Lake Solano for Labor Day

Last week, I realized that I was running out of time for an August overnight and I really didn't want to go a second month without one. I was trying to figure out where we'd go when I realized it was Labor Day and we probably wouldn't have much luck finding a campsite last minute. I settled on the West Sacramento KOA even though I had already gone there with my mom a few months ago. I figured that if I took the boys on my own and camped instead of cabin-d, it would be different enough. It was booked for both Saturday and Sunday but I was able to squeeze in a reservation for Friday night. 

As the week passed, three days of work and then two floating around trying to figure out my place in the world without a "job," I realized that I wanted to push myself a little more by adding a second (or possibly a third!) day on the road, just the three of us as Jose's birthday treat was to stay home on his own in peace. Lake Solano was a perfect choice--it was far enough to be challenging and new but close and flat enough to not be terribly daunting. They have a bike/hike site that is first-come-first-served so I decided to try our luck and hope that no one would deny a mama with two children on a bike. I still hadn't decided whether we would stay two nights at Lake Solano or just one but decided to just play it by ear and see how much we could all handle. 

I decided on taking the Bullitt since we hadn't tried touring with it, yet. Also, it would be give us the freedom of riding while Big Brother was tired since we were heading out directly after school on Friday. It was hot that day, 95 degrees, so I was happy to just be going a shorter distance to the KOA and not pushing ourselves. 

The rack.

Goodie bag.

The live load.

Little Brother and I rode over to school with the bike packed up. Then our next stop was picking up burritos for dinner. Once we accomplished that mission, I took us along the American River Parkway into Old Sacramento. I figured that it was going to be a short jaunt and we had plenty of time--I didn't want to start out rushed in urban traffic. We stopped in to see our friends at Practical Cycle then continued into West Sacramento and to the KOA. It was about 16 miles for the day. 

On the road, again!

Since I had learned my lesson after my last solo-parenting bike-camping trip, I knew that the day wasn't over after setting up camp. With kids, especially ones who haven't been pedaling, getting off the bike is a signal to go wild! Good thing I had planned ahead and brought lifejackets so we could enjoy the KOA pool without too much hassel. Turns out, that was the best idea I've ever had in my entire life! They boys had so much fun that we stayed in the pool for a couple hours. Since they had life jackets on, I didn't have to stress out about keeping them both afloat on my own (since neither can swim). By the end, they had each figured out how to keep themselves up and get around the pool by themselves. 

By dinner, we were pretty exhausted. The awesome thing about KOAs is that they are geared for families. Saturday night was s'mores night starting at 8pm. Big Brother was really excited to check it out but he was fast asleep by 7:45pm. Little Brother was a bit more difficult to get to bed and he crawled around the tent for another hour and a half before he curled up by my feet and knocked out. I was pleased to see that bringing the big 4-person tent had been the right choice. The little two-person one was too snug and caused a lot of kicking, smooshing, and general tension (both physical and emotional). 

Cheese-balls!

A few of my favorite things!

My sweet campers.

I woke up before the boys in the morning. We had a simple breakfast. Obviously, meals are not my strong suit--either on the bike or off. Also, I don't ever bring a stove or plan so things are pretty sparse (that's my next goal to accomplish). Luckily, the boys didn't mind salami and trail-mix. Our cheese didn't last in the heat and we had to throw it out. It was a good thing that we were heading to the Davis Farmer's Market on our way to Lake Solano. 

The boys ate and played with the camp-neighbor kids. It made me laugh when the little boy told me that they brought a lot of stuff but it was okay because they had two cars (this was for two adults and two children--two tents, a giant mosquito canopy, lawn chairs, an umbrella, coolers, bottled waters, and on and on and on and on). That, combined with the massive RVs that were all around us, made me think about how little one actually needs to get by. We had plenty of things we didn't "need" for this ride but took as a luxury. These folks around us had more space so they brought more. I wonder how much of their stuff was what they really "needed."

In a world where monster trucks are toys and bikes are serious vehicles.

A mini Tootsie Pop is all these boys need in life.

The KOA staff was lovely to let us fill our bottles with the good water instead of the ground water that tasted like the pool. They were properly impressed with our adventure and told us to come back. I'm sure that we will! 

Look, a snake! We helped it off the trail before it got smooshed.

