Day 3, May 20

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 Relive video https://www.relive.cc/view/vE6JnPk9Dg6

Coffee and hot cereal greet the day!  Up early we break camp and head out.   Today's destination is my sister Nubee's home just north of Sacramento.    My last visit to her home was 7 years ago on a previous bike trip, also to Alaska.  How does the time fly so quickly?



Heading north we find the Highway 155 pass over the mountain blocked due to winter storm damage.   We turn around and stop at a store to inquire about the road.  Between 2 locals we are told snowpack has taken out parts of the road making it impassible.  Too bad, as it would have been a great ride. We turn back and take hwy 178 to Bakersfield.  Not a bad drive, with few cars, and the canyon drive follows raging rapids.  Cool air and lots of twisty roads that the bikes seem to enjoy.  


Arriving in Bakersfield we get more fuel and hydrate before turning north on Route 99.  It's a crazy drive with us doing about 85mph on average to keep up with traffic.   The bikes eat up the miles, and with cruise control it is not that bad.  Helmet music and chatting with Howard make time go by quickly.  Nice with the cops, traffic and road issues as we can keep an eye out for each other, "Hey, car coming up on your right", or "Oh shit red car merging, watch out" to "Hey get road snakes, careful". 

Road snakes can be uneven or tar-filled cracks that the tires want to follow, not always fun. 

Another fuel stop has us about 2 hours out, but traffic mellowing before we turn east with even less traffic, fruit stands and a farm. Lands emerging, and we slow to 55mph, it also seems cooler.  We are lucky as we pass a car accident. Seems like a truck towing a McMansion rv, took a turn too sharp, as we see the entire left side wiped out, both trailer tires gone, and parts all over the road. Emergency crews are already on site as we find the car that had collided not far past it.  Luckily we passed by as traffic is backed up for about a mile, with cars turning around to find alternative routes. Hope all are OK, and this reminds us to keep our heads on a swivel.

We finally arrive at my sister's house.  Has it really been seven years since my first bike trip to Alaska in the summer of 2016?  

We park in the garage and can now unload and pretend to reorganize.  I quickly beg off a load of laundry, and with a cold beer in hand, I strip my helmet liner down to toss the moldy parts in the wash.  The helmet lining after sitting in the rear case/terrarium with water was, uhm super disgusting to be kind.

But first, Giant hugs to Emma and Nubee and a cold beer.  Charlie shows up later war torn from mountain biking with his buddies.  He is part of his school's mountain biking club, a major school sport.  Charlie tells me about school competitions with over 1000 participants. Super cool!

Dinner of salmon and a giant slab of super tender beef, veggies, and rice, I love white rice cooked Hawaiian style, sticky kine...  So good to see my sister and 2/3 of her kids.  She has done amazingly well, cheers to my big sister!



Well it isn't that late, 11pm, and my internal clock is off.  Great to see my sister and her amazing family.  Well, off to sleep land and dream of nice roads. Rock on!








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