route advancement team keeps you moving across the state. So, you know, without that, and this was something you know back when you were talking about the party days of Ragbri, you know, one beer turned into a 10 beers. And then before you know it, you're two hours behind, and now we have to be off the road at 6, 8 or 6 p.m. and it's now eight o'clock, and we still have tons of people out there. The towns, you know, I need to have the same piece of the pie to feel that you know they have enough opportunity to be able to capitalize on their riders. And if we don't shut down towns or move the ride on, what happens is you know, a town town whatever does a fantastic job. No one wants to leave. And then now we're pushing people out of town because we're we're behind now. So, you know, I look at it from a standpoint of if a rider can average 10 miles an hour, they can do a day of rag brai. Now that's an average, right? So there's times where you're doing you know four miles an hour up a hill, but you're doing 25-30 down the backside. But over the course of a day, you do 10 miles an hour, you can you can make this happen. Um, you know, to your point, you know, I think the the sweet spot is 10 miles per town. And you know, I think I've been pretty darn close in averaging that over the last four years. Um, it's the it is a sweet spot, it's chunking, right? If you're if you're goal setting, like I can I can get here and I can make it work, I can do no 10 miles, I can I can make it work. Um, so you're you're constantly just moving forward to get across the state. So, you know, by the halfway point of the day, I need to I need to be done by three o'clock. And then, you know, by six PM, 90% of the riders are off the road. So, you know, it's a lot of these back of the packs that will remain nameless. You know, I don't worry about them anymore. My first year, I worried about them because they're my riders, they're out there, but you know, they didn't pay to be a part of my ride. Right, the rogues of the night, yeah. They're the night. And I call them the lost dogs of Ragbread, and they always find their way home. And it's true, like I talked about earlier, the blinky lights at 11 o'clock, as the stage is getting torn down, you see blinkies coming into town, and that's the back of the pack. I don't worry about them. They get in, they're always going to get in. I need to worry about the 90% of my riders that have registered that are expecting services, and without the state patrol team, you know, keeping them safe on the road and advancing them, it could be chaos out there. So it's it's it's definitely tough. So we all play together, we all work together. You know, State Patrol is working with DOT. DOT has their cameras up, so if they see roads backing up or issues, you know, Iowa doesn't shut down for the day. So if there is a bad accident somewhere, a lot of times these roads that we're on are detour roads. Yeah. So now if the detour roads backed up with bikes, where do these go?

SPEAKER_02 47:40

So you're constantly just having conversations about all of this, making sure it advances for I guess you you were talking about uh once we roll into a town, a lot of your people kind of go and shower and take care of themselves. There's a small contingent that kind of deals with the entertainment and the beer gardens. My question I've always wanted to ask a ride director is there somebody from the register that is awake at 4 a.m. in the morning?

SPEAKER_03 48:07

Me. Really? Yeah. What does your day look like? Um it's it's jam-packed, I'll tell you that. So um, you know, so for for me, I I'm up between three and four every morning. You know, I I shower, I get I get my coffee, and then by five o'clock, our partners are up too. So, you know, we check in with State Patrol, we check in with Bob at Care Ambulance, you know, we're usually in the in the same hotels. Uh, I make my way once I'm done, you know, I get connected with um Sergeant Dino, who's my basically my driver, he's my guy guy all week. Uh, and we head to the campground where our dream team kids are staying. And it's something that it starts my day every day. I wake them up, so I get literally get the cowbell up, and we walk tent by tent, ringing the cowbell, wake them up, get them going, talk about the day, talk about the day before, see who's in a good spot, see who needs me to put their arm around them and just give them, you know, like, hey, we got this, we're gonna be fine.

SPEAKER_02 48:58

Let's take two minutes to talk about Dream Team. It's an amazing organization. I think it's spread outside of Des Moines now. It's in Cedar Falls, Waterloo, I think, and a couple other places. So tell us just what Dream Team is.

