uh-oh

Well guys, We made it to the middle of fekkin' nowhere, Middlegate Station, Nevada, which isn't actually a town, it was a rest stop on the old pony express route 100 years ago, and now it's a rest stop on the Lincoln Highway between Fallon and Austin. It's basically a clapboard saloon/restaurant/motel
deal, and there's one house across the road from it, where I bought sweet corn from the folks who lived there when I was driving through 10 years ago. We're staying the night in the motel; amazingly they have wifi! Fred rode 100 miles yesterday, me considerably less, so we deserve soft beds to sleep on.

Middlegate is also the "gateway" to Berlin-Icthyosaur State Park, 51 miles down a gravel road. I love the name of the park! The Berlin part refers to a mining ghost town, and the Icthyosaur part refers to a handsome specimen of a fossil icthyosaur that was discovered there back in the day. It's still embedded in the rock face it was found in, but is now protected from the elements inside a building. Pretty neat if you can stand the drive.

Last night around 2 am, Fred and I were awakened by a horrible racket outside the motel, followed by bright lights. We peeked out the window and there was a helicopter landing in the parking lot. There was also an ambulance, lights a-flashing. We figured someone was being airlifted out, god knows what happened to them. It gave me flashbacks to my own accident last year. Haven't been able to get back to sleep since.

Which brings me to my own tribulation, and why I haven't written so far. I've been pretty bummed out since last Wednesday, when we rode into Placerville. Besides Fred's bike self-destructing (we eventually got him a new one), My achille's tendon began to hurt me. It may have to do with the new bike shoes I had to buy in Davis, or maybe some sequelae to my injury, but it kept getting worse, and my ankle swelled up disturbingly. It also began to "squeak," which I guess was from the inflamed tendon rubbing against the surrounding tissue. I consulted a doctor and he said I had tendonitis, and needed to R.I.C.E my achille's tendon or it might rupture. So I've been a total drag on this trip ever since Placerville (Fred's bike was a total drag on it before Placerville). The tendon's a little better, but not much. We discussed ending the trip, or at least the riding, so I can heal my heel, heh heh. The alternate plan would be to get a car go visit friends &
relations in New Mexico for a few weeks, riding our bikes as the mood suited us. On June 23 I have to be in Iowa City, Iowa, for a week long Rural Health Scholars Program (some of you know I sorta want to work in rural health care when I graduate), which is this annual symposium thingie for med students, dental students, and NP students. I have no idea why they're letting me in, but what the heck-- It's Iowa, baby!!! Immediately after that ends, Fred needs to attend a Bat Mitzvah in one of the suburbs of Denver. And I forgot, I'm supposed to visit my folks in Ohio, also. So it would still be a full-ish itinerary. Maybe fun, too. Anything to get me outta this funk. Oh yeah, not rupturing my tendon would probably be a good thing, too.

So there it is. My body is a broken down mess. I'll probably never get a chance to do something like this again. I've been wanting to do this since I was 18 years old. Better stop now, I'm getting depressed again.

First post of the actual bike ride

Day Two (May 25):

Today was our first full day. We covered 70 miles
total from Benecia, the lovely oil refinery town, to Davis,
perhaps the North American and/or New World Capital of
Bicycles. I mean, they have a bike as their official town logo
(a penny-farthing, one of those old-timey bikes from a
hundred years ago with the giant front wheel and the tiny
rear wheel. You needed a step ladder to mount one of those
suckers. I hear they were quite unstable but went hella fast.
No chain involved, so the big differential in size between the
pedal crank and the front wheel provided the pedaling
advantage. Then someone invented the bicycle chain and
the pneumatic tire, and the penny-farthing was toast.
But I digress).

Lots of roads we have been on have been spectacular, but
The Putah Creek Road was paradise. Putah Creek. Hee hee.

Sorry.

Giant hills bordering the valley, covered with Blue, Valley, and
Coast Live oaks. How do we know this? Because Fred is a
freaking botanical encyclopedia.
The Buckeyes are in full flower and
the inflorescences of these trees are typically some
what longer than the coastal version (sez Fred).
The Putah Creek and Pleasant Valley Roads were
Flat, no traffic to speak of, and there were peletons of
cyclists going all directions. We were surrounded by
Enormous groves of English walnut, Cherry trees,
and Nectarine trees with fresh ripe
golden fruit. Fred even stopped to pilfer some (only ones
that were on the ground, of course!) Delish.
(Dana)

We had hardly been on the Putah Creek Road a couple of
miles when I was approached, as I was riding by a guy on
nice road bike who talked with me for several minutes.
He asked me where we were headed and who was with me.
He had guessed that Dana and I were together on the
trip as we were both the only cyclists on the road
with touring paniers on. He was very friendly and he
would race ahead ten miles or so and then circle back
to cycle and talk to other cyclists on the road,
biking all the time, getting his century in for the
day I'm supposing. He helped us out with information
on Davis.
(Fred)

Davis was fantastic!! Bikes everywhere and people so
friendly and helpful. I talked to guy in Rite
Aide about bike stores, and he gave us a tour around
town that lasted an hour!. Pretty good for a Monday.

So I was using these things called SPDs (affectionately
called "spuds"), made by Shimano,
which are a clipless pedal system with the cleats on the
bottom of the shoe recessed so that you can walk around
normally with them on instead of doing the "duck walk"
like you do with serious racer shoes. My shoes in this
case were actually SPD sandals, and were over 10 years
and had seen a couple thousand miles of use. Well, somewhere
between Vacaville and Davis, my right sandal disintegrated,
by which I mean fell apart into 2 pieces, all with little warning.
This was nearly intolerable, and luckily I was in the bike
nirvana, so I quickly acquired replacements. This was my
salvation but perhaps also my undoing. More on that later.
This was our second mechanical glitch that day (Fred had a flat
tire earlier, no biggie).

Anyhoo, two strangers
showing up in Davis at 4:30 pm on loaded touring bikes
get the right treatment in Davis, apparently. Our Rite-Aid
friend was calling his friends at various housing Co-ops
in an attempt to get us free housing that night. In the end
we decided to go with the motel, but it was a great friendly
effort on his part.

It turns he and his family live in Village Homes
which are some of the very first ecological/ solar/
earth-roofed homes ever built in America, built with
giant commons that everyone shares and lots and lots
of community gardens and athletic fields.
All sustainable-- no pesticides/herbicides.
A completely community-focused earth-freak subdivision.
As you can imagine, not many of the houses there are in
forclosure.

So, we did some bike shopping, which included spare tires
and and a space-age sweat-wicking cycling shirt for Fred.
It was blue. Then we rode to Nugget Market for the organic
fresh food, and a giant sammich for me. Foolishly we bought a
watermelon which I had to precariously bungee to the back
of my bike. We ate like porkers in the motel room and fell
asleep within an hour.

Freakin' cable TV but no A&E, so I couldn't watch the remake
of "The Andromeda Strain." This depressed me, and oddly,
I thought about Scottosaurus and how he probably loved
"The Andromeda Strain" (had we talked about it once? Mebbe).

Sac is only 15 miles away.. Tomorrow we hope to make
it to Placerville.

Birds & animals: western kingbird (Dana still hasn't
seen this one),
Acorn woodpecker (three perfect white spots, one on
each wing and white on the tail), Red tailed hawk,
turkey vultures, metalmark and sulphur butterflies.

Fred should be giving nature tours.