Fair, RAGBRAI equally beneficial for community

Men can be so pathetic.

We really can be. After working 18 hours Tuesday, and 18 more on Wednesday, following a week in which I worked 70 plus, I arrived home Thursday night with a $5 potted mum for my wife, a cheap, sorry, pathetic peace offering for me abandoning her the previous nine days for work.

A $5 mum. How sad am I.

Lucky for me, my wife is an understanding woman, with fairly simple tastes. Probably why she’s perfect for me.

And there was no denying the fevered level of activity in Red Oak in the preceding week and a half. First was the county fair, followed by RAGBRAI, and then the Express’ post-fair tab, which is included in today’s edition.

I’ve been to fairs in three counties in my life, one bigger than Montgomery County’s, and one smaller.

In the smaller one, there was no carnival, no midway, no evening entertainment to speak of. It was strictly a 4-H fair, and really didn’t offer much for local residents who didn’t have a child involved.

In the bigger county fair, there was a much larger midway, and fairly big name country music stars performing three nights a week, in addition to the obligatory demo derby and bull buckoff.

However, bigger isn’t always better, and while there was more to do, a lot of the 4-H projects were lost in the shuffle, and it cost $8 a night, or $35 for a week-long pass, just to be able to walk that midway, play the impossible-to-win games, and buy that overpriced corn dog and funnel cake.

Unfortunately though, this year, the fair seemed somewhat overshadowed by an even bigger event: RAGBRAI.

After spending some time on the fairgrounds, I know some of the fair organizers felt like they were being somewhat shoved to the back, in order to accommodate RAGBRAI.

To some extent, they might be right.

However, I don’t think anyone who attended the fair, or organized it, would argue after the fact RAGBRAI ended up having a negative effect in any way shape or form.

Attendance for the entertainment was outstanding, and most importantly, the Sunday morning auction, which was moved to accommodate the bicyclists’ arrival, raised more money this year than those in the past for exhibitors.

RAGBRAI meanwhile seemed to go off without a hitch. The community did a great job in putting its best foot forward, and I for one enjoyed seeing and interacting with the thousands upon thousands of riders.

Being able to host an event of this nature, which exposes the community to so many outsiders, is invaluable in terms of publicity for Red Oak.

While organizing the event was a pain in the you-know-what for a lot of people, and may have tried some people’s patience, the benefits far outweighed the negatives.

Personally though, my favorite part of having RAGBRAI was that it motivated the City into putting street signs at all those unmarked intersections. As a newcomer to town, I was finding it somewhat problematic navigating to a certain intersection or street address when the streets were anything but clearly marked.

Let’s just hope if those signs disappear again, it won’t take 15,000 bicycle riders to have them put back up.

Let’s face it: the only thing more pathetic than a town without street signs is a man offering a $5 plant for a peace offering.

Gregory Orear is the General Manager/Editor of the Red Oak Express. He can be emailed at publisher@redoakexpress.com.