SPEAKER_03 49:08

Yeah, so uh director Greeny back in the day, you know, built this program for kids from all walks of life. Um, you know, you have when you're in these groups, you see kids that come from nothing and kids that have everything. And the the coolest thing from my perspective is they're one dream team. There's there's not, you know, the one person that you know, the dad drives a Mercedes and the other family, they have nothing. Like it's they're all one team together. Doesn't matter. All shapes, all body sizes, um, you know, boys, girls, it just it doesn't it doesn't matter. The the the one thing that brings them all together is a bicycle. So we work with partner agencies, you know, to get them bikes. We work with you know um accessory companies to get them helmets and all the things that they need, you know. Um primal does the jerseys, but you know, they're presented with a bicycle. Uh they have two training rides a week. They they camp. If they hit all the training rides and they camp and they complete rag bread, they keep their bike. So it's just one of those things where you you get them at a young age. Uh, you know, there's there's been kids where they don't know how to ride a bicycle, and Dream Team is teaching them how to ride a bike. And you know, from my perspective, having you know three girls and you being a family guy, like that's unfortunate that you know kids are growing up without bicycles or learning even how to ride a bicycle. Right. So Dream Team is this program that brings them all together, they ride as groups, and then on Rag Bride, they're they're one team riding across the state, and you know, it's it's just cool that Rag Bri is kind of gets to be a part of that. So uh it's it's a highlight for me. You know, I like I said, I literally go there, I get them all out of bed. Um paired with a mentor. Yep, they got they got mentors, and they're it's all volunteer that rides with them. So I get to wake them up. It's kind of the highlight of the start of my day. You know, Scott, who's the the director, will pull me aside and say, I need you to go talk to these two people. They had a rough day yesterday, they're in a bad spot right now. And you know, it takes them a little bit to kind of open up, but then you you you you get them to smile and you know you remind them that hey, we're we're we're just playing with bicycles today. Let's just go ride our bikes and just and have fun. And then you know, you see them on the road, because I I literally, you know, am on route with an state patrol cruiser, and I I'd ride by them, and there's a huge smile and they're waving, and you just know that their days now changed. Um, so yeah, so we get to be a part of a part of that group. Once that's done, I'm officially kind of on the route. So uh our route opens at 6 6 a.m. Usually by 7-ish, I am leaving town and moving on to that first town. Uh, I am in every town across the state. So we basically, you know, Dino drives me in and drops me right in the middle of everything. So you know, people get out of your way when you bring a patrol car to town, right? So I don't have to walk you know too far. But I I will I will hang out as long as I I want to, you know. Um, you know, you've seen me where I'm kind of just hiding behind a tractor, just watching people and just interacting with you know, seeing them and you know, listening to people's have you know have conversations and you know, watching uh you know two women holding each other bawling because they're sharing an experience about something, you know. And you know, when I feel the town is good after I've checked in and we're in a good spot, then we'll hop in the cruiser and we'll head down to the next town. And basically to a point where I'm just constantly working my way across the state with with the riders. Um, you know, we had kind of a rough patch my first year where uh you know a senator was felt that the state patrol were were overstepping and weren't allowing enough time to party with the team and like we were pushing people, and you know, we had uh, you know, my my first week I'm I'm at the Capitol explaining why State Patrol is needed for this ride and the safety of this ride and kind of fighting against all things that are rag brian safety because of you know a different perspective on the drinking and the partying side of things, and you know, we just we got to a point where they may have been overstepping a little bit, but they were dealing with the back of the pack, trying to push them forward, and there was resistance there. So, you know, what I've learned is it's the right people on you know on the right seat of the bus, you know, having someone that understands Rag Bray and gets it, and from a personality standpoint, you don't need to push hard. You just walk up and you get to know the person, you and then it comes to a point where you start seeing them in town after town, though you know the relationship starts building from there. And you know, last year was my first year where the ride naturally just moved itself. There wasn't a hard push anymore. I I would show up with the state patrol and the town was already starting to close down a little bit, and the ride was already starting to move on, and it was it was good, but you know, it's the back of the pack groups, they've kind of bought into Ragbry a little bit. They bought into me as their the director, and they they know that we're doing good things, and you know, they they bought into state patrol, you know, having some guys, and we we we pay for that staff, and I tell you what, like sergeants are expensive, you know. So when now I when I started, I had two sergeants or three sergeants, I'm at like five or six now, and just we just keep growing that because I've I've made a commitment that these guys and these gals have relationships already established, they're already looking forward to to this year. They're not getting volunteered that they're gonna be on route as a trooper, they they want to be there, they're signing up, they're signing up for it, right? And the the riders remember them. So when we pull into that first town and that back of the pack group is there, they can say, Come on, Brad, time to go. We gotta we gotta get moving. And it's up, no problem, it's last beer, and it's it's done. But it took it took three years to kind of get that ball rolling.

