Biking Day 1: Vallejo to Winters CA

From John:

Day 1. Vallejo to Winters California. 48 miles. 

After sleeping in and getting a slow relaxing start Andrew and I started up out of Vallejo. Perhaps it was just because it was the first day or perhaps it was because of not enough breakfast the first 20 or 30 miles were pretty jittery and gully. I was fortunate enough to find a bike shop and got a mount for my iPhone six. Since most of our maps are coming directly from the phone it's nice to have it right in front of me while I ride. We also underestimated how hot it would get today and most of the day we suffered from 85 to 95° temperatures and bright sun. There was some nice climbing as well as descents on today's ride. The most difficult part was the urban riding we had for the first 20 or 30 miles. The constant stopping and starting with stoplights as well as finding bike trails and tracing roads correctly was pretty tiring. Overall though, a great start to the ride and we rode through many beautiful lemon tree groves as well as Apple orchards along the way. 

From Rebecca:

After dropping off the guys and getting some first day photos, I was off with the kids to the campground about 32 miles away.

It only took me about 25 minutes to set up camp alone.  It was a pretty narrow site however it was level and a pull thru, so the odds were good that it would go quickly.  I was pretty proud of myself!

After the set up I took the kids to get lunch and do some shopping.  When I was done at the store I noticed a sucker and a note on my truck wiper.  It read...I'll paraphrase, here is a lollipop now learn how to park you "douche."  Hmmm....I should have gotten a photo of my parking because it wasn't even bad.  I was fully in my space not over the lines at all and these were the kind of spaces with double lines between each space.  I was not perfectly straight but I'd love to see this person park a 2500 Ram in a California sized parking space with two over-heated young children in the truck!!  So to sum this up, I can perfectly park and set up a 35' trailer alone, but I can't park the truck.

As a side note, we have gotten so many interesting looks driving this truck around CA.  It is almost as if we came from another planet.  The only exception is at the campgrounds where everyone has a truck similar to ours.

Charlotte and I had fun at the pool tonight.  It was a very nice pool.

We haven't mentioned much about the weather so here is a quick snapshot:

IA & NE: 80 F +/-

WY: 90 F

UT & NV: 95-110 F

OR: 85 F

CA until today...65-75 F

These are all the high temp.

A note on credit cards, every summer our chase freedom credit card gets compromised.  I was really hoping that this summer would be an exception.  It isn't.  Yesterday we found out that it had been stolen and used for online or phone purchases to a shop in San Francisco.  How they knew it wasn't us is beyond me considering we were in SF!!  In any case we are getting new cards on Friday.  Thank you Amanda for excepting the package for us!

Today my debit card was declined at a gas station.  I found out later that it was blocked because of our very suspicious location.  Thankfully the suspicious activity was actually us and all this should be all cleared up tomorrow.

Lastly, I have to back into a campsite tomorrow alone...wish me luck!