Day 19 - A River Runs Through It

Day 19 - Sacramento to Lodi.
Only the second time we've had to use an elevator this trip. We are ready to be back on the road after our day in the big city. Yesterday we consulted a local bike shop for a good route out of town.

So far so GOOD. Hello Sacramento River, we haven't seen you for a few days.

This is the old water intake for the water treatment plant.

This is the new one. It actually connects to the bike path we are following.

Old Town Sacramento. This tourist spot is very quiet this time of the morning.

The Tower Bridge up close. We saw it from afar at the Capitol yesterday.

Another of Doug's "Let me get the shot from a different angle" poses on a busy road shoulder.

And just like that we were out of town!

Yep...the pavement didn't quite go all the way to our turn.

But it did get us pretty close to South River Road which is mostly on the levee next to the Sacramento River and had almost no traffic.

Tomatoes on steroids....no wait.....those are pumpkins!

This guy has definitely not been getting nearly enough calories.

Seems to be a trend. Maybe we need to get a big dish of ice cream today.

We saw a lot of these signs. Water is definitely the current big issue of the year.

Good thing we aren't wine aficionados or we would have way too many choices!

Crossing over at Courtland Bridge. What you don't see is the huge tractor that is waiting for Donna to finish crossing because he is going to take up the whole road.

We did it! We made it to zero.

Looks like just the place for two hungry cyclists.

Walnut Grove is full of  artistic touches.

It is time to say our final farewell to the Sacramento River as it heads out through the delta towards the San Francisco Bay and we head east towards the San Joaquin part of the Central Valley. Our bike shop consultant was right about it being a nice way to go south.

In Thornton, just east of I-5, Our Lady of Sorrows Chapel.

This time the ice cream came to us, courtesy of Jesus' pedaling.

We were only a block from the motel but that didn't stop us from indulging.