SPEAKER_02 54:24

Matt, I want to tell you two oh, I want to say two things. But the first thing I want to say is that you as a ride director, the way you handle have handled things has changed the climate of Ragbri immensely. I have been through ragbry directors that I feel intentionally made difficult days to keep numbers down, and that was during the during the party years, and that I think was the rise of the buses. I think when they the directors started making it really difficult, that's when you started seeing a lot of buses show up and people bail off halfway through, which did not help the atmosphere, it drove the drinking up. And I've seen directors cap how many people they were gonna take because they said we can't handle the safety of all of these people. By you raising the numbers, just I don't want to say all comers, but it's pretty much all comers, right? If you apply for ragbri in a timely manner, you're probably gonna be accepted. There's no it used to be a cutoff, and now it's accepted, and you just kind of adjust the what you need for safety. That alone, as you say, the stray dogs of ragbri, I think have been like, alright, I'm on ragbry now. I'm not doing my own thing. And if they need me to move along. The other thing, dude, is you were a ragbri rider. I uh there were directors that rode ragbri, but you were a ragbri writer. The fact that you're a ragbri rider, I think has helped in your buy-in of the everybody, the back of the packers, the people that want a great Iowa vacation and everything. Alright, um so as ride director, you have definitely put your very own fingerprint on the ride. You've done a couple different things. Um, number one, you've expanded out the gravel ride program. When I uh when I first started Rag Bri, there was gravel on the ride every year, but not because it was the hip thing to do, it's because that's how you connected downs was like a six stretch mile. Now that gravel is big, you've actually expanded that out to the entire week. The other thing that you have done is you have went outside the state of Iowa into Minnesota for a stretch. So tell us about some of those things that you think are your thumbprint, your your print on this organization.

SPEAKER_03 56:39

Yeah, so I mean you you said it, you know, I am gravel, or I am a gravel rider and I'm a rag bride rider, right? So when I build routes, I want to go to spaces and and and roads that I want to experience as a rider, right? So when when I was looking at that year and where the towns were and where we're going to connect, I found a Minnesota road maintained by Iowa, and I thought, how cool would it be to be on one side of the road, you're in Minnesota, the other side you're in Iowa, and be able to, you know, just to say that we you you did you did that, right? And you know, just through the planning process and through communities and the engagement, um, you know, we found a road that was connected to a pretty beautiful park. And you know, I drove there one day and looked at it, and I thought, okay, were this close, could I take this ride into another state? So I I built the route, I took it to the DOT, the DOT connected me with their DOT. Um, our state patrol connected me with their state patrol. And you know, the one of the coolest things, you know, I had three conversations with a county, you know, a state, and then DOT. They all said yes. Now, I don't know if they truly understood what they were getting themselves into, but they all said yes. And then it then it turned into let's just not you know dip our toe into Minnesota, let's let's go dip our tires in Minnesota and and and and make this work. So we found a park. Um, the park was turned into a town. We funded that town just like we fund any other town that's that's on Ragbry, so they felt they could they could pull this off. And it was by far one of the coolest experiences that you know people got to have on Rag Bri. Um you know, I get asked, you know, so what other state you're gonna go into? And the answer is it has to be the perfect route, it has to truly make sense. You know, when I got back on that Monday, I had an um email in my inbox from travel Sioux Falls, and they said, Hey, we saw what you did, you're close to our area, if you're ever in this neck of the woods, like we would love to have a conversation with you, and I thought, okay, that's kind of cool, right? But it all it all came from this, you know, from an idea of me being a cyclist and you know that the tour de France doesn't always start in in France, right? You know, so so why not find ways to to branch out and and to do this? So when you were able to get everybody to say yes and you know check that boxing, okay, now we're gonna do this, then you find out truly what goes into leaving a state. And you know, the fact that well my state patrol can't leave the state because they're tied to that.

SPEAKER_02 58:57

That was the oddest thing.

