Three days into his first ride on RAGBRAI, Knoxville resident Brian Ke Learn more here ndall is loving every mile of it. Yesterday’s route took riders from Algona, in north central Iowa, to an overnight stop in Clear Lake, which brough Kendall though his boyhood home and allowed him to reunite with family.

“I stopped in the Hobo Capital of the World – Britt – and saw my aunt and uncle and my cousin; and spent about 45 minutes there. As we drove about a mile away from the family farm, I started talking to people that I didn’t know and telling them that this is where I grew up,” said Kendall. “In Garner, I just ran into my great uncle, and I haven’t talked to him in 15 years.”

He adds that cycling through familiar territory also gave him the chance to make a new memory.

“Riding through the countryside just reminds me of a long time ago,” says Kendall. “I actually went to my old house that I lived in from 1969 to 1970, and there was this young boy out front that was a few years older than I was when I lived at that house, and we talked for a while and I got my picture taken with him.”

Kendall says he’s been fortunate to have no mechanical problems, adding that he feels good physically as well. Today’s fourth stage of the 38th annual bicycle tour of the state will be one of the shortest and easiest of this summer’s event – taking riders on a mostly downhill route for just over 50 miles and ending up in Charles City. For an update on Brian Kendall’s progress during his first-ever ride on RAGBRAI, tune into today’’s news during the Marion County Midday Magazine at noon.