The smallest meeting town on this year’s Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) is making its final preparations in Greene County.

The City of Rippey is the meeting town on the RAGBRAI route on Tuesday, which Mayor Dan Brubaker says is the first chance the cyclists will have to meet with their support vehicles and enjoy lunch. Even though Rippey’s population of 300 people is just one percent of just the registered close to 30,000 cyclists that will be coming into the small Greene County town, Brubaker isn’t worried at all about everyone being ready.

“But the fact is these bicycles don’t all descend upon us in the same hour. They come through town, some of them will pass on through town (and) some of them will stop and stay for a while. But we’ll have that many come through town, but we don’t have to deal with that many all at once.”    

Brubaker notes about 36 vendors have signed up to be in Rippey, including local organizations. Those include the Rippey Baseball Commission serving hotdogs, chips and beverages; the Rippey Lions Club and the Rippey Fire Department will have pork loin sandwiches, chips and water; and the Rippey First United Methodist Church is having loose meat sandwiches and pie. There will also be live musical entertainment with John Bean and Luke Farland. Additionally, there will be a signature rock that RAGBRAI participants can sign when they leave Rippey, which is across the street from the library.

To hear more from Brubaker about Rippey getting ready for RAGBRAI, listen to today’s Let’s Talk Greene County program.