SPEAKER_03 58:58

I saw you up in Minnesota, and there was not a state patrolman anywhere in sight. No, like some of the head guys from the state patrol that they snuck in and like they had their cruisers parked behind everything, but they they weren't in the the state of Minnesota. Um, you know, you you talk about Bob and Care Ambulance and transporting. You know, how do you transport if someone happens to get hurt in that state? What do you do? So we had to we had to talk through what would that look like beer vending, you know. Our our beer vendors that wanted to be there and be set up, okay, let's just make it let's just make it truly unique to Minnesota. So let's just have Minnesota beer vendors and Minnesota food and everything Minnesota tied to this. And you know, the the tough part is people loved it and then people hated it. And some of the ones that hated it were the ones that were the true ragbri is ragbri. It's Iowa, Iowa, Iowa. The purest the purest, right? But then they experienced and they went, wow, that was pretty cool. Now I'll tell you it was a beautiful day. You know, you you have thunderstorms or a bad day, that isn't that it isn't that cool anymore. Right. Headwinds going into Minnesota. People would be dropping all kinds of nasty grams. It'd be horrible. But it was it was a beautiful day. But then, you know, you you hear of you know people in tourism's roles talking about Iowa and why would this ride, why would our ride ever leave our state? And my rebuttal to them, and obviously I didn't get to have conversations, but my rebuttal would have been you tell me a ride that could go out of their state and be welcomed by another state, and we can have a conversation about this. But be for me to be able to take a rag bri into another state and have it you know with with open arms being accepted, that just shows the power of rag brai and how how impactful and how much it means to you know not only just the state of Iowa, but but to the United States with you know 50 states and you know 20 countries locked in. Like, why not show off another state and show people why people live in in you know these other communities? And then you know the best stories and the funniest things that I I dealt with during this whole time, you guys may remember when there was stuff in the news about the bottom tiers of Minnesota being coming into Iowa. Like there was like people talking about how I was gonna take over these bottom tiers of Minnesota state. My email, my phone, like, are you the guy leading this charge? Like you're trying to. I'm like, oh my gosh, guys, like not political at all. Like this is just a bike ride. We're just trying to have fun. But small invasion. Yep. But it but it opened up a category where we were accepted. But for me, it taught me things of things that I wasn't even thinking about, you know, the handoff between our state patrol to their state patrol. How is that gonna work? And you know, what I saw was, you know, it took a couple hours, but you know, once the state patrol guys and gals started seeing how this all worked, they started to loosen up a little bit. Then the music started to play, and before you know it, they were dancing on the side of the road, it's like the Rag Bra experience, you know, transitioned through through them. But you know, you you you go and you talk to them afterwards, and they had a great experience, you know, they they they did well. The park got showcased that we had to dip our tires not only on both sides of the state, but in Minnesota too. And it turned into something that you know showed us that we could do we could we can find ways to say yes to things. And I think that from from my perspective, you know, when you ask like what kind of my thing with Ragbright, I just I want to find ways for more communities to say yes. I want to find ways for us to figure out how to just to make something work. Um, because I think it's really, really easy for people to say no to something and just move on. Saying yes, like we gotta commit, we gotta fit we gotta figure this out. And um, there's just so many, you know, Armstrong Iowa was a town last year that many, many years we're told Rag Bry will never come because you're on a state highway. And when I walked in, they they said we were told you would never come here. And I'm like, Well, I'm here. I can either leave or we can talk, we can talk through this. And they were so appreciative that we figured it out, but it was because of State Patrol DOT County finding ways to say yes to a road that just made more sense, and uh, you know, a town was able to be on there. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:58

Well, Matt, I know you weren't director during the Lance Armstrong Live Strong years, um, but I'm sure that added a layer of complexity to those events when they happened. Do you field inquiries from celebrities, VIPs, political figures that want to plug into some portion of rag rye? And then if so, how do you deal with those? And have you had to deal with one yet? I'm not aware, but uh you know, how do you handle situations like that?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:21

