The route for RAGBRAI LI stretches from Glenwood on the Missouri River to Burlington on the Mississippi. At 424 miles, this year’s route is fairly short, but it will be the “hilliest ever RAGBRAI,” according to organizers. It’s not the first time Glenwood and Burlington have been connected. In 1869, the Burlington and Missouri River […]
recreation
Posted inRecreation
An Iowa bicycle collective can help you find, fix and fall in love with your ride
If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you give a man a bicycle, teach him how to keep it in tip-top shape, and advocate for there to be safe spaces for him to ride, you’re a bike collective. Iowa’s bike collectives are nonprofit community programs that focus on […]
Posted inRecreation
Like all of us, ‘birds suffer from lack of being seen.’ Good thing Iowa has a century-old bird club.
Founded in 1923, the Iowa Ornithologists’ Union (IOU) has endured for a century as one of Iowa’s most prominent organizations dedicated to avian wildlife. Through organizing field trips to participating in the Christmas Bird Count to partnerships with the Iowa Audubon and Iowa Young Birders, the IOU wants people to care about birds. “I’m not […]
Posted inRecreation
Iowa is a disc golf capitol of the U.S., with 363 courses across some of the state’s best parks
What sport do you associate with the state of Iowa? Wrestling? Basketball? Football? Disc golf probably didn’t come to mind, but the Hawkeye State has a long, storied history with the target sport. According to UDisc, the sport’s most popular scorekeeping and course directory app (founded by two Iowa State University students), Iowa currently has […]
Posted inRecreation
Behind the handlebars: Eight styles of bicycle and what they do best
So you’re ready to hit the trail and feel the summery breeze on your face. What pair of wheels is right for you? Drew Boss, lead mechanic at the Iowa City Bike Library, broke down eight types of bicycle he’s fixed up over the years for a quick guide to common bikes. Illustrations by Jordan […]
Posted inRecreation
Contact Buzz: Recreation is renewal
“A period recourse into the wilds is not a retreat into secret silent sanctums to escape a wicked world, it is to take breath amid effort to forge a better world.”—Benton MacKaye (1879-1975), American forester, planner and conservationist “The intellect must not be kept at consistent tension, but diverted by pastimes…The mind must have relaxation, […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry’ by Austin Frerick
Austin Frerick’s captivating and necessary book Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry (March 2024, Island Press), is a road trip through America’s heartland — but not the one depicted in Grant Wood’s paintings of rural Iowa. Where Wood depicted an early 20th century lush with rolling fields of green, Frerick’s contemporary […]
Posted inCommunity/News
House Republicans pass bill to eliminate regular health and safety inspections of hotels and motels in Iowa
A decade ago, the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing (DIAL) stopped following the requirement in state law that it inspect all hotels and motels in the state at least once every two years. The department didn’t inform the public or lawmakers that it stopped routine inspections in 2014. That fact didn’t come to […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Anyone can Catan at an upcoming tournament in Cedar Rapids, the result of a geeky cross-state collaboration
Less abstract than chess, but more complex than Scrabble, Eurogames — which came to prominence in the late ’70s and early ’80s in Germany and quickly spread across Europe — offer players multiple paths to victory and more intricate strategy and tactics. Leading the charge of this stylistic expansion stateside was Klaus Teuber’s 1995 release […]
Posted inRecreation
‘Escarp’ to Brush Creek Canyon, a wild nature preserve in Fayette County
Brush Creek Canyon is one of 95 preserves that protect natural, geological, archeological or historical sites in Iowa. They are often minimally maintained, which only adds to their charm. A 217-acre preserve located in Fayette County, near the town of Arlington, Brush Creek Canyon State Preserve is announced by a modest sign on a telephone […]
Posted inCentral Iowa, Recreation
Descend into Yellow Banks Park, 576 acres of ancient history
Tucked along a panoramic stretch of the Des Moines River in southeast Polk County is a park that feels many miles away from the state’s largest metro area. Buffered from the usual traffic sounds by dense woods and isolated stretches of natural landscape, Yellow Banks Park exudes an almost zen-like allure, with 150-foot high yellow-colored […]
Posted inCommunity/News, Eastern Iowa, Recreation
Birds, fish, reptiles and thousands of historic objects make up the National Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque
The National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium is a one-of-a-kind Iowa institution founded in 2003 on the site of the former Dubuque Boat and Boiler Works, which built boats from 1870 to 1972. The roughly 26,000 objects in the museum’s collection tell a wide-ranging history of the region — from prehistoric geology to the First […]
