Day 2: Fairfield to Sacramento

Another good day of riding, warm, sunny and not as much climbing as yesterday and still 61 more miles behind us.  Our tired legs appreciated it. 

Left the hotel a little after 8 to continue our ride west. 

We decided we’d try to be a bit more strategic with our breaks as far as timing, length and what we consumed.  Our first  break at 10 was short, in front of someone’s gated driveway, for only about 15 minutes.  

And we didn’t get run off either.  

I really wanted chocolate milk at our 11:30 break in the town of Winters but I guess they only sell Muscle Milk now.  At least the little powdered donuts haven’t changed!!  Mmmmm tasty. 

Our route was much more rural and quiet than yesterdays route.  The hills have largely given away to farmland of some kind. This crop looked like wheat. 

I’m pretty sure these are almond trees, lots of them seen today.  Or maybe they’re lemon trees.  Anyway, there were a lot of them. 

While I only lived with guys at Purdue who were agronomists or Ag Econ majors I absorbed much agricultural knowledge which is why I’m sure these were little baby green bean plants.  I’m also pretty sure that they were wasting my Colorado River water spraying them during the heat of the day!!

And this is a mama turkey whose walk with her babies was disturbed by our passing.  Len said it was a chicken. He’s silly. 

As we enter Davis, home of UC Davis, we’ve come 45 miles and it’s around 1:30. Time for a real break and to take in some of what UC Davis has to offer.  For instance I learned it’s a big Ag school but I couldn’t find anybody to share my knowledge of agronomy with. Too bad for them.

Instead of a beer like I had at yesterday’s afternoon break I had the most wonderful root beer float.  It was the best thing I’ve ever had.  And the clam chowder made me feel healthy about my lunch so I could ride on guilt free.  

We left Davis about 3pm for our last 15 mile push to Sacramento.  Len, who’s really good talking to people, went down to ask this nice worker man how we could get on I-80 to cross this god-forsaken swamp ahead of us.  

After about 15 minutes something seemed to be going wrong in the conversation. I’m pretty sure the man was telling Len to go to hell. Anyway, I figured out 10 minutes ago where we needed to go.  Len never told me what happened.  Maybe he’s not a good talker after all. 

And this “stolen” part of I-80 is how we went east bound on I-80 across the swamplands.   Pretty much most of our treks along the interstates has been on “paths” created by adding jersey barriers and probably taking away a shoulder. No matter how they did it, I’m still thankful as without these allowances it might add hundreds of miles to our trip. 

Riding into Sacramento Len uses his talking skills to meet Amy, a local commuter, on her way home. She eventually made eye contact with Len and rode with us almost all the way to the capitol building.  What you can’t see is the angry rush our driver trying to go right on red while Len blocks the turn lane.

And there’s the California state capitol.  The downtown seemed a bit iffy but I like to see a capital when I can. 

After we checked into the nearby Quality Inn (which is a misnomer) we found a nice little pub only 100’ away where I had the gumbo (excellent!) and Len had a pepper jack cheese and jalapeño burger and onion rings.  Our beers helped to cool the fire from our food before we returned to our room for some rest.