Yeah, so we do we do get obviously right this year being an election year, we're getting people reaching out saying, Hey, so and so wants to come rye, what does it look like? Uh, you know, two two years ago the the governor came and rode, and you know, so what does that look like? Now the the cool thing is like their state patrol and her detail, they all work together, so it's super, super easy. But it's also one of those, you know, people everybody know who's who she is, and from my perspective, it's now adding another level of security to to an event. Um, you know, we live in a world where things bad things happen, and if you have this on route, it just causes problems. But it goes back to just us having a plan. So they reach out, we figure out how to make sure make it work. Um, you know, we are not a political event, you know, we don't want you know, people up on soapboxes, you know, explaining what's what's going on. You know, somebody asked me this question about you know who are the celebrities that are going to be on route this year. And I said, I have 20,000 celebrities that will be on route this year. And you know, they kind of looked at me funny and I said, you know, the way the way these people feel when they come into these towns, they feel like a celebrity, you know, because the town is basically opened up for them. The the kids on the side of the road are cheering for them, and they feel like my gosh, this is such the coolest thing in the in the world. Um, you know, I do I want celebrities on route? Sure. I mean, last year David Robinson was on route. And if you guys know David Robinson, me growing up, it was Jordan, it was Robinson, like I like he was the guy, right? I find I tried every day to find him, you know, and I just think he was the big guy, yeah. He was the tall guy, but I wouldn't find him. Yeah, but it but every day I I tried to find him. But you know, from my perspective, yes, I I would love to know that they're there. Yeah, but I also want them to, and as you guys know, you put spandex on and a bike helmet and sunglasses and you blend in, right? And I want them to get lost in Iowa and to be able to say that you know, I've ridden ragbride the last how many years, and it's a great experience. And I don't feel overwhelmed, or I you know, I don't feel like there's paparazzi trying to take my picture, like I just I I float under the radar because that's truly what it is. It's this this ride where you can do it however you want to do it. But to have someone you know on route or you know, the Lance Armstrong days when cycling was at its pinnacle, it was a big deal. Yeah, but it's truly everybody comes together, it's community, and I don't care who you are and you know you know what you're all about, let's just shred our bikes.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:38

Yeah. There was one year that Patrick Dempsey, Dr. McDreamy rode, and it was the same year that McConaughey and Lance rode. I thought I bet Dempsey's like, Thank God they're ready, nobody's gonna be looking for me. I mean, that dude probably went all week and nobody knew who the hell he was. It's like you blend in.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:55

What is the absolute crappiest rag ride bus that the patrol ever had to pull off? Oh man. What a good question. No, but I mean you're talking about the crappyest of a fleet of crappy minibuses.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:07

We're seeing we're definitely seeing less and less of the old school buses just because they're all dead on the side of the road somewhere. We're seeing now, you know, Rockstar, yeah, you know, build-up Railroad six figure plus, you know, that you know, I had a husband and wife a couple years ago brought their Rockstar RV. It was pulling a Jeep, and the Jeep was pulling like a Razor side-by-side off-wheeled machine. And that's how they're doing Rag Bright. And it's like, one, where do you park that? So we had to figure out how to change our pass system because now it's it was based on length, you know, because we had three vehicles. Three vehicles attached to one. Um, but I think the you know, the because of the world we live in, and you can rent anything now, you know, the the rental programs for RVs are are insane. And you have I feel bad and I I say the wives, but you also have husbands too. But you get the wife that is now tasked with driving the RV across the state so the boys can ride their bikes. I think it was last year we get a call that there is a RV high-sided on the side of the road.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:03

Oh so high-sided means that it's stuck. It's the front wheels aren't touching the ground, the back wheels are not touching the ground.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:10

So this wife was on route, she made a wrong turn, she got on the bicycle route, but she was ahead of the ride, and she learned that she was on the route. So she tried to basically, you know, 29-point turn it to get it off there, and she got high-sighted. Uh, the best part was she had her husband on either like Life 360 or Find My Whatever, and she knew when he was gonna be rolling because she was on the bike route. So she was so stressed, and we got you know, we got City Patrol there, we got a towing company there, and you know, a regular miracle happened where we got this, you know, got the RV off the road as before the husband rolled through, but she was like, he cannot see me like like this, like we gotta fix this. The tow mill will do more damage. But it was just, you know, like I said, we're we're seeing a lot of the the dead buses on the side of the road um and getting more of that. But uh it just you know, and it goes back to what we talked about at the beginning is you know, trying to find the town that makes the most sense, but with all these vehicles showing up, you you gotta have the space. And you can't just park everybody in a field because if that the you get rain that day, now your field is destroyed. Right. So it's just it makes things a little bit difficult.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:20

