Day 2 Vallejo to Sacramento, California 74 miles 1100 feet of climbing

our day started out very cool and cloudy, with the same strong winds from the southwest that frustrated us at the end of yesterday's ride.  the ride quickly headed for the canyons just north of vallejo.  the road, and the town, share the same name:  american canyon.  odd name for a town.  beautiful countryside.  and a nice, long, slow, steady climb.  that first part of the ride was great, but the winds soon played havoc with my trip sheet holders.  i don't know if it

was from the moisture yesterday or the winds, but whatever the reason, the clips holding my trip sheet basically died.  if it wasn't for the headwind that blew my sheet back into my chest, i would have been lost for much of the day.  as it was, i was able to improvise, using a couple of clips from office depot and some velcro to jury rig something that held the rest of the day.

speaking of wind, i forgot to mention two things.  one that took place so often yesterday and reprised a couple of times today; the second, an observation from today's ride.

when the crosswinds are blowing as hard as they were, it whistles through my bike helmet, sounding like an oncoming freight train.  it's such a distinctive sound, i almost start looking around for the railroad tracks.

but when the wind is at my back, as it was during the middle of today's ride, i don't hear a thing.  as a headwind, it drowns out all other noises.  but from the back, all i hear is my bike.  it's actually a great diagnostic tool.  if the road is smoothly paved and if my bike is probably tuned, all i hear are my tires on the road surface.  any imperfections, any misalignments, or anything not probably tightened down, the quiet of the road calls those out immediately.  if the road surface is choppy, those same problems cry out with their respective rattling sounds.  but, as it was for the middle miles of today, all i heard was that perfection of a well-tuned bike on smooth roads.  it's so calming and so tranquil.

yes, that is the jelly belly mascot.  apparently, we rode through fairfield, california this morning, headquarters for jelly belly jelly beans.  and, yes, we rode down jelly belly lane as that was where we had our first pit stop.  it wasn't even 9:00 am and already there was a long line of children and their parents [as well as a fair number of non-children-attached couples] eagerly awaiting the morning's tour of the factory.  and, no, i wasn't on that line.  never was a big fan of jelly beans [or bertie's every flavor beans, for that matter].  okay, one thing i did learn while i was there [i only used their bathrooms, i swear i didn't go on the tour!]:  flawed jelly beans are called "belly flops" and are sold at a marked down price.  the lobby also had god-awful portraits of everyone from ronald reagan to dr. martin luther king, all done in jelly beans.  that just takes kitsch to a whole new level of weird.

the bulk of the day was spend riding through the farmlands between vallejo and sacramento in what they call military style [left, right, left right as we rode up the northeast diagonal between the two cities].  the soy and corn were all well irrigated.  the rye and alfalfa were ready for picking.  in fact, we saw a lot of cut grasses ready for baling for hay.  the pastures were filled with cattle and horses. the cows seemed particularly curious as we rode past.  i was amazed how many turned their heads for a better look at us.  riding through those pasturelands and crop fields was also so wonderfully peaceful.  when the roads were well-paved, the only sound other than my tires, or the mooing cattle, was the crackling noise from the overhead transmission lines.

once out of the farmland, we entered the city of
davis, home to uc davis, the finest school for
the study of the grape in the u.s.  what was once the
uc davis school of enology is now the robert

mondavi was a huge benefactor for this school

mondavi institute of wine -- the place where many of america's great winemakers have been trained.  it's also the place where two of the three clones of merlot that go into our t'jara wines were developed [the 3rd clone is bordelaise].

mecca for winemakers 

we ended the day riding into sacramento.  never got a chance to see the capitol building, only "old sacramento" which looks a bit like something out of an old wild west movie.  kitsch, part 2.

you've seen the tower bridge if you watch cbs' "the mentalist" which takes place here in sacramento

today ended with a quick cleaning of the bike and knocking back a couple of beers with andy kaplan, our bike mechanic.  we were trying to figure out how many calories are consumed and burned by tour de france riders.  and, as we are about to get into the heat of this ride, both past sacramento and on into nevada, this'll be the last time i rehydrate with beer post-ride.  but, the sierra nevada tasted pretty good at the end of today's ride in 90+ degree temperatures.