May 3 - 54.2 miles of tandem transportation in Sacramento

We had a great day today, took us about 1.5 hours to ride to the Ventana Bicycle company.  Just super people.  They don't sell complete bikes, but the office person arranged to borrow one from her brother for us to try out.   We met the owner, the shop foreman, the welder and tube cutter during our tour of the manufacturing process, and we are only interested in their bikes with no commitment.  Such a difference from Santana, where we've spent thousands on two Santana tandems and only get the time of day from Santana.  The owner is willing to talk, but he doesn't allow factory tours.  We rode the borrowed bike about 4.5 miles over curbs, across fields, rocks and gravel.  It is a full suspension tandem and sure handles better than the hardtail mountain bikes.  Seeing actual powder coated frames is so much nicer than just looking at color samples too.  All kinds of temptation.

After the tour, we continued east to the Nimbus fish hatchery and American River Trout Hatchery.  Not the right season for the salmon, but we saw lots and lots of trout.  Even some getting loaded onto a truck.                                                                       

We stopped along the trail for a snack break.  Kathy had picked out individual packages of a trail mix that was perfect on the ride today.  Much better than the old granola bars I'd packed for this purpose.

 

We got back to the MH and were ready to rest in the a/c for a bit, but we needed some supplies and there was a Costco about 3.5 miles away.  We'd mounted a rack for this trip and it really came in handy.  We only brought a small set of panniers, but the bags were large enough for a gallon of milk in each with other provisions.  Someone in the store asked if we'd ridden a bicycle to Costco.  We said yes, thinking it was a strange question.  But he laughed saying he'd only seen that once before, and apparently thought it was a great way to avoid "over buying".  

Most of the riding we did was on the extensive bike path system along the American River.  Tomorrow morning we'll be limited to the streets until noon, as they have the path closed for a special event.  We have our sight seeing and even Church all scoped out with a bike route and haven't needed to take the motorcycle down yet.  They've been having a heat wave in Sacramento, so having the 50 amp electrical service and running both a/c units has been a boon.  We are close enough to the river beach, so if we want to soak and float it is easily available.  No campfires allowed at this RV park (at the Cal Expo fairgrounds) so we don't see many people out and about.  We pretty much lock up the bike and sit in the a/c ourselves, when we are in camp.