Field preparation began in March. The time of year to keep your windows closed and change your walking route.

Now the fields are being flooded to a depth of 5″ prior to seeding.
Water flowed from one field to the next.
Farmers watch carefully to maintain the 5″ water depth for the next five months.
There were two different crop dusters flying over Justin’s house today. This one flew directly over Justin’s house every 10-15 minutes.
There are short landing strips all over the place with a supply truck standing by for reloading.

This has nothing to do with rice, but it’s a pretty good picture of Justin’s walnut trees (on the right side of the driveway only). On April 1, only catkins were visible.

Doppler radar showed this on Sunday afternoon:
It looked like this at Justin’s house.
The rain stayed to the north. 30 minutes later the sky was blue, the sun was back!

Until next time, Billie.

I hope you will come back to California soon. There is still so much bike riding to be done.

No bike riding today. So we shopped, toured IKEA (Billie’s first time), had Salmon BLTs at Cafe Bernardo, explored some retirement communities in N Natomas, and bought groceries. Billie is a phenomenal cook.
Tonight, she made salmon (a favorite) with honey & brown mustard, fresh peas, and seasoned rice. Yum!

Today we checked off a couple of things on Billie’s bucket list. We drove to Walnut Creek and took BART into San Francisco. A very friendly boy going to the Giants game with his dad started up a conversation with Billie:

Near Market & Embarcadero:

Don’t let the smile fool you, I’m hanging on for dear life:



There are so many places to eat in Chinatown, therefore hard to know which one to choose. We took Sunset magazine’s suggestion and ate at R & G Lounge. Excellent choice!

Dubious Billie explored the markets and herb shops with many unusual offerings, including different varieties of ginseng (some cost $400/lb) or dried sea cucumbers.

The Fairmont Hotel:

The Buena Vista Inn serves the BEST Irish coffee!
Golden Gate Bridge:
There was a 45-minute wait for the cable cars, so we walked along the wharf and caught a bus.
Our BART ride back to Walnut Creek was packed! Commuters and Giants heading home.
Check and check. Now Billie needs to add more things to her California bucket list. Fun day!

The American River Bike Trail from Beal’s Point at Folsom Lake to Old Sac. Phyl dropped us off – and she picked us up at the end.
LOL – Vamping for the camera:
Looking upriver from the Folsom Pedestrian Bridge:

Looking downriver, the Rainbow Bridge:

Miles = 33

We drove to Thais’ house,
missed the train by ONE minute, had coffee at Steamer’s in Old Sac,

and caught the next train

to Davis – the Bicycle Capital of the USA, where 20-25% of all trips are taken by bike.
We rode the Davis Loop, a 12-mile route around the town connecting all schools, from elementary to college. Back in Sac, we had (just one) beer at Crawdad’s, a bar on the Sacramento River.

Miles = 28

In the afternoon, we had cocktails at Phyl & Dave’s. Phyl makes the BEST lemon drops!
Phyl joined us for dinner at Ernesto’s in downtown Sacramento. Another fun day!

We drove to Phyl’s house and parked, then rode to Midtown Sacramento. Approaching Robla on the Sacramento Northern Bike Trail:
It was only 8 miles from Rio Linda to the Starbuck’s/Noah’s Bagels at 19th/K Sts.
The guy behind the counter at Noah’s looked so familiar, I had to ask where he went for elementary and junior high school. A big smile came over his face … I was his teacher at Westside Charter School. James McMillon is now the manager of this Noah’s location and is involved in local theater doing all sorts of different jobs, including acting. Cool!

Billie and I took a different route home, this time on the E Levee Road, but we still didn’t get enough miles so I showed her the bike trails around Rio Linda. The Barn Trail Quilt project on the Depot Building near the Rio Linda-Elverta Community Center.
We rode the the Sac Northern trail to its end at Elverta Road, then the Dry Creek Parkway trail from Dry Creek Road to its end at U Street.
Miles = 33.