Day 3 - Williams to Woodson Bridge Recreation Area

April 17, 2002 ( ~ 76 miles)

We were a little sore on this morning. In the planning stages of our trip Ryan had actually thought that we should spend the night of Day 2 at some campground near Colusa, which is 10 miles from Williams. I was like, "Get real Ryan. We're staying in a cheap motel in Williams." He was certainly not arguing at the end of Day 2!

Anyway, we woke up in Williams early and then had to ride 10 foggy miles to Colusa. Ryan noted that that kind of fog was what caused 50 car pile-ups on the I-5. We had some outstanding strawberry waffles at Sharon's Place. Colusa seemed like a nice town.

Then all the rest of the day we road north through the Central Valley. I love this kind of riding. It's just flat and nice. You don't get much of that in the Bay Area. It was all agricultural of course, and it's interesting to look at people's farms and a lot of times we rode near the giant Sacramento River.

We saw many cows on this day. Most of them ignored us. But we stopped to pee near this one herd, and they all came running over to the fence. When we left, they trotted along with us. We know very little about cows, but I am speculating that these are adolescent male cows and that they are being fattened for slaughter. See how their heads are still kind of fuzzy? I think they followed us because they miss their moms.

By Day 3 I had already slacked off on writing in my trip journal, so I don't have a reference. I do remember two big inconveniences. Firstly, I had not perfected my outdoor peeing method or something, and in and after-breakfast pit stop some itchy grass got trapped as I hitched up my pants. The whole rest of the day I was kind of uncomfortable.

Secondly, when we were approaching Corning on a country road, (around 6:00pm of this "short and easy day") these ferocious farm dogs started barking at us. We were pedaling along, tired and ready to get to our campsite. Then Ryan said, "There's no fence!" It took about a second to get up some speed before the pack of dogs raced out to the road. I was worried that we would not be able to outrun them, but we did. They were pretty tough dogs though. I had heard of dogs chasing cyclists before, but never paid much attention cause it had never happened to me. After the trip, Henry, who knows everything, told me that the proper thing to do is to get off your bike and firmly tell the dogs to go home. A big "Whatever!" to that.

Anyway, after the dogs we were pretty beat. We went to Corning to get some groceries. I went in while Ryan waited because I am a better shopper and way more interested in food then him. I got stuff for more pasta that night as well as eggs and stuff to make omelets in the morning. So I had a ton of food when I came out and Ryan got all bitchy, saying I spent too much money on too many groceries. I said "Shut up and put this stuff in your panniers." [Actually, I was bitchy because she took too long and it looked like it was going to rain and I wanted to get to our campground and setup our tent before it started pouring. I was probably hungry, too. And maybe a little tired.]

So Ryan sulked on our way to our Woodson Bridge campsite. This campground was OK, but it was less nature oriented then the one in Calistoga. I think it is for fishermen and people who use the river for boating activities. [Every campsite had like a 50 foot concrete driveway for an RV. Has Amy mentioned that we saw very few tent campers on our trip? Very sad =(.] It was OK though, as I recall the showers were free.

As we sulkily set up our tent and started cooking dinner, big clouds rolled in and we heard thunder. Ryan was all excited by this and went around sorting our stuff and making sure nothing would be ruined by the storm. I kept cooking, and just as our pasta was ready, it started raining and we hopped in the tent. This time the pasta was excellent, but Ryan totally did not appreciate it because he was so into the storm. He is from Chicago and misses thunderstorms, which hardly ever happen in San Francisco.

Now I must say that Ryan is my best friend but that he is paranoid and a very bad sleeper. He had been doing pretty good so far on the sleep front. But that night he woke me up and said, "I think someone's messing with our stuff!" I tried to get him to go back to sleep but he wouldn't. His evidence was that my blinky light on my bike was on, and why would it be on unless "someone was messing with our stuff?" We both had to get up and I checked my blinky light while Ryan made sure everything else was there. I guess in the rain my blinky malefunctioned. I had to take the battery out to get it to turn off. I think Ryan still thinks that someone was out there.