Our very own Sacramento tour guides...
Day 244
11-6-2006
Started: American River Bikeway, CA
Finished: Sacramento River, CA
Today's Miles: 17.4
Total Miles: 3954.8
We enjoyed sleeping in a little later this morning, we really couldn't help it, we have come to find that any time there is a pillow under our head and a soft bed under our hips it becomes rather easy to sleep in a little later. When we finally crawled out of bed Chris was up and ready to get us back to the trail and Emily had already taken off for downtown Sacramento because she was assigned jury duty this morning. We hit the coffee shop so Sheri could get her java fix and of course Randy couldn't resist a fresh baked pumpkin scone and then made our way back to the American River Bikeway. Chris dropped us off and then took off for downtown where he was going to stop by his work for a moment and then meet up with Emily and wait on us to walk through Old Town Sacramento and down Capital Mall to the Capital Building. We loved this mornings hike along the Bikeway and are excitement grew with each step as we approached the California Capital. We reached Discovery Park and found ourselves dodging tons of other walkers, joggers and bikers who were out enjoying the California sunshine. We got into tourist mode as we hit Old Town Sacramento. We meandered through the old streets past a mix of old town novelty shops and tourist traps, we did make sure to take advantage of the coupons we were handed for the free sample from Candy Heaven. After our stroll through Old Town we hit the new and improved big city as we made our way up Capital Mall and to the lawn of the State Capital Building. Our official Sacramento hosts and tour guides, Chris and Emily, were standing out front of the Capital giving us a big wave as we approached. From that point in our hike we turned over our turn by turn guide to the locals, telling them to show us the good stuff in the big city, they just needed to make sure that at some point we went west so we could follow the Sacramento River out of town. Chris took us by the building he works in and made sure to point out a few of Sacramento's hot spots and then Emily led us through the neighborhood streets, on a casual walk in a huge park, and to the Sacramento Zoo. We had a great time walking and talking and we truly enjoyed having Chris and Emily come out to be a part of our hiking experience here in Sacramento. After a few hours of cruising around in the city Chris and Emily decided to head back into the heart of downtown so they could grab their car and drive out to the bridge over the Sacramento River where we had planned to meet them at the end of our hiking day. Just after they headed back downtown we decided we would hit a local pizza place and get a few slices to take with us on our afternoon hike the rest of the way out of the city. While waiting on our slices to cook we met an extremely nice man named chuck who was really interested in our hike. He was playing a game of darts, but made sure to talk with us between his turns at throwing. Before we went back out to hit the trail chuck wrote down our website and said he would love to share it with his students. Chuck reached in his wallet and as he handed us some money he said, "please, let me get you a meal or two". We were taken by his kind act and found ourselves smiling extra big as we made our way down the trail for the next hour at least. The south west side of Sacramento showed us some California terrain we just hadn't pictured in our minds as being something we would be hiking through. The elevation we are hiking at is back down near zero and the River is bordered on both sides by levees that keep the water from flooding the hundreds of miles of flat Delta. The Delta is home to many vineyards and orchards, countless water foul and riverside communities that put a lot of faith in the structural stability of the levees. We crossed over to the west side of the Sacramento River at the end of the day today and put ourselves on a river road that is actually on top of the levee. We will be following the River to the south and west for the next few days and will get to discover what the wide open California Delta is all about. Tonight we are laying in a warm bed feeling stuffed after doing our best to finish a huge pizza that Chris and Emily treated us to for dinner. They picked up the pizza while we were out doing our resupply shopping and putting our camera card on a disk. They even took us over to the Sacramento REI where Sheri was able to get her broken shoe replaced. It really is amazing to be entirely across the country, away from home by thousands of miles, and still feel that we have a support system that enables us to get everything taken care of. Chris and Emily have been awesome hosts and their tour of Sacramento was a wonderful contribution to our Journey.
Your Friends on the ADT,
Randy and Sheri
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