7/25/96 (Thursday) CHARLES CITY to CRESCO (51 miles)

Well, it had to happen sometime. We headed north today and finally caught a headwind, just as the terrain was becoming moderately hilly. We had Chris Cakes for breakfast (just pancakes really but a local tradition), then blinked and missed Deerfield, even from bikes! Alta Vista, Elma, and Schley were relatively uneventful except for the wonderful hot rhubarb pie with homemade ice cream in Alta Vista and the ungodly prices in Schley ($1 for a banana!). [This just goes to show how everyone has a different RAGBRAI, since several stories on the bus involved the fun people had in Schley, mostly involving consuming large amounts of alcohol.] Cresco seem deserted as we rolled in, and we were beaten down by the 25 mph headwind and the steep incline into town, but when we got to downtown there was a major festival underway. We made our way to our campground, only to find wine coolers in our tent and an offer of a nearby warm shower! Kath had been asking Steve all week to find some wine coolers for us and he came through. Then I found the vice president of the Cresco Bank strolling through the grounds offering showers at his house which backed onto our campground. It was wonderful! His daughter was amazed that "Everyone is just so grateful for our showers!" Then Tom gave us a lift into town in the van and we actually had a sit-down buffet at the Prime & Dine. Kath had done some sluething and led me over to the liquor store booth for - what else - "Anne's French Silk Pie". Everybody gets into the act here. It was heavenly. There were two boys on bicycles nearby whose pumping action was churning the homemade ice cream. And some in our group headed over to the church where Fr. Fitz had blessed some ice cream bars. Another 8 block walk and we found ourselves at the fairground in search of vendors where we picked up even more junk we had to figure out how to fit into our luggage. The long hike back ended in, once again, deep sleep.