Ten easy miles to get into Davis along the same route that we always take. It was nice to have a jump start because it was still another 20ish to get to Lake Solano. Our friends Kristi and Pete and their boys were in Davis for work and just as I was getting out my phone to find out if the boys were at the market, we spot them. It was an added bonus for Saturday morning. The kids played and got to ride on the pedal-powered marry-go-round and we got some food from the market for lunch. 

Fresh fruit.

AND it was being pedaled to Beatles tunes!

Lunch to-go, please.

Unfortunately, the temperatures crept up and the cooler day that we were supposed to have disappeared. The forecast was back at 95. We left the market around noon to make sure we had enough time to get to the park before we melted. 

Bike trail in Davis. Life is awesome!

Selfie #1

Selfie #2

Selfie #3

Heading out of Davis was pretty easy. It was bike path until the outskirts of town. We almost got right-hooked by a couple of older roadies on the bike trail. I was not impressed with that. The rest of the ride was on quiet farm roads. I added an extra four miles for the day by making a wrong turn. We saw more bikers than cars out there and only dropped a book from the Bullitt once. 

Chillin'

The last section of the ride had some climbing. I got a bit wobbly towards the end but it was over quickly. We weren't in a hurry and went up one pedal stroke at a time. The ride down was a blast but Little Brother didn't like the wind. 

Dear lord, why is it always the last mile?

The campground was full, of course, but we were told to look for the hike/bike sites to see if there was space. The one that we found already had about 5-6 tents pitched so we tried to look for another without luck. The ranger had no idea if there were any others, even though she thought that there were. We decided to squeeze in while there was still room and managed to find a mostly flat shady section. The tent went up to claim our spot, I paid $5 assuming that they meant per bike and not per person, then we bailed across the street to the day use area with a giant playground. 

Made it!

My uncle and aunt live in Dixon and were close enough to swing by with our favorite biking food for dinner--burritos! Really yummy ones, too! They had cold water for the boys, a beer for me, chips and salsa. It was great to get a chance to catch up with them as we hadn't seen each other for awhile. The boys were wild and super crazy again but held up well enough. It had been about 35 miles of riding. 

Resident peacocks.

When we got back to the campsite, we saw that there were more bikers there than before. It turns out that it was a local bike group from Vacaville/Dixion. They do a couple overnight rides each year and this was the first one they'd done unsupported (without a car lugging all their gear). I had been a bit confused when I had mentioned to one of the riders that I didn't want to be turned away because I had a heavy load, gesturing to my 70 lbs of kid-cargo, and she replied "yes, well we had the trailer and tent and it's a heavy load, too." It all made sense that this was new territory for them, too. I couldn't complain as they had packed plenty of food for us to mooch off and entertained the boys, too. 

They've got it down!

Dirty little moochers.

We had a great time getting to know those guys a bit better (although we had another early night). The campsite was beautiful and it would have been nice to have had more time to settle in and check it out but I decided that we should head back as we were out of food again (a recurring problem on my trips, it seems). I look forward to coming back to do a bit of hiking, maybe some fishing, and maybe lake-swimming. This route had been one of my favorite rides so far and had been record-setting already for the number of consecutive nights spent in the wilderness alone with my children. 

Papa peacock!

Better than TV.

Finally got a group photo, thanks to our new friends!

I had been a bit leery about attempting the entire ride back to Sacramento the next day so I happily accepted the offer to stay in Dixon with my uncle. He gave us great directions that backtracked us to Winters and then headed South instead of North to Davis. The boys and I stopped for coffee in Winters since we were making great time and didn't have far to go. It was an easy decision to check out Steady Eddy's since their bike parking out front was incredible. 

We took up about 4 spots. Haha!

The place quickly filled with roadies so we drank up and ran. Again, we had more bikers around us than cars, which was nice. The boys and I got lots of encouraging words as they all sped past us. At one point, I managed to keep us at the back of a pelaton, enjoying their draft but it probably only lasted less than a mile before I almost died. 

On your left!

We also lost another book on the road but were able to retrieve it. We got into Dixon just about noon. John and Martha were incredibly welcoming and tolerant of the tiny whirlwinds that are my children. They filled the kiddie pool for the boys where they played for hours. Little Brother finally passed out in my lap for about 2 hours. Big Brother got some good quiet play time in and a chance to feed the chickens. We also finally scrubbed off all the road- and camp-grime from our bodies and washed our stinky clothes. I think 3-4 days on the road is my max before I want a shower and a few minutes of cleanliness. Sunday was about 19 miles on the road. 

Off the bike entertainment.

Crashed.