There's currently an old ragri bus for sale on Facebook Marketplace, and it's being sold by a towing company in Central Island. You see, the description says we towed this off the ragbi route five years ago and no one ever came to claim it. We're now selling it. That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:35

And it's five dollars by a young priest and an old priest. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:41

Yeah. The bus is like a double-edged sword. I think you said it's kind of like the it's kind of like the boat, like the favorite day. You got a bus, and then your next favorite day is like thank God we got rid of the bus.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:51

Such a thing. Matt, is there any topic that you would like to cover that we haven't talked about?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:56

No, I mean, I again, like part of my job is to show you know the other side that doesn't pay why they should be paying. Right. And that's that's the biggest thing. And you know, as as you know, I'm an Iowa guy. I will always be an Iowa guy. You know, I love this ride, I love what it what it's about, I love the fact that we can go into rural Iowa and give them a massive shot in the arm that you know keeps them relevant for the next five years or ten years until Ragbri comes back. Uh, but you know, if State Patrol is right and they say whatever your registered number is, just double that because that's what's gonna show up. That means that's tough for me to think about from a standpoint of I could be doubling my give back to the towns. You know, an overnight town could get $100,000 from Rag Brian, a pastor town could get $10 instead of five, and a meeting town, you know, you know, 10 instead of and get 20 instead of 10. And it then allows these towns to look at and go, there really is no risk for us to say yes to this. I mean, we have money coming in right now that we're we're good. And you know, we've learned over the last you know three years now that fifty thousand dollars seems to be the right investment for a town to start off and then chase sponsorships and do that stuff to be successful at the end of the day. But you know, what could we do if everybody did register? And you know, part of it is is planning, you know, being able to tell a town that you know there are gonna be 20,000 people, no more, no less, in your town that night porta potties are dialed it because you know how many porta potties you need, you know where people need to be camping, you know that your town can physically pull it off, but you know, it's the asterisks where I tell them the number and say, but I don't know who's gonna show up. As you get towards the center of the state, especially this year, when you're on highway 30 and highway 20, it's easy to get in, easy, easy to get out. Those those towns are gonna swell. But you know, there's there's nothing you know that sucks more for me than hearing, well, I don't use your services, but you but you do because you're on a road that's protected by state patrol. Right. You're you're standing in a line to use a porta potty that wasn't here the day before or or the or the day after. Um, you know, you're you're finding water on the side of the road, you're finding food, you're finding all these things. And you know, back to what we were saying earlier about some of these back-of-the-pack teams, you know, buying into me, you know, a lot of some of these teams have made changes and commitments that if we're gonna ride Rag Bry, we are going to make sure that we all register.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:16

And we had a guy um two years ago that fought it. And I don't I don't register, I've never registered, you know. I'm uh I pay taxes, you know, I use these roads for whatever. Um, you know, he took an ambulance ride. Yeah, he crashed his bike, Bob was there to pick him up and took care of him, and you know, in the ambulance, he he tells a story of I'll always always register now, but I've never used the services until you until you need to use the services. So, you know, when you if when you look at our ticket, $230 for a week of support across the state is pretty small. You know, I've I've done rides in Florida that were you know thousands of dollars for the entire week with limited support on busier roads where we were scared to ride bicycles because we're on a four-lane highway. So I just think the the misconception or just the old school thinking of, well, I don't register because I live in Iowa, you know, support the ride that supports the the communities and know that you know what I'm doing, you know, is going to good. And I I you know I have to fight the the register debacle from back in the day of you know with TJ and everything like that because you know there was some bad you know press there, but the entire leadership team's changed, the entire right ride has changed. We're trying to do right by the towns and by the by the state, help us do that because at the end of the day, too, it costs a lot of money to pull this event off. I'm I'm crunching numbers right now just to look at what gas is going to cost us this year to move us across the state. And that's gonna be three times what we paid last year, probably when it's all said and done. Well, that that has to come from somewhere. You know, our our commitment is a million-dollar give back to our partner agencies and to our towns, that comes right from registration. So, you know, I go in the hole, you know, a million dollars at the beginning of the year until I get people to register. Like once that once I hit that number, then we can start working on other things. So, you know, it is a magical ride that happens across the state, but everything costs money. It's not free.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:08

