Day 3: A chevy follows two bicyclists across the central valley (Napa to Davis)
Want surreal I’ve got Dada surrealism: NBC followed us around in a red chevy convertible.
It’s strange be on the other side of the microphone, though it gives a perspective all journalists should have. A reminder that you forget what you’re saying when you speak (unless you’ve practiced your lines) and that everything is a little staged.
With the B-roll and the bike fixes, we didn’t get out of Napa until noon, but we made good time down to 12 and onto Hwy 80 and all the way to Davis, really. The central valley is flat. The only mishap – I took a wrong turn and was trying to look up directions to cut back onto the main road and ran straight into a parked car. Well… bounced off the side of a parked car like a rubber ball and fell right into Rachel. For a moment, we were worried Rachel’s derailleur had been knocked out of alignment, but a couple’a good minutes shifting and we were back on the road … Lesson learned. Best part is that it was caught from about four different angles by NBC gopros!
NBC’s piece will air sometime this coming week!*
Coming into Davis was the homecoming I needed to really leave on this trip. We were welcomed in by this tremendous sherbert sunset, exactly like the ones I remember when I first arrived in town last April. A full, hot plate of Pad Sui at Thai Canteen with Fer and Allison, and then Rachel and I realized we needed to piece together all the Sol Cycles. All the holes needed threading, and we still hadn’t optimized the back wheel set to prevent the training wheels from popping up as it moved.
Eight hours later, we had six working Sol Cycles (minus one training wheel) and three hours until we needed to wake up and race to Sacramento to teach our first class.
Cycle for Science, folks. At least we slept well.
*edit: NBC's piece aired on May 7