The day started in historic Old Town Sacramento, where the buildings look like an old West movie set. We hopped on the American River bike trail, which followed the river for 27 miles. It is a beautiful path that is well maintained and gets plenty of use. We must have seen 300 other bicyclists along the way. We wondered why they all didn't have to work and could come out and pedal the morning away. I'm sure if there was a great paved trail like that near my home, I'd find a way to ride it daily. The weather was sunny and 72 degrees, which I mentioned to a guy taking a cigarette break while I was refilling a water bottle. He shrugged off my “what a beautiful day” comment. So I asked if they all are like this. “Yup, pretty much.”

We hit our first hills and Dan drew first blood. He fell a couple of times while trying to start pedaling uphill and got his calf pretty well gashed by his chainring. He was smart enough to call it a day after 42 miles. Nicole and I pushed on to Placerville, another 15 miles. Then the map confused me and we missed a turn. I knew where we needed to be so I talked to a guy at an auto repair shop. Bicyclists say you don't want to ask anyone but a bicyclist about hills or distance, because you have to pedal to know how steep or long a hill is. The repair guy said there are two ways to get to downtown Placerville, after correcting me on my Placerville pronunciation. I guess I picked the wrong one. Nicole and I headed off when Dan and Dottie found us with the van. We were feeling OK so we kept going and Dan drove ahead. Nicole and I found one big hill. She dropped off pretty quick and I could see it was getting steeper. Real soon Dan was sitting along the road with the van. I decided to call it a day and Dan said I made a great choice. He walked back to help Nicole get up to the van and then we drove another couple of miles up one of the steepest hills I have seen. Dan had already driven the road and that is why he came back, he knew we wouldn't make it. We were done at 57.9 miles.

We decided to drive to Carson City, NV. It is a gorgeous drive through Lake Tahoe and we went up about 6,000 feet. We were real happy to be driving rather than riding.

Wildlife of the day: Nicole came about an inch from running over the nose of a good size snake sunning itself on the Sacramento bike path. She barely saw it, which was good. She did encounter a black-tail deer, which she was sure was going to attack her. It didn't.

Dottie Puntillo takes a picture during a break.