People are arriving now in Sioux City for Sunday’s start of RAGBRAI – the Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa – and lots of them have ridden the Raccoon River Valley Trail for part of their trip. Shown here at mid-morning Thursday, July 22, are 16 members of the Tall Dog bicycle club from around the Des Moines area who had reached Panora on their ride to Sioux City. Former Carlisle teachers Dwayne Barton and Mike Leo, who are both in this group, are the co-founders of the Tall Dogs, who did their first RAGBRAI in 1975. The name came after then-Carlisle High athletic director Dick Armstrong invited Barton and Leo to go water-skiing on an early April weekend in ’75. Noting the temperature, Barton said, “Well, it’d take a tall dog to do that!” They started calling themselves that a few months later when they dared to ride RAGBRAI the first time. One club member, Jon Cook, of Urbandale, who is also shown in this photo, has ridden every year since the founding; the other originals have missed a year or two along the way. This group camped Thursday night at Swan Lake State Park near Carroll and Friday night at Little Sioux Lake south of Correctionville, enroute to Sioux City. There, they are being joined by about 130 other Tall Dog club members who are coming to Sioux City on charter buses or private vehicles. On Sunday, RAGBRAI starts its seven-day adventure to Dubuque.

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