All right, and I it is important to clarify, and you said this, I just want to give you another chance to reiterate it. People, if they register, they're accepted, and people aren't turned away that register and pay to support the ride, correct? Absolutely. That's because that was an old conception back when it was capped and it was a lottery, and there was that mentality that just permeated for years that you're in Iowa, you have a bus, you have support. I'm not gonna let someone from New York get turned away and not even get to do the ride by taking their risk. Exactly. But those days are gone. Absolutely support the ride, pay for the patrol, and everyone that's out there doing it.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:38

Yeah, since Sumter started doing the pre-ride, I have had a tag. He has uh he I don't want to say he was a rogue of the night, but he definitely when he came off the pre-ride and said, Listen, so much more goes into this than you'll ever know. Yeah, that's when I started getting tags, and that might have been as far back as TJ, but um, but yeah, I am and everybody on my crew has a tag too.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:00

So yeah, that's that's the toughest part for me, too, is you know, when I talk to or I see a buddy and I look down and go, Where's your band? Right. Oh, you know, I and there's always an excuse, right? Right, right. But it's like, hey, if you want to be my buddy, you're like you you gotta register for this ride. Yeah. And you know, I just we're we have more and more people that as we're you know being more vocal with things are are are getting behind it. Will I ever get to a point where it's a hundred percent, you know, everybody's got their ticket punch? Probably not. But if we can get to a point where a good majority of those people are now, and I think you know, part of our riders aging out, you know, when those riders age out, the ones that don't pay, we have all these new riders that are showing up that expect to pay because they pay for every event that they get they go to, and they would never think about just showing up, right? So as as they leave, new riders are coming in, and you know, the cool thing now is we're seeing just a lot of younger riders, which is great for us, you know. The average age of Ragbury is 50 some years old right now, you know, to be able to drop that year after year. Um, and you know, I want to see more women. You know, we are a definitely a male-driven event, um, but you know, women ride bikes too, so what's keeping them away? So we're just trying to find every possible scenario to get people to come. And for for one week, I don't care what color you are, what size you are, whether you're a pro or you know, it takes you all day to get across the state, we're all riding bikes together.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:18

Matt, I I want to give you an opportunity. I think it was you that told the story about the state trying to put together a commission to do a ragbri ride, ride rag type of ride.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:29

Do you remember this story? Yeah, so um, you know, the I I I got I've gotten tons of phone calls from you know other bike groups in other states saying, hey, Rag Bri's the pinnacle, like we can we can we just ask you questions and just learn about this. And um, you know, they they said we we want to we want Illinois or whoever it was, we want to do a seven-day event just just like Rag Bri. And I just said, here's the deal. Many states have tried and they've they've failed, and until you get the people of Iowa to come to your state, it just it just never happens. Right. Just just the level of buy-in from law enforcement and volunteers, you know, that's where where Ragbri is is special. Um, you know, I we were in a tourism conference oh in in Arizona with TJ, and he you know he brought in ride directors from across the United States, and we were talking with Bike New York, and there, you know, there's a ride down to Mexico that you you ride by cartels and like all these crazy things, and they all have their own things that they deal with. But Ragbri was the one that got the most questions as far as how does how does this physically happen? Because a lot of these events are one day. You know, you do one day and it's done, and it's it's on the same route year after year after year. You know, Bike New York, which is a really cool event, shuts down New York for one day, but it's the same route year after year after year. Um, where for us to have a new route every single year on new roads and new communities and with new, you know, new people and new partners, it's it's it's crazy to think about the truly behind the scenes plan that that goes into it. But you know, I I was I stood firm. I said, you can try, but I'm sorry, you're you're going to fail because Iowa is different, and the people of Iowa make this ride so special.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:07

