RAGBRAI is the stuff of legends. It is not because it is the longest, oldest, biggest ride of it's kind. No. It is because people love to tell their stories of random acts of kindness that occur along the route. How complete strangers made them breakfast at 4:30 am or let them shower or even to stay in their houses.
We created one such story this year. I met them at their campsite in Carroll. Carroll as a community was not prepared for the chaos that was RAGBRAI--their volunteers were immediately overwhelmed (but very kind) and camping quickly filled up. So I was glad to have a site and to have good neighbors. As was true in most of western Iowa, cell phone reception was at a premium, and in my campsite I had none. Not to worry, our neighbors had a working phone and not only did they allow me to use it, they took messages for me, and very happily passed the phone over to me if I was right there.
At first I thought the only repayment of such kindness was 40 pounds of ice we got them when we went into town--but another opportunity presented itself three days later in Grinnell. They were eating at the same Chinese restaurant that we did, so we caught up a bit. They noted with great pleasure that they had had a hotel room in Altoona, but were again camping in Grinnell and Coralville. I have a house on the market that is mostly empty, but still has electricity (so air conditioning--it was blisteringly hot that week, and no relief for those of us who camped), a dining room table and several chairs--plus a pool, so I offered it up to them, and after several 'are you sure's" they accepted.
I left them a welcome sign on the door, and a list of some recommended local eateries and the way back onto the route in the morning, and got a wonderful thank you note back from them--it felt great to be able to do have someone use something that is mostly just a burden to us now and enjoy it.
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