It's a good thing the Delta breeze has finally picked up or else the post I'm about to write might have been a bit more grumpy sounding. 

June is my final month before all crazy breaks loose with my exchange student program. Amazingly, this is the first year that we are done BEFORE our deadline! Our incredible Sacramento team kicked butt and pulled it together beautifully! I am so impressed! To celebrate, I decided to flit off on my June overnight (barely squeezing one in at all...). Something close was the necessary criteria and I realized that I haven't done Beal's Point this year (yes, we went to Negro Bar which is close but it's not the same). Since I decided Beal's would be too easy of an overnight, I decided to add a little challenge--two little challenges, in fact! 

Monster #1 and #2 joined me! It was just the three of us. We left around 2 pm on Thursday--a nice midweek getaway and I was still able to run around and get a bunch of work squared away . You'll see by the above photo that Little Brother didn't make it very far before the already long day got to him. 

We packed our Hubba Hubba 2-person tent, two sleeping bags, two sleeping mats, some extra blankets because these guys won't tolerate being zipped into a bag, a spare set of clothes for the boys, warm sleeping clothes, socks and a new shirt for me, tooth brushes, sunblock, hippy bug spray, a couple toys and a couple books, Big Brother's baseball gear, three bottles of water, and some food. 

I realized pretty quickly that I was totally insane (actually there were some warning signs earlier on...) but decided to just move slowly and patiently and see what happened. By Hagan Park, we were all pretty exhausted and it was hot. The boys got some of their yayas out and it was still fairly easy to convince them to get back on the bike. 

However, after that, the hills increased and Big Brother was telling me that he needed a nap. Unfortunately, he doesn't get a nap when he's on the Mundo (we may need the Monkey Bars for longer trips). I was trying to keep him engaged and talking but it was getting difficult for me, too. I hadn't eaten very well and I was lugging about 100 lbs of gear (including kids), 80 lbs of bike, and myself (which is more than you need to know). A couple of times I got pretty dizzy so I finally decided to make a quick stop in the shade for some food. 

It was actually pretty nerve-wracking because the area we stopped had a huge, steep cliff down to the river. Taking care of both kids on one's own is exhausting--especially when one of those kiddos is Little Brother. I got them back on the bike and was ready to roll again. 

Once I got to Folsom, I knew there were few extra turns to get over the bridge. I stopped and asked a couple of different people at each intersection to make sure I was headed in the right direction. Every one of them looked at me and said "You realize that it's ALL UPHILL?" I told them that I did realize that and thanked them for the directions (while muttering under my breath about their wimpy 20-pound bikes and chiseled calves). 

And then the uphill really started. And kept going. And going. In reality, it's about a 600' elevation gain over 3 miles. Nothing super crazy but we don't have hills in Sacramento so this is big for us. I used up every gear the Mundo had and just kept spinning and spinning and spinning. A jogger lapped us. So we stopped to pick some blackberries. 

Somehow, we just kept moving in the right direction--up. We finally had the end in sight and it was still uphill. I walked the bike the last 500' with Big Brother walking next to me and Little Brother screaming to be "buckled" (he means unbuckled). We were all done. 30 miles in just under 7 hours, that may be a record... 

Now the real work started--corralling two uncooped children. I managed to set up camp while the kids ran around. Little Brother is my bolter and managed to run down the road pretty far before I could catch him. Big Bother just kept bugging me to play baseball with him. We then walked over to the lake as a last-ditch effort in hopes that the concession stand was still open. My meal planning skills are lacking and we had run out of edible food pretty quickly (the more I ride, the more they eat). Again, it was like herding fireflies. Luckily for us, we were able to find snow cones! 

Neither one actually wanted to eat the ice so I got that job while they sucked down the red dye and corn syrup (or whatever horrible things snow cones are made with). Brilliant parenting skills! By the time we got back to our tent, I locked us all in for the night and a mere 2 hours and 5-6 pee breaks later, the boys were fast asleep. 

By 6:45 am, it was sweltering outside and we were all awake (I'd like to point out that this is "sleeping in" for us). Big Brother woke everyone up with a gleeful shout of "A bunny!!!" I didn't have any breakfast for the boys because we had eaten everything the day before. I packed up camp in about 1.5 hours (record time) and we set off for Karen's Bakery. The downhill was a beautiful way to start the day but anytime the road started back up, I could feel every muscle in my body screaming. We'd go from 20+mph down to 4 mph. What took us an hour to do last night was over in just 20 minutes or so. 

