Welcome back, RAGBRAI

   Rick Kramer today is New Hampton Parks and Recreation director, but back in 1977, he had just graduated from high school, and he remembers the bicyclists camping at Mikkelson Park in New Hampton.   “It was a big deal, but nothing — I mean nothing — like it is today,” he said. “Back then, RAGBRAI was well young ... then again, so was I.”   Back in 1977, RAGBRAI was really a toddler, and while New Hampton was proud to host the ride for an overnight stay, it really wasn’t much more than a stop as the ride that began that year in Onawa and would end in Lansing.   Unlike this year, there wasn’t 50-plus vendors, live music and games for the riders; instead, most camped, some stayed in hotels and a relatively few rented rooms in area homes.   According to the New Hampton Economist, the Tuesday newspaper for New Hampton 40 years ago, “the best estimates were that some 3,000 riders were still holding out hope in quest of the RAGBRAI honor dipping in the Mississippi.”
   More on the story may be found in the July 25 Tribune.