Day 2

Lake Solano to Beals Point 

70 miles (Flat)

Well today I achieved a new personal best. Both Tracey and I have started this massive bike ride as novices with regard to long distance cycling. 70 miles was therefore quite ominous as a target. Fortunately for us it was flat as we crossed the Napa Valley.

We stopped in a lovely place called Winters for breakfast before pressing on through the wide open countryside peppered with vineyards.

Tracey is doing well getting attention From truck drivers, no, not like that! She gets them to blow the horn on the truck which is nice and encourages us along. Not that we are short of encouragement or friendly support. Pretty much everyone we have met has been lovely. There is a lot of interest in what we are doing and why. There have also been some very kind donations to Médecins Sans Frontières.

Riding through Davis was a treat. It is a university town known as the “bike capital of the world”. It has a fabulous infrastructure for bikes and also a Uni bus service that includes a London bus. We were guided to this by a lovely gent called John who took the time to show us around. 

We cycled into Sacramento making good time and met Douglas a kind and friendly man who was out cycling. He is recovering from lymphoma and is getting his fitness back through cycling. Douglas helped us by guiding us along the American River Bike Trail (much further than he had intended to go). He left us about 10 miles from Beals Point but with clear instructions. Thank you Douglas, you are a top man.

After 12 hours on the road we arrived at the campsite and pitched the tent in the dark. When we got to bed we were asleep in minutes.