Fast forward through more fun times and delicious food: Big Brother went to bed with minimal fuss and was asleep within minutes. Little Brother had been having trouble going to sleep quickly so I kept him out until his brother was asleep. Once these kids are out, they're out for good! Little Brother proved to be more difficult to get to sleep, even after he pooped and was in his final diaper for the trip (we just needed to get through the night and he'd probably last a day without...). It took hours and hours, like a whack-a-mole game, minus the whacking. Suddenly we hear "Mama, money in my mouth!" He had been playing with coins earlier and I had thought that I had cleaned them all up. I ran in there and asked where it was.

"Money in my mouth!" 

"Where is it?" 

"I dunno." 

"Is it in your tummy?" 

"No." 

"Did you drink/gulp/swallow it?"

 "No." 

"Is it here (pointing to his stomach)?" 

"No." 

"Did you eat it?" 

"....Mmmhmmm." 

"Did you eat it?" 

"Yes!"

A call to Kaiser and the fear that it could have been something other than a coin, like a button battery, prompted the decision to take him to the ER. Since I didn't see what he had eaten but he was pretty sure that he had eaten something, that was my best decision. The problem was that we didn't have a carseat and the closest Kaiser was in Vacaville and it was 10 pm. 

I decided to call Jose since he has my parents' car. I didn't know if Little Brother had really eaten anything at all and since he didn't have any emergency symptoms, an ambulance ride didn't seem warranted. We could have called a taxi, if we hadn't had access to the car but it was just simpler to have Jose come out. Not that I think we need to keep a car around for emergencies but I will admit that when you need it, it's convenient to have one available. I also want to point out that we also have many friends who would be willing to pitch in in an emergency. It's pretty nice to have a community to rely on and not feel like we have to figure out everything on our own. 

Two hours later, this is what we learn: 

Yep. It's in there.

Enjoying the stickers (until he tried to eat them, too).

The good news is that it seems to be the size of a nickel and the doctor assures us that even if it was a battery (which it wasn't since he was playing with a coin and we don't need to start imagining all the possibilities of what could be, says the doctor) they wouldn't have done surgery anyway since it had already passed to his small intestines. 

Jose dropped me back off in Dixon so I could slip into the house before Big Brother woke up and Little Brother went back home to Sac so he could sleep in and have easier access to diapers (which at some point should have some change...). 

Finally zonked.

Monday morning was rough. I was so grateful to be able to tell Big Brother to go hang out with John and Martha while I fell back asleep for a bit. I woke up to a tell-tale Big Brother joke--Why does an elephant put on pants? So he can POOP on your head!!! (or something of that nature). He was pretty impressed to learn why Little Brother wasn't there anymore and relished all the attention that he now had to himself.  

Awesome hosts!

My uncle rode with us out of Dixon and into Davis. It was great to have his company as well as a personal tour guide so we didn't get lost. It was an easy route on back roads again. He even took us to Lupita's where we picked up some jalepeno-cheese rolls for Jose (food of the gods!). 

Ominous weather in the distance.

Funny faces.

Then, just as we part ways at UC Davis, I see Peter with his unmistakable Brompton, child onboard, and bigger one trailing on his own bike. We catch up, find Kristi, and head over to REDRUM Burger for milkshakes and cheesy fries. 

Cheesy!

The Marleau family decides to join us to Sacramento because they're awesome! They ditch the little bike and grab the other IT chair for Kristi's Brompton. 

I'm still not convinced that those are stable... :)

Boys vs. ants.

The Marleaus!

So now the long, stinky, noisy section of the ride was much more entertaining! I was dragging and feeling the weekend already. The headwind didn't help, either. We had some breaks. Big Brother and I both appreciated the company since he could play and I could melt into the grass. 

After our rest, we took on a spare passenger so the boys could read Where's Waldo together, cracking up the whole way. 

The box felt too empty without Little Brother so we replaced him.

That's one way to ride the IT chair!

None the worse for wear!

The final four miles was our usual route home from Old Sac and the Marleau's headed over towards the Amtrak station. As we walked in the door, rain started pouring down. It was nice to be out of the rain and tucked inside. Another 29 miles ended the day and brought our trip's total to 99 miles over four days. 

The boys had a great time catching up again and there's been no "change" in Little Brother's bowels, yet. They both fell asleep without much issue, all before 7 pm. Tomorrow might be a difficult day to get back into our weekly routine but this adventure was totally worth it (ER visit and all...)! This route goes in my favorites book for kid-friendly trips. 

It's good to be home.