Daily Mileage: 44.5 Miles
Ride Time: 4:50
Avg MPH: 8.8
Max Speed: 26.2
Climbing: 1007 feet

     After a decent night sleep and some breakfast I organized my gear a bit better and selected some items to mail back home while waiting until 11 AM when the City Bicycle Works expected their mail and hopefully the USPS would deliver my box with tent and sleeping pad, etc. and I can get underway.
     I hung around the shop until 11:40 AM & still no USPS post person. Deciding to go grab some lunch while waiting on the mail I made it one block & the traffic light turned red. Looking around the intersection what did I spot but a USPS mail van diagonally across the street and about halfway up the block. I rode up to the back of the van and asked the mailman if he delivered to the bike shop on the next street over. He said he did but it would be around two hours before he made it over there. As I was looking in the back window of the van I explained my situation and about the same time spotted my box in the back. The mailman was very accommodating and said if I could show my ID and it matched up with the address on the package I could sign and take delivery. Hurray! I took my box and rolled my bike back to the bike shop and the guys were glad for me that it came.
     They let me set up at the back of the store to rearranged my panniers to accommodate the stuff in the box and I selected about 5 pounds of it to ship home. The shop owner Jess came in while I was doing this with a fellow who I think was some sort of mfg. rep and they both admired my nickel plated and upgraded vintage Expedition but were also amazed at my load. Jess offered to have his shipping / receiving guy mail back the stuff I was sending home. He and all his employees that helped me were top notch. I highly recommend his shop(s). There are two shops. His folks that helped me that I can recall are Bowen, Gordon, Jack, Amanda, and Nicole. I probably am forgetting some but thanks to Jess and all his crew who helped me get underway. They even let me fill my 100 oz CamelBak and water bottles from their cold filtered water dispenser. Thanks again.
     They gave me directions to the bike trail that leads to Folsom and I took off about 1 PM. The trail is nice and I love riding away from Autos but they could sure use more signage. There were several forks in the trail that did not have signs indicating their destinations. With my late start I decided not to stop for lunch but just snack snacked on trail mix & energy bars. It wasn't long before my temp gauge was reading 95 degrees and the sweat was pouring.
     At one of those confusing forks in the trail I asked a fellow cyclist who was taking a break which way to Folsom and he pointed me in the right direction. His name is George and he was going that way and passed me twice and then would stop for a break up the trail and I stopped each time he stopped to visit a bit more. The 2nd time we began riding together and George told me he had been really overweight and not in good health. He decided to see if cycling would help and he lost a lot of weight, I forget how much but had built up to longer distances of up to a hundred miles on occasion. He was then 66 years young and still doing ferrier work (horseshoeing). I liked George and enjoyed my visit with him and told him he should just pack up and come along. He said it was tempting but could not at the time.
     We split off about 5 miles outside of Folsom and about two miles later I took a wrong turn and wound up doing about 10 miles extra as I ended up on the opposite side of town from the REI I was trying to get to to pick up a Planet Bike Blaze One Watt headlight they were holding for me as well as I needed a shorter water bottle for the 3rd bottle cage on the underside of the down tube. On the wrong side of town I spotted a Taco Bell and went in and had two tacos and one of their slushy type drinks to cool off. Man, it was hot. It's a hilly town also.
     After picking up the headlight and bottle at REI I was very hot, thirsty, tired, and somewhat hungry and did not want to cycle further to a campground in the dark which was approaching fast. There was an expensive Marriot Court Yard on the same parking lot but they wanted $159 a night for a room. Good grief. No way for this cycle tourist. I would have to be very desperate to pay that.
     I went back to the REI and used their tel directory and located a cheaper motel about 3 or 4 miles away. There is a Subway sandwich shop across from REI so after drinking some tea, a chocolate milk and eating one half of a 6" turkey sub I headed over to the Folsom Lodge Motel and paid $55 for a room. It was not fancy but clean and adequate f or my purposes...a shower and a good night's sleep.
     About 11 PM I woke up with a cramping quads and after working thru that slept pretty well.