This was the year of the flood, the summer that Des Moines went 12 days without tap water.
Fortunately, we had chosen a northern route that year that avoided the worst hit areas of the state -- Sioux City to Dubuque, with overnight stops at Sheldon, Emmetsburg, Clarion, Osage, Decorah and Manchester. At one time, we had considered ending the ride that year in Muscatine. Good thing we didn't, because the riverfront ending area in Muscatine was still under water at the end of July.
As it was, the mud in the cornfields was one of the memories everyone took away from the 1993 ride. That and the areas of washouts. It was something to look down on the way to Emmetsburg and find a two-foot dropoff where only weeks before there had been a solid shoulder.
John Karras and Ann Karras, Ragbrai: Everyone Pronounces It Wrong
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