Australian traveled more than 8,000 miles to take part in RAGBRAI 2024

GRISWOLD — Jess Burton is one of the few who traveled more than 8,000 miles to ride the 51st edition of RAGBRAI this week.

Burton, 55, came all the way from Brisbane, Australia, to reconnect with her exchange-program sister, whom she met in Bellevue, Iowa, in 1986. She ended up joining her friend and nearly 20 others on their bikes for Team Kamikaze.

“My girlfriend has been telling me about RAGBRAI for a few years now, probably about four years,” Burton said. “She kept saying, ‘You should definitely come over and do RAGBRAI!’ And then I decided last week that I was going to do it. I didn’t book the tickets until last Wednesday.”

She traveled 15 hours back in time to get to Iowa, from Los Angeles to Dallas and finally to Des Moines. She said the trip was more than worth it to join the approximately 18,000 registered riders on this year’s route.

“It’s more than worth it… It’s amazing. It’s very impressive. Everything is going so smoothly and I feel very safe here,” she said.

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Burton wasn’t sure what to expect from the Register’s annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, as she had never heard of anything like it on such a large scale.

“We have bike events, but nothing with this kind of community and togetherness,” she said. “Just the amount of people, the amount of friends I’ve made… It’s like nothing I’ve ever been to. I think it’s really unique in the world.”

The highlight so far has been seeing how different Iowa is from her home country of Australia.

“I loved the scenery, all the cornfields and how green it is,” she said. “The little communities, every little town is so nice.”

She says she’s preparing to come back next year, or maybe even every year.

“I think it was worth coming here for my vacation,” she said. “I really enjoyed it. It’s just something unique that you can’t do anywhere else. It was really fun.”

Kyle Werner is a reporter for the Register. You can reach him at [email protected].