After the Thursday edition of the Times-Republican went to press, the RAGBRAI festivities were far from over as Katie and the Honky Tonks and the Pork Tornadoes rocked the main downtown stage with food trucks still set up all around before riders headed back to their camping or lodging accommodations for the night and prepared for the longest single-day ride in the event’s history, 87.1 miles to Independence, on Thursday morning.

Once the sun came up, riders headed east on Main Street past MARSHALLTOWN Company, Ryerson and Lennox before eventually turning north on Wallace Avenue as some stopped in the tiny unincorporated community of Green Mountain for breakfast and then continued on until they departed Marshall County, hitting Beaman, Grundy Center, Reinbeck and Morrison along the way.

By about 10 a.m. on Thursday morning, it was hard to tell that the town had been packed to the brim for most of the prior day, and all roads were reopened to regular traffic as the seemingly ubiquitous tents had all but disappeared.