RED OAK, Iowa – Veterans like to give so much advice to first-time riders in the Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa that their collected wisdom begins to sound like the Ten Commandments:

- Ride to the right.

- Make sure your tires are properly inflated.

- Keep your chain clean.

- Don’t forget to tell someone when you’re coming up on their left, slowing down or stopping.

- Grab something to drink when you have the opportunity.

- Don’t forget to eat when you have a chance.

- Go to the bathroom when you have a chance and always carry some toilet tissue just in case.

- Get used to standing in line and be patient.

- Keep your eyes on other riders and on the cracks in the highway.

- Get ready to pay too much for practically everything — $1 for a banana??

After riding 58.5 miles in four hours Sunday from Council Bluffs to Red Oak, I want to add my own commandment: Remember to carry a camera at every stop in pass-through towns along the route. I didn’t do this and could only take a photo with my cell phone of me with Glenn Peterson of Des Moines.

Peterson, 70, of Des Moines was my dad’s best friend since they were boys at the Lucas County Fair in Derby, Iowa. My dad died on Nov 26, 2008, at age 69. Peterson and I ran into each other Sunday in Mineola, an unincorporated town of 700 residents, 18 miles into the ride. He was wearing a DeKalb seed-corn cap and handing out business cards. On one side he promoted his business. On the other, he had printed the lyrics to “The Iowa Corn Song:” “We’re from I-O-way, I-O-way. State of all the land. Joy on ev-‘ry hand. We’re from I-O-way, I-O-way. That’s where the tall corn grows.”

We shared a long hug and few tears over my dad, who never rode and RAGBRAI and didn’t really understood why I’ve always wanted to do it. He would have understood if he could have seen his best friend and oldest son having fun telling stories about him Sunday.

You just never know who you’ll run into on RAGBRAI, which is in its 37th year and is the greatest opportunity in Iowa this side of the State Fair to have fun and watch people.

I happened to meet up with Matt Westphalen, 41, at a beer garden in Emerson, a town of 480 people, 44 miles into the ride. Westphalen sells agricultural-related insurance for Nationwide Insurance in Des Moines, is married and has two children. We hadn’t see each other in 20 years – not since he played football at Morningside College in Sioux City and had the misfortune to live one room down from me — the resident assistant on the third floor of Roadman Hall.

Today looks to be like the longest – and most difficult – day on the route: 72.6 miles with 5,096 feet of climbing as the ride heads for Greenfield. It will take us through Corning, the hometown of Dave Matthews, a retired Muscatine High School teacher and coach. If I find him in the crowd of more than 10,000 riders, I’ll bring along a camera to document the story.

Editor’s note: Muscatine Journal editor Chris Steinbach is riding RAGBRAI this week and sending stories during his stops along the way.