Day 1 and 2

“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”

The Adventure begins at 196 Lee Ave in SF. We awoke early and Michael cooked pancakes and eggs to get our bellies full as we finalized the trip preparations. Our neighbor Paul stopped over to recite us his poetry and wish us farewell. Bedouin, Fey, Conor, Stephanie, Michael, Paul and Mari gave us final hugs and waived us goodbye as we rode to the Bart station to get across the Bay. We stopped in at Ramsey and Eddie's store on the corner to say goodbye and get some last words from him. Sorry Chris! We forgot to wake up our roommate to say goodbye to him. Paul gave Stephanie a ride to BART so she could catch her plane back to Orange County. She snapped some photos of us in front of and inside the BART station.

We rode BART to Pleasant Hill, our starting point to Sacramento. Kris printed Google Maps bike directions for us so we had turn by turn maps and directions. The first part of the trail was a paved bike path. After a few miles Marshall's bike started making a noise. We discovered that one of the spokes was loose so we headed back to a Sports Authority, luckily not too far back on the path. Mike was the technician on duty and he offered to true the wheel at no charge. As we continued on, the road led us to a oil refinery. The guard at the gate told us that due to heightened security, Solano Way was closed to the public and that we would have to take a detour. We stopped on the Benicia bridge to take a few pictures.

After the bridge as we arrived at Lopes road we met Mac, a thirty two mile a daily bike commuter and road bike enthusiast. We got to know him as we rode along the road. He advised us on proper shoes, what gears to use to achieve good revolutions per minute, and gifted us with a new tube for Marie's bike and a spoke wrench to add to our tool kit so we wouldn't get stranded on the side of the road. Thank you, Mac for your contributions to make our journey possible.

Mac wished us farewell when we arrived in Farfield suburbs. We cycled on, until we stopped for direction at the Solano College. A soccer mom directed us to a turn that we missed. We passes a mall and the aroma of restaurants were taunting our bellies. We stopped to eat at the local buffet. The hostess, Tanya, was curious to know what we were doing. She was inspired by the mission, gave us discounted meals and exchanged numbers. As we were leaving we asked a family in the parking lot if they knew of any front yards that we could set up camp. The mom suggested Mission Solano, a near by homeless outreach center.

Bobo, the Mission Solano volunteer, was outside when we arrived. He contacted Larry, Su, and Eric, who drove us to a nearby church, where they put us up for the night in a large room with about 50 people sleeping on mats on the floor. I wondered about homeless centers across the country and the conditions that people were in. We agreed that we will visit all the shelters that we could find. Our goal is to inform them about our plan to ride to Detroit and the Fireweed project. In the morning a large meal was prepared. Pancakes, eggs, oatmeal, cinnamon rolls, orange juice, and milk. Sherman took our picture in front of the chapel. We repacked our trailer and said our goodbyes.

The weight on Marie's back wheel put extra presure on the back wheel and caused her spoke to loosen and tick. A gentleman walking by said that the local Vacaville bike shop was only a block or two away. Leon, the owner, greeted us on arrival. At first he was hesitant to help. Marshall tightened up the spokes some and Marie gave it another ride. The sound was gone! We looked at the bike shorts and bought a new pair each. As we changed in the bathroom Leon asked if we had clipless shoes and pedals. Seeing that we didn't, he said that we would never make it over the mountains in street shoes. He offered us a good deal on shoes, pedals, and socks and even threw in a free jersey. While they were installing the pedals they adjusted Marie's derailers and re-trued her rear wheel. We waxed with Leon about the political situation in america, Obama, wallstreet, the oil spill and life. He jokingly slipped accusations of us being "liberals" and proudly announced his position as a conservative republican. We gave him a copy of Fighting For Our Lives the collection of articles published by Crimethinc. As we were getting ready to leave he gave Marie a packet energy jelly beans, so we wouldnt starve out there. We could see he was a loving person inside his tough exterior.

Between Vacaville and Davis we met Robin, a city worker who loved walking so he took the job of gluing down the reflectors on the road so he could walk in the nature all the day. He tipped us that once we got past Utah we would find work for trade pretty easy and wished us safe travels. We cycled down a beautiful path that took us to U.C. Davis. We stopped to fill our water bottles and checked out the campus. Davis is a bikers dream. The whole town is filled with bike paths and there are bikes whizzing past constantly. At the University there were full bike racks as far as the eye could see and bikes locked to themselves siting next to them. What a great example of transportation sustainability for the world. The bike path from Davis leads all the way to Sacramento.

As we peddled the final few blocks to Marie's parent's house, Mason approached us and introduced himself and asked where we were headed. We told him about Detroit and that we would be in Sac for a few days waiting for the video camera battery to come in the mail. We exchanged contact info and he offered to show us around scenic local bike routes. We arrived at Marie's parent's house around five, sunburned and exhausted.