The answer to the question is how do you pull off a rag bra in another state? The answer is import three million iowans. We're coming, figure out how to get three million iowans to come to your state for seven days. Yep, it's not gonna happen. All right, boys, you got it all your system. Yeah, yeah. All right. This week our game is called I've Been Everywhere, Man. Matt, as the ride director of Rag Bright, you've probably logged more miles on Iowa roads than just about anyone. You've seen highways and the back roads and all these little towns that most of us drive through only once. So here's your challenge. I'm gonna read you six Iowa town names. Some are real or at least real at one time, and others I made completely up. And your job is to tell me which one of these towns you think are real and not. Alright, so I'll read through all the town names once. You can kind of think about them a little bit. If you want to write them down, we can do that. But then the second time through, you can tell me whether or not these towns are real, were real, or if I just made them up. So the first town is Preparation Iowa. Preparation, Iowa. The second town is Zag City, Iowa. The third town is Spoke, Iowa. The fourth town is Hard Scratch, Iowa. The fifth town is Gravity, Iowa. And the sixth town is Quadburn, Iowa. Quadburn, Iowa. All right, Matt, you up for the uh challenge? Well, I'll I'll tell you, if I bomb this, this gets cut out of this. Um so Preparation Iowa. Was Preparation Iowa a town? Is it a town, or did I make it up? I think it's a town. I think it's a town, too. Brad? I agree. Once upon a time in Monona County, in Iowa's Los Hills, the Missouri Valley, there was a town called Preparation Iowa, founded in 1858 by a Mormon splinter group. It was founded by Charles B. Thompson, who generously appointed himself the chief apostle, and he got everybody to give up all their worldly beginnings and take up jobs to support his community. Interesting. Um, it lasted for a little bit and they drove him out of town. Nothing to do with preparation age, though, right? Nothing to do with preparation age. Okay. Second town, was this, is this, or did I make it up? SAG City, Iowa.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:43

So I'm hoping you meant SAC City, Iowa.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:46

So I'm gonna say that is something that you made up.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:49

SAG City, S-A-G.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:51

I think you made it up.

unknown 1:19:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:53

I I think you made it up as well. Every city in Iowa is a SAG City. Right. There's a digress. There's a strong enough wind in Iowa.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:01

I did make that up. Alright. Third city, Spoke Iowa.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:06

Brad?

SPEAKER_02 1:20:07

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:08

No. I don't know if you could have made them all up, so I'll just take a flyer and say there is a spoke, Iowa.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:14

There was not a spoke, Iowa, but that's uh of all of them, it's a believable one. Yeah. There's spoke have been around for a while. Uh number four, hard scratch, Iowa. Hard scratch, did I make that up?

SPEAKER_00 1:20:27

I I think I'd remember it if that I don't think hard scratch exists.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:32

I have to agree. Nope, nope.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:34

Yeah, I will say no. Every town that Brad wakes up in the morning is a hard scratch.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:39

Hard scratch, Iowa still exists. Hard scratch is a real tiny town. It's unincorporated in Harrison County in Western Iowa. The railroad chose Logan instead of Hard Scratch in the 1860s. A hard scratch was left behind. Nobody's confirmed the real origin of the name, but it is just what it sounds like. Farming was very difficult in the sandy soil. Hard scratch, Iowa. Gotta take Rag right through there, Matt. I gotta find that. A new objective. Yes. All right. So we have preparation was real. Sag City was not, spoke was not, hard scratch was real. So we have two left. I think all of us will get this, but uh we'll see. Gravity, Iowa, Matt? Yes, it's a city. John?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:20

Yep. I'm on board with that.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:21

Yeah, gravity is a real place. It's in Taylor County, it's uh in southwest Iowa. Boys, a lot of these towns, these curious towns are in western Iowa. In 2022, Gravity Iowa was the punchline of a Jason Sidakis TurboTax uh Super Bowl commercial. So in Super Bowl commercial, Jason was from Gravity Iowa. Last but not least, Quadburn, Iowa. John. I'll go with you made that one up.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:49

That's what I'm saying too.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:50

Matt, have you been into Quadburn before? No, but it hurts nicest time of year. I did make that up. All right. Hey, everybody, thanks for joining us again this weekend. Matt, thanks for actually coming to the uh deep dive studios. Uh Brad and John, I'm glad you didn't blow anything off yesterday. That's right. All right, everybody, we will talk to you next week.