July 30 Crossing America

Folsom, CA – Davis, CA Distance 44 miles, rode all
Total distance through today 3,838 miles, on my bike 3,162 of them.
Another easy day promised, yea right I’ll believe it after riding it.  Ike and I were up at 5:30, strolled over to the I-Hop and had blueberry pancakes for breakfast and we were on the road at 6:45.  I can’t believe Ike’s riding with me again today?  If there are any hills
to speak of I’m going to burn his map for sure, I got the matches in my handlebar bag.  What do you know?  We had an easy downhill the first 4 ½ miles on a city street with a nice bike lane, then jumped onto a very smooth and wide bike path with gentle rolling hills for the next 27 miles to Old Sacramento.  As we came up on to the board walk of Old Sacramento Ike’s rear tire popped.  To his dismay the tire had a sizeable cut and not repairable.  Good fortune smiled on us as about the time we discovered the tire was ruined, Pepper phoned wanting to know where we were.  Turned out the water break stop was going to be only a block away from we were.  Pepper arrived within 5 minutes and within a
few more minutes Ike was ready to ride.
While Ike was replacing his tire I learned from Pepper the campground we were staying at this night was full and we’d have to stay in a Motel-6 which Bridget had already managed to reserve for us in Davis, about 15 miles short of where we planned on ending this day.  Darn!  Instead of riding 59 miles today we are only going to be riding 44 miles and we’re going to have to stay in a motel instead of staying in a campground with no showers.
Gees, how much worse could it get?  Oh well, guess I’ll have to suffer and take a shower tonight and sleep in a real bed.  Ummm?  Could it be we’ve already ridden 32 miles,
leaving only another 12 to go on level ground.  OMG!  This is going to be an easy
day, there really is such a thing Crossing America on a bicycle.  Yea!!!
It was only about 11:00 AM when we heard the above bad news.  Ike and I decided it was close enough to lunch we’d go to a sandwich shop for an early lunch.  Then check out the quaint late 1800s era setting of Old Sacramento.  About the time we finished lunch we received a TWIT to watch our bikes as one of our riders just had his stolen.  With this
news we decided to head back to the big van to see who lost their bike.  Upon arriving at the van we learned it was Aaron’s custom built Serotta bike (cost about $8,000.00) which was stolen.  Aaron is one of the nicest and compassionate guy’s I’ve ever met and didn’t deserve this.  I knew immediately, I’d loan him my S-Works if his bike wasn’t recovered.  My S-Works comes closest to matching Aaron’s size as well as being very similar to his Serotta.
Everyone in the crew lost their appetite and desire to spend anymore time in Old Sacramento so we all headed onto Davis.  Ike and I made rather quick time, for me at least, riding the last 12 miles to east side of Davis where the Motel-6 is located.  About an hour later Aaron arrived in the big van with Pepper but no Serotta.  I told Aaron he was  elcome to ride my S-Works for the remainder of the trek.  He was surprised and said he couldn’t do that as I had ridden the S-Works today and had planned to ride it the rest of the way to San Francisco.  I insisted he go ahead and ride it as I could continue riding Spirit.  Though Spirit is the same size as the S-Works it would be like riding a plough horse compared to
a thoroughbred which is what I meant when I said the S-Works is closest to being like his Serotta.  Aaron quickly did some adjustments to the S-Works, I even had a saddle much like his, Pepper loaned him cleats to match Aaron’s and he was ready to ride.  Bridget drove him and Ike back to Old Sacramento.  Ike’s compassion and sacrifice to ride with Aaron was heartwarming and a testament to the goodness in his heart and soul.  It made me feel good to have made this journey in the company of such good folks as Aaron and
Ike as well as all the members of our crew.   60 days on the road with 20 folks who have become a family.
Gees, would you believe it took Aaron and Ike less then an hour to ride from Old Sacramento to Davis, almost as fast as Bridget driving the mini-van.  They averaged almost 20 mph, I truly am like a VW engine in a Ferrari riding my S-Works.  Good riding Aaron!
This evening Pepper had us all meet at the pool for a final get together as a group.  He figured it would be chaotic once we reached San Francisco.  Trish bought an ice cream cake to share with the crew as part of the celebration.  After polishing off the cake everyone took a turn sharing their personal feelings of this experience.  It was the most interaction as an entire group we had had and very emotional as each person shared what was in their
heart.  At the end we finished with a group hug.

Crew leaders who read this don’t take my next comment as a complaint
but rather in the context of helping you build a better team with future
crews.  A weekly meeting of this nature goes a long way toward eliminating bickering within the group while creating camaraderie.

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