Nearly half a century later, the number of people who were around for the early days of RAGBRAI is starting to dwindle.
One of the founders, former Des Moines Register columnist Donald Kaul, died in 2018. But on Saturday, as the 48th edition of the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa prepared for Sunday's departure from Le Mars, one person who witnessed the original ride was on hand.
As the ride got underway on Aug. 26, 1973, Iowa State Patrol Trooper, William Wruck escorted the riders — a few hundred as compared to the current ride's more than 15,000 — out of Woodbury County, where they had started in Sioux City, and into Plymouth County.