[trip-list] East from Sacto

[drewish@katherinehouse.com]

WINTERS, CA 08/03/02 - Not really in the habit of sleeping in I was up at 07:00 and packing. Carol cooked breakfast and as a touring cyclist I couldn't say no. She gave me directions on how to get to the bike path along I-80 into Davis. I wished her and her four dogs well and began navigating my way out of town.

On the Sacramento River they were having boat races. I stopped to watch for a minute and ran into another BikeE owner. We talked for a while before I headed out through West Sacramento. I found the bike route along I-80 to Davis and fought wind the whole way there. Along the trail I found an old guy hoeing away at weeds and stopped to ask what he was up to. Well George was probably 70, had glacoma (sp?) and couldn't see real well but he spent a big chunck of his time out along that trail picking up trash, keeping the weeds back and doing other maintence. He'd accept donations for tools or whatever people wanted to give him. I offered him some pretzels but he said after he finished the 60 foot long strech he was working on he was going to go get a chicken dinner at a place he liked down in West Sacramento. The sun glasses I'd found along the highway on the coast were more to his liking though. I really liked George, he seemed like somebody who'd had some hard luck, some throu!
gh his own fault and some beccause of others, but was going to do what he could with the time he had left. He told me "If when I was 20 I knew what I know now you know what I would of done? I would of got me a bike and rode all over California. I was stationed in Monterey. I only worked four days a week. Know what I did instead? Sat in a bar looking at the bottom of a glass and counted the days until I got out of the army." I really felt for George he said he'd love to take a trip like mine but with his eyes the way they were he couldn't see to enjoy it much less do it safely. He gave me his PO box number and I'm going to keep in touch with him, I think it'd be a real kick to spend a week with him, take a nice laid back trip out around part of the Central Valley. Who knows. 

In Davis I cruised around for a while and got something to eat. The last time I was through there was on a trip with Brad and his dad maybe 6 years before. It didn't seem to have changed much, found the book store and taco stand we'd stopped at. It's a cool little town but I didn't feel like I belonged there, a bit snobish maybe.

I rolled on down some farm roads to Winters, only 35 miles from Napa and stopped in the store. I pushed my bike in and asked where I could park it, the manager pointed then asked me where all I'd been. It was kind of funny, I ended up telling maybe five people about the trip. One of them, John, a truck driver for FedEx and I ended up talking in the in the produce section for at least 15 minutes.  He was blown away by the where I'd been on a bike, I told him about the website hopefully he'll get on the mailing list. I need to make up some business cards that say "Andrew Morton, Adventurer" I'd spellcheck it of course.

andrew

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