Day 37. #BestDateEver

Tuesday February 14, 2023

I woke up about 7am in the Penthouse Suite. Top floor right? Thats where they put the nicest rooms? Kind of nice up here in the SmittyBuilt tent when the wind isn’t blowing the roof off the place and it only dips to 27 degrees! The wind did pick up but nothing like they forecasted or like the canyon last week. I think the trees sheltered me some too. I figure I’ll fold up the tent, drive down to the parking area I was in yesterday (here in the same park) so I can have some breakfast in the jeep. The view of the lake is nice and I can leave the jeep running a bit to warm me up while not disturbing any of the other campers.

Temp does still say 27 and should climb to 50 by 11am. Sounds good for a ride but dang still feels chilly now for sure!

My plan was to do the Granite trail to Dolton Point trail and circle back. Should be a lot of water views and I heard it’s a bit muddy ‘on the back nine’ but sounds fun!

I found the Granite Trail easily and it followed along the water line for the most part so I could gauge where I was without worry. Stay right and I would hug the coastline is pretty much all I told myself. Speaking of coastline, the water levels in the dammed up Folsom lake are so low that if I go off the trail and explore down near the water the GPS shows me out in the the middle of it! Even the boat ramps have different levels? There are multiple ones at different depths is a better way to describe it maybe? Some of the boat ramps are completely dry and the dock is sitting on pavement. No joke! Then they have another one further down (or deeper?) in the lake. Crazy! I guess the water levels vary a ton here…There is a picture below that shows it pretty good.

When I eventually made it to the back side of my route on the Dolton Trail things got a little squirrely. A lot squirrely actually! Have you ever used the All Trails app? Works great. It will show you where you’re at in reference to the trail you are on. I must’ve stopped what felt like every fifty yards because there were off-shoots from the main trail everywhere! I would ride a bit and there would be an intersection..that wasn’t even showing on the app! Maybe next time I'll try the TrailForks app. I heard that's pretty good too. But it's like people have created all kinds of trails on their own. To make things even more difficult…there wasn’t a trail sign anywhere! Not one! No branches, or Cairns, or painted marks on the rock to guide us...really appreciate the work done in Utah even more now (see Day 32. Grateful!).

I think it took me an extra forty five minutes to get through this trail because of the wrong turns and the stopping just to make a decision every five minutes. I didn’t have a phone mount either so I would grab the phone out of my pocket, open the app, try to figure out which of the five trail options laid out in front of me is the one to be on, proceed down it a bit and recheck to be sure. So frustrating! Never got to feel like I was in the flow of the trail system - to just cruise and confront the challenges of the trail. At one point I popped out onto a road and said screw it I’m going to ride this for a quarter mile and rejoin after I clear my head of frustration lol.

When the water popped back into view I felt better. Even just deciding to cruise along the water line for a bit to change it up was fun. It was super sandy though so I eventually rejoined the trail closer to the Granite portion and was then able to get a good leg and lung burn going. Perfect way to close out the ride.

I found the jeep again and loaded up everything and made a sandwich.

I decided to head to the Sociology Coffee shop again to have a brew, reconnoiter, and figure my plan for the next few days. The trip is nearing it’s final leg and I need a plan! I have a few things to consider:

1) A cousin down in LA I thought I might see.

b) I wanted to get a picture of the jeep as close to the Pacific Ocean as possible to bookend the trip and bring it "closure" before I turned around to go home.

3a) AND I haven’t decided if I would just drive straight home or ship the jeep back and fly to Long Island.

It definitely doesn’t appeal to me to drive something like four days straight, maybe more, but we’ll see. I really don’t have time to distract myself with more diversions on the way home either…I have a few things to take care of! Like moving! Who knows where yet lol!?

As for right now, I’m planning on doing a bike ride with Syreeta’s son Friday so I’ll be sticking around Folsom for a bit and I need a place to stay! These Marriotts are getting expensive here and I want to have a few days inside a warm room to call home for a bit. So I poked on the Air BnB site to see what’s going on there. I found a bedroom and bath only two miles from the heart of town for $60 a night. Done! I booked it though Saturday morning so at least I got that goin' for me anyway. Felt good. I also have chores to do like an oil change, the windshield crack on the jeep and a facial.

Ha! No facial. Never had one of those. Nor a mani-pedi. Although I heard it's a thing for guys now? Foot massage does sound relaxing but I don't know. Most of these places are super frilly decorated right? I suggested to Paula and Suzy back home that own Serenity Nails (AND MORE!) (that's for you Suz ha!) who are hmm what's the word....Awesome! to design one room more manly like. You know, maybe a TV or two, some cool posters, dang a pool table would be nice, maybe some power tools hanging on the walls instead of potpourri and stuff right!? Maybe then I could sit with cucumbers on my eyes for a bit. Jury's out still. So I'll cut my own nails for now. Geez! Bikes n stuff DP could we please? I definitely could use a massage though. That would be nice. Between driving and cycling my back is pretty tight. Maybe a yoga class for sure.

Anyway it'll be good to have a home basein town here for a bit : )

Then I priced the cost of shipping a vehicle back to NY from LA. About $1500. Airfare’s are about $700 and up - one way to ISP (NY, near home). With taxes and fees I’m looking at near $2500 for that option. If I were to drive home three thousand miles in gas would cost me about $900 and add in a couple of nights stays depending on which route I take and it could be about $1500. It would be good to see my mom again in Ohio on the way back too. Going to chew on this a bit.

Being today is Valentines Day, I took Me, Myself and I out for the night. A nice romantic dinner for us three at the Sutter Street Taqueria. We all decided on chips and guac for an appetizer and then we shared a delicious steak burrito along with a Mexican soda (for real lol) ( that’s not code for tequila : ) (although I like that idea!). I sat by the window, not with a puppy dog forlorn kinda look - but really just admiring and enamored by the couples walking the sidewalks holding hands and making a special night out of it. So good to see. Hoping to have that someday too! Then I bought myself an ice cream cone down the street too for dessert. I really know how to take care of my date right!? Ha! I didn’t get myself flowers though. Tough thing to keep on the road lol. I did send a bouquet to a special someone back home though! Little Sunshine of a daughter got a splash of flower love from Dad. She’s too stinkin’ cute that one. Love ya Sweetie!

Tuckered from back to back rides last night into this morning and a rather short cold night in the tent I headed to my Air BnB for the night. Super cute and Christina the owner had it all