Read Chuck Offenburger on RAGBRAI and How Cycling Helped Save His Life

If you want to know Iowa, you want to know Chuck Offenburger – or at least his writing.

Many of you already do. Offenburger was the Iowa Boy columnist for The Des Moines Register for decades, and he’s still cranking out the copy from his farmhouse located, as he puts it, “northwest of Jamaica and straight north of Yale“ – which would be just outside Jefferson.

On Monday, Patch will run a column by Offenburger that originally appeared in the KMAland Advantage Club Newsletter, which you can subscribe to by clicking here. In the piece, Offenburger talks about being called into his editor’s office long ago and being assigned to cover RAGBRAI.

That assignment, as it turned out, led to a love affair with cycling – which helped save his life, and that of his wife, Carla, as they faced cancer treatments over the past few years.

For those of you who know Chuck’s writing, you’ll know why we’re thrilled to share his column. And for those of you who don’t: Just wait until Monday, and you’ll see why we’re so proud to have it on our site.