A morning wave from Little Miss Iowa

Little Miss Iowa MacKenzie Wallace welcomes riders to Newell with three older generations of the royal family: great-grandmother Alyce Falkner and grandmother Midge Townsend, both of Newell, and mother Tessa Wallace of Sac City.

Newell — Uneasy is the head that wears the crown.

Or if not uneasy, at least a little heavy “sometimes,” said Little Miss Iowa MacKenzie Wallace, 8, of Sac City.

She rose at 3:30 a.m. to put on her tiara, satin sash and rhinestone-studded flip-flops to greet the unwashed RAGBRAI masses as they rolled into Newell.

“Good morning! . . . Good morning! . . . Good morning,” she said with a practiced wave.

Wallace won her crown at a Princess of America state pageant in October and is raising money to go to nationals in Branson in November. So while the rest of the royal family sold baked goods behind her — mother Tessa Wallace, grandmother Midge Townsend and great-grandmother Alyce Falkner — little MacKenzie stood at the end of Falkner’s driveway as dark rain clouds swept in from the northwest. A rider tossed her a string of red plastic beads that she graciously placed around her neck.

So far this summer, Wallace has visited nursing homes and helped raise money for a veterans’ Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. But it’s safe to say RAGBRAI was her biggest brush with her constituency — and she seemed up to the task.

“We’ll be here till we sell out or until nobody’s coming by,” her mother said.