RAGBRAI gives young Spanish visitor a taste of Iowa

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Let’s say a young friend of the family is visiting your Kansas City home from her home in Spain, and you want to give her a taste of typical American culture. What do you do?

Taking her along on a bike ride across Iowa might not spring immediately to mind, but the Housel and Davis families of various Kansas City suburbs thought, “Why not?”

Roger Ramthun of Charles City played host to the group Wednesday during the RAGBRAI overnight.

He had originally intended to host another group, but those plans fell through. A bit of serendipity led the Kansas City group to Ramthun’s backyard.

“There were two nights unaccounted for, including tonight,” Jim Housel of Merriam, Kansas, said Wednesday regarding their accommodation plans on RAGBRAI.

They asked a woman in a park who was riding a golf cart and looked like she had an official role if they could pitch their tents there, and the woman, a friend of Ramthun, said, “I’ve got a place for you,” Housel said.

“This is a grand, wonderful group,” Ramthun said. “I’m so honored to have them here.”

Members of the group have deep ties to Spain. It all started 20 years ago when Gemma Martinez Pugol from Spain was an exchange student and became close friends with members of the Housel family.

Members of the families on both sides of the ocean have made numerous visits to each other over the years, and a tradition was started that when children in the family turn 15 they are allowed to spend three weeks with one of the families in the other country.

Aneadna Baga of Barcelona, Spain, Pugol’s niece, is 15 and therefore on a trip to the United States, where she wound up with a group participating in RAGBRAI.

“She’s on the support team. She didn’t want to ride,” said Housel.

Asked what she thinks of the experience, Baga smiles shyly.

“She doesn’t talk much,” said Rob Davis of Overland Park, Kansas, Housel’s son-in-law.

“She does like breakfast. They don’t do breakfast over there,” he said.

“And cheeseburgers. She likes cheeseburgers.”