And it tastes like salad, asian food, It’s-Its, and yogurt.

Day 77: Placerville, CA to Sacramento, CA
August 1, 2011

Last night we had a surprise visit in Placerville from Erica on her way home from Lake Tahoe. Hanging out with her at the taqueria was way better than going back to our sketchy motel room. Today, we got up early and rode through downtown Placerville (cute), down some winding roads to Folsom, where we got on the American River trail which we took all the way to Sacramento. Riding on a bike path is great for the obvious no-car reason but also because all of the old bikers want to talk to us. A couple of different old guys rode with us for a bit, which made the time fly by. Also, the bike path is really, really nice. We got to Erica’s house at 11:30, showered, and got some sandwiches and salads for lunch. Erica was an excellent host; not only did she tote us to various delicious eateries, she also refrained from judging when we went to sleep at 9pm and she took us to Trader Joe’s to get some of our favorite yogurt that we haven’t had since May 17.

  • Start: Placerville, CA
  • End: Sacramento, CA
  • Slept: Erica’s house
  • Miles: 49.4
  • Avg.: 10.8

Day 78: Sacramento, CA to Napa, CA
August 2, 2011

We snuck out of Erica’s house early and rode through Sacramento as the sun was just hitting the Capitol. Next we rode through Davis and then along some winding roads through various fruit crops. We saw tons of cyclists commuting to work and others just out for a ride. It is funny to think back to when the only other bicyclists we saw were on a tour like us. We stopped for a quick lunch in Fairfield before making several failed attempts at cutting over to Napa (the road we’d planned to take was WAY too busy to ride on). Eventually, we followed the biking map route most of the way to Vallejo and then cut through American Canyon to Napa. Not terribly direct but it did take us past a gas station selling It’s-Its (a San Francisco ice cream treat, for the uninformed). Now it even tastes like home! We arrived at Evan’s house at around 5 when we promptly ate about a pound of blueberries and took showers. Evan cooked us an amazing feast for dinner. There were these weird colorful things in the food…I think he said they are called “vegetables.”

  • Start: Sacramento, CA
  • End: Napa, CA
  • Slept: Evan’s house
  • Miles: 83
  • Avg.: 10.3

Photos: We are total failures and didn’t take a single photo of the scenery (it was so familiar it didn’t seem necessary). So instead, here is some photographic evidence of our culinary return to the Bay.