61 miles / Day 1 of 54 / San Francisco, CA to Davis, CA
We finally got to bed around 2:30 am last night. Jack got into San Fran around midnight and we spent a few hours packing up our pannier bags for our bikes. We fell asleep feeling excitement and listening to the sounds of a city that never sleeps floating in through the window.
We woke up at 6 am, and rushed out the door to the closet bus stop. Two buses later we were on the east side of the bay putting the finishing touches on our bikes. We struggled to install our front racks and worked on our bikes for a couple of hours but we're off and riding towards the Golden Gate Bridge around 9:45 am.
Square one. The journey begins.
We dipped our tires in the Pacific Ocean and then caught the Bay Ferry for a boat ride across the bay to Vallejo. The boat ride through the bay was about an hour long and absolutely gorgeous.
It couldn't have been nicer weather, almost 90 degrees with bright sun a few scattered white clouds for show. We headed north out of Vallejo and our ride took us deep into the heart of Napa Wine Valley. The route had us weaving back and forth near and around Interstate 80 on bike trails and backroads.
Lesson #6: Get out of the city and go into the countryside. Leave your phone back in the city. Take a deep breathe and enjoy pretty nature.
We stopped in the small town of Winters, CA around 5:45 pm and got to check out the vintage cars at their car show. From Winters we had about 14 miles to go to our final destination of the day in Davis, CA.
On the road to Davis we got our first flat tire. Jack's front tube completely deflated, we found a semi-shady spot out of the sun against a fence, right across from a sunflower field. I put my bike against the fence and Jack and about 30 minutes later we had "successfully" patched the tube on his front tire. Back on the road again!
And.....about 20 feet later my back tire completely deflated. Turns out I had set my bike in a thorn bush. Not to worry, about 20 minutes later (learning is a beautiful thing) my back tube was fixed and we we're ready to roll again.
Lesson #7: Pack more than one spare tubes. There are a lot of sharp things in the road that can deflate tires.
And then.....Jack's front tire deflated. Again. It looked as though we didn't successfully patch it. Slight problem, we only packed one spare tube. Slight problem, we didn't have a new tube. We were on the outskirts of Davis so Jack called his good friend Mike who he had worked with on a mission trip in Peru. Shout out to convenience. Mike came and picked us up. Shout out to Mike.
After filling up on a huge plates at Davis's best Mexican restaurant we spent the night at Mike's apartment.
Mike had worked as a teacher in Detroit for two years before moving out to Davis and marrying his wife Crystal. Detroit sounds like a whole different world. Sounds like an incredible amount of people have left Detroit in recent years and the city is stretched thin to provide basic services to citizens.
Lesson #8: If you want to buy a cheap house, go to Detroit. Mike and his roommates bought a 3 bedroom house for $8,000 in Detroit.
Mike recently married Crystal within the past year. Mike's biggest pieces of advice were make the effort to communicate and work through feelings instead of making assumptions, be aware of boundaries by not taking things too personally, and go to marriage counseling.
Side tangent: I wish there was not a stigma about counseling in our culture. Counselors are experts on how our minds work & how and why we make decisions. A good counselor is invaluable. Everyone should see a counselor. And not only reactively to address "problems" but proactively to help make sense out of this crazy world around us. (Because I'm not crazy. The world's crazy.)
An early morning trip to the bike shop to buy a new tube (and three extra to carry along on the bikes) had us ready to leave and depart on Day #2.....
The ferry went by Alcatraz Prison. (Golden Gate in background).
It couldn't have been nicer weather, almost 90 degrees with bright sun a few scattered white clouds for show. We headed north out of Vallejo and our ride took us deep into the heart of Napa Wine Valley. The route had us weaving back and forth near and around Interstate 80 on bike trails and backroads.
Lesson #6: Get out of the city and go into the countryside. Leave your phone back in the city. Take a deep breathe and enjoy pretty nature.
We stopped in the small town of Winters, CA around 5:45 pm and got to check out the vintage cars at their car show. From Winters we had about 14 miles to go to our final destination of the day in Davis, CA.
Classics.
On the road to Davis we got our first flat tire. Jack's front tube completely deflated, we found a semi-shady spot out of the sun against a fence, right across from a sunflower field. I put my bike against the fence and Jack and about 30 minutes later we had "successfully" patched the tube on his front tire. Back on the road again!
And.....about 20 feet later my back tire completely deflated. Turns out I had set my bike in a thorn bush. Not to worry, about 20 minutes later (learning is a beautiful thing) my back tube was fixed and we we're ready to roll again.
Lesson #7: Pack more than one spare tubes. There are a lot of sharp things in the road that can deflate tires.
And then.....Jack's front tire deflated. Again. It looked as though we didn't successfully patch it. Slight problem, we only packed one spare tube. Slight problem, we didn't have a new tube. We were on the outskirts of Davis so Jack called his good friend Mike who he had worked with on a mission trip in Peru. Shout out to convenience. Mike came and picked us up. Shout out to Mike.
Waiting to be picked up.
After filling up on a huge plates at Davis's best Mexican restaurant we spent the night at Mike's apartment.
Mike had worked as a teacher in Detroit for two years before moving out to Davis and marrying his wife Crystal. Detroit sounds like a whole different world. Sounds like an incredible amount of people have left Detroit in recent years and the city is stretched thin to provide basic services to citizens.
Lesson #8: If you want to buy a cheap house, go to Detroit. Mike and his roommates bought a 3 bedroom house for $8,000 in Detroit.
Mike recently married Crystal within the past year. Mike's biggest pieces of advice were make the effort to communicate and work through feelings instead of making assumptions, be aware of boundaries by not taking things too personally, and go to marriage counseling.
Side tangent: I wish there was not a stigma about counseling in our culture. Counselors are experts on how our minds work & how and why we make decisions. A good counselor is invaluable. Everyone should see a counselor. And not only reactively to address "problems" but proactively to help make sense out of this crazy world around us. (Because I'm not crazy. The world's crazy.)
An early morning trip to the bike shop to buy a new tube (and three extra to carry along on the bikes) had us ready to leave and depart on Day #2.....
Leaving Davis, CA.
Thank you to Mike and his wife Crystal for hosting us. Thank you Mike for your openness and great advice on relationships / marriage.
Great update! Looking forward to hearing more.
ReplyDeleteGreat first day blog Seth:) Hope you both find more "Mikes" along the way. Can't wait to read more:)
ReplyDeleteChar-Jack's mom.
Bravo. 61 miles on 4hrs' sleep. Travel=magic & never-ending serendipitous connections. uh, & a few flat tires.
ReplyDeleteThanks for photos too! (I wonder who took the one of you & Jack pedaling into ?Davis?).
PS What is "connivence" Seth?
We loved having you two here! Man, I've been having dreams about biking across the country since I heard about this and even more since your visit. What an amazing adventure! I can't wait to read more.
ReplyDeleteHope you're enjoying that climb halfway up to Tahoe right about now. You'll have to take a dip if you have some extra time.
Remember, my response radius reaches all the way out to Utah.
Wow Love Stunt go heat baby
ReplyDeleteAppreciate the shout out to counseling....not sure why we spend thousands a year improving our bodies, but never consider proactively strengthening our hearts and minds. Keep up the great thinking dudes.
ReplyDelete