Tour de Sacramento

Yesterday was the first day that the office stayed closed. The weather has been beautiful lately and yesterday was no exception. I decided to take the Mitsubishi in for some long overdue service. The front rotors were warped and had to be replaced along with the brakes. Ouch! Total cost out the door including power steering flush and oil change with new air filter was $463.00. What a setback. That just about equals one weeks pay. Considering how little I drive that car, it almost doesn’t seem worth it. Anyways, I dropped the car off at around 11:30 AM and walked home to eat lunch. Lunch was good, too. Cold noodle with sliced ham and jalapeño and finish with two large helpings of chocolate pudding.  Yea, that was good!

I was now ready to start on my biking adventure through the best and worst of Sacramento. And when I say worst, I refer mostly to the condition of the pavement, not the surrounding neighborhoods.To keep up the energy level, I stuffed the backpack with some trail mix and pedacitos de piña y papaya, both purchased at Dollar Tree the day before. With an open container of water clipped below, I was off! Start time was 12:45 PM. Headed out north on Sunrise and cut in to the bike trail via the small dirt path that I use daily on my commute to work. Accelerated to a pretty good clip and conditions were good, cool breeze and sunny conditions the whole way. Passed Ancil Hoffman park bridge at 1:30 and flew by Sac State bridge at 2 PM. It sure is amusing to see the occasional frustrated rider by the side of the road fixing a flat. Ha! Suckers! Too bad they don’t have the airless tires. And only a couple of obnoxious "on your right" salutations today. Very pleasant. Forging ahead at my steady pace, I rapidly approached Cal Expo with anxious anticipation of the mysterious trestle bridge detour. Where did they move it to? I wondered. As a matter of reference, a 100 year old trestle bridge burned down a couple of months ago in a spectacular blaze, fed by old wood and toxic creosote. The bike path happened to go right under that trestle and in the wake of the fire, the entire path was closed. UP and some planners that were obviously not riders hastily came up with a horrendous detour that took biker riders through some of the most dangerous and busiest streets of Sacramento. Needless to say, bike riders and supporting organizations were up in arms and howled in protest. A new detour was created and I would soon discover where that detour would lead me.Detour turned out to be a dusty, dirt trail that wound around the path and under the trestle that covered my entire bike and my pants in a thin layer of brown dust. A couple of minutes later I arrived at the Northgate exit and now it was time to enter the world of cars. Northgate Blvd is not a bike friendly street by any stretch of the imagination. It was bumpy and I was forced onto the sidewalk just to stay alive! It felt like Mr. Toads wild ride at Disneyland. Finally, after a couple of close calls, I made it over I80 to Fry’s, my first destination. Time of arrival was 3 PM. Not too bad. 2 hours and 15 minutes total biking time with not one single stop or rest from Gold River. I locked up the bike and entered the store. Hope noone was looking but I was dripping sweat from head to toe.After making my purchases, I had exactly 45 minutes to get to pumpkin’s year end performance at her school which is located near Marconi and Fulton. This was not going to be pleasant. I raced back down Northgate and then left on El Camino to Fulton, north on Fulton and then one block to the school. I arrived exactly at 4 PM, just in time to see pumpkin perform.Evening reward for all that bike riding was dinner at the buffet on Howe near Arden Arcade. Mmm good. 2 giant plates of fish, rice and all kinds of stuff left me stuffed and ready for nighty night.