It was hard to get the boys to eat because they wanted to play so much but I packed up what was left, grateful that we now had lunch. 

Today was super hot and slow moving. Little Brother fell asleep and Big Brother eventually started complaining again. I pulled over to let him "rest" but the minute he was off the bike, he was running around. 

Then, Little Brother woke up just as I was convincing Big Brother to get back on. He had the grossest diaper I'd ever seen and ended up having to ride the rest of the way without his shorts. Since we had taken so long at our pit stop, I didn't want to make many more stops. We sped by Hagan Park while I pointed at the other direction to distract them. The boys noticed but were only minimally fussy about the skipped playground. 

When we did finally stop later down the trail, they caught the eye of a friendly Park Ranger who gave them stickers for wearing their helmets. The boys rolled in the dirt a bit more and we filled up our water bottles for the third time of the day. 

The rest of the trip involved a lot of sweat, some screaming, and a lot of squealing laughter. It was hard to yell at them for wiggling the bike too much because at least they were happy but it was difficult to ride with Big Brother crashing into my back and the two boys taking turns leaning over to spit. Little Brother had one more breakdown just 7 miles to home. He finally agreed to eat the breakfast he had been refusing so I fed him quinoa cereal with my hands. It was gross but it helped us get home. 

Finally, just two miles from home, back on city streets, I suddenly realized that Big Brother wasn't crashing his head into me on purpose, he was falling asleep! I couldn't engage him and his poor little head just kept bobbing uncontrollably. I pulled over and walked the bike in the crosswalk to a frozen yogurt shop that just happened to be across the way. 

Back in business! We made it home with Little Brother only eating a minimal amount of styrofoam. Just 6.5 hours to get home, although breakfast took about an hour or so. 

As an added bonus to the day, Jose decided that he was unable to get Big Brother to swim practice that started 2 hours after we got home. We took a quick shower to scrape off the layers of grime then Big Brother and I hopped on the Bullitt (I wasn't going to risk him falling asleep again) and sped off. We arrived just in time (it was 9 more miles each way and I will admit that I wasn't thrilled to be doing it). I was drenched in sweat but Big Brother had a fantastic class followed by another class to make up for a session we had missed. 

Then, I did what anyone would do in my position--having ridden 39 miles, 9 more to go, Big Brother having just swum for an hour, it was 102+ outside, and dinnertime--we went to Costco! For just under $4 (because that was all the cash I had), we got a giant slice of pizza to share and a HUGE ice cream (which melted almost immediately and turned into the milkshake I had been craving this whole time). 

We got lots of great compliments about our bike and in my snarky mind, I giggled that I was probably the only one who had actually burned off the calories we were about to eat. I shut down a guy who asked how much I paid for the bike by replying with "how much did you pay for your car?" I wasn't in the mood. I had heard all the roadies who passed us today exclaim "Wow, that's quite a load you've got there!" and was tired of all the attention. 

Turns out that Big Brother was pretty tired of it, too. 

He went straight from the box to bed and has only been up once to pee. 

Every part of my body hurts when I move, my arms are sunburnt, and the Bullitt's pedal took a chunk out of my heel. Tomorrow, I demand a morning to sleep in. 

More cargo biking fun!

On Friday, we drove down to Stockton to have an awesome day with our besties. Totally worth driving! The boys were asleep within a few minutes of driving home and stayed asleep for the rest of the night. We didn't bike much that day but it was fun and full nonetheless. 

We made up for all the driving on Saturday when we first stopped at our neighborhood farmers' market then got ready to go camping in our friend's backyard across town. I chose the Mundo because I needed to carry more bulky stuff than the Bullitt can handle and because the roads are pretty crazy for part of the route and the Mundo is often more maneuverable and narrower in tight places.  

Our friends, Jen and her son, joined us on their Mundo. Jen had mapped out an awesome route through the neighborhoods and nearly skipped past all the busy arterials. It was so much nicer than the other times I'd ridden up. We had shade, quiet streets, and great conversations. Riding to go camping is fun but it's even more fun with friends. 

Camping was so much fun! The boys ran around like crazy--it was the best yaya time, ever! 

We rode home this morning, again with our Mundo buddies. It was nice and cool and quiet. The one section on Watt Ave. is horrible, as always but we were soon on the American River Parkway. There's some weird construction about to happen but I don't know what's going on. From what I can tell, there's a good chance that the Watt exit is going to be closed for a long chunk of time. That's going to be pretty annoying for many riders if there's not an easy alternative. If anyone has some info, I'd love to hear it. 

It was a 12 mile ride home. Little Brother had conked out within a mile but woke up midway to join in the big boys' conversations. When we got back, Big Brother actually asked to take a nap. They were asleep in minutes and stayed asleep for three hours. 

I had to get ready for our evening Kidical Mass ride and it was almost impossible for me to wake up from my own cat nap. Luckily, our friends were coming by to ride with us and use the Mundo. That was the push I needed to drag myself up and get a move on. 

Little Brother was the only one who was awake so he was the lucky one to join us. There was no way for me to wake up the big guy so we left him behind with papa. 

There were 20 riders at Kidical Mass! We started with a picnic dinner then a short ride along the parkway and into Old Town. From there, everyone broke into smaller groups to head to their respective homes. 

It was the best way to get reenergized for the coming week. It was an incredibly busy weekend but was so full of friends, biking, and fun that I couldn't think of a better way to spend my free time. 

The very best part of the whole weekend was coming home to my cheery big boy and watching him do this: 

I am so proud of this boy! 

I've been itching to take advantage of being kid-free and go bike camping but it's been really difficult. Since it's the middle of the week, Jose isn't able to join me and everyone seems to be insanely busy (myself included). It's a crazy time right now and I needed a bike trip more than anything to settle my brain. My energy level has been a bit low and the number of things on my to-do list has been really high. Instead of succumbing to my stress, I found a solution--KOA! 

The nearest campground I could find was the KOA in West Sac, 8 miles away. It's basically the same route as going to IKEA, just on the other side of the freeway. It's actually about the same cost as camping at Beal's Point--$30 for weeknights, $35 for weekends. I invited my mom and was happily surprised that she could join me! We decided to splurge on a one-room cabin for just a few dollars more. 

We left around 5:30pm, giving ourselves enough time to get things done for the day but not too late to get into camp before dark. I rode the new Bullitt so I could dump all our gear into the box and give it a camping test-run. My mom rode the Mobic because she still doesn't have a bike, yet, and that one is the only one that can adjust small enough to fit her. 

Since this was all pretty much on-the-fly, we didn't have a dinner plan. Luckily for us, we ran into a food truck in Old Town. Everything was coming together nicely! 

The ride was really straightforward. West Sac is easy to bike through even though it's pretty busy. I was happy that we were leaving slightly after the 5pm rush. We made it to the KOA just before 7pm with plenty of daylight to eat dinner on our porch swing. 

I couldn't have asked for a better solution for my April Bike Overnight! My mom and I both needed a fun bike ride and a quiet night. The KOA is surprisingly peaceful for being so close to the freeway (yes, it was pretty noisy). I left my phone off and refused to check my email/facebook/twitter for the night. Instead, I enjoyed an amazing book that a kind reader, David Macpherson, sent to me this week: A Pedouin Life: Stop and Smell the Aritichokes. 

What I think is most incredible about this book, besides the fact that this family rode 7,000 miles on a bike built for 5, is that we actually crossed paths during their journey! Three years ago, Marnie and Bekah and I, rode from Arcata to Elk Prairie for their first experience bike touring. On our last day, we were riding South down hwy 101 when a giant yellow blur sped up the Northern side. The captain yelled out "Where are you headed?" and before I could take in everything I was seeing, I barely got out and answer. Afterwards, I kept going over in my head and discussing with the ladies, how many people were on that bike, what just happened, where were THEY going? It was seared into my brain as one of the most amazing contraptions I had ever seen. Now, three years later, I finally have the answers. It is every bit as brilliant as I had imagined and even more so. 

Thank you, David, for bringing closure to this mystery and thank you, Harrison family for the inspiration! It all feels so kismet! This book is wonderful and awe-inspiring. I'm only on chapter 8 and I just want to keep reading forever. 

'Nama and I rode home this morning. A simple ride back through West Sac. We stopped for coffee at Weatherstones, running into Tara, who had just gotten a Boda Boda as a birthday present from her hubby. As we were enjoying our mochas, I saw another Boda Boda speed by. Such a wonderful day to start with an 8 mile ride, coffee, and cargo bikes swarming Midtown!