day 53: a visit to luke's

If you had told me ten years ago that in the summer of 2011 my gentleman friend and I would ride our bicycles across the country and spend a night in Sacramento, CA with Luke (one of my best buds from high school), his wife Chrissy, and his two lil boys Ian and Caleb, I would have had little to no reason to believe you. I would want to ride a bike that far? Luke - *married*? *Kids*? *Sacramento*? But here we are. And a good visit it's been, especially given the length of our day -- 111 miles, our second longest day after that craziness back in Defiance, OH.

We began our day in Lake Tahoe at 5 a.m., out the door to breakfast by 6, determined to beat as much Highway 50 traffic as we could. If I had been in a full disclosure sort of mood last night, I would have told you how nervous I was to get out of Tahoe on the busy and narrow Hwy. 50. The guys at the bike shop advised against it, but their only alternative was the longer and far more mountainous Rte. 88, affectionately known as the Death Ride. We opted for 50, hence the early start. There were some tense moments, but here we are. We were helped by a 7000+ foot drop in elevation, which sounds more fun to ride than it is.

But now: let's stop worrying about boring things like mountains, deserts, and road quality and start worrying about more important things: for instance, how many bottles of wine will I be able to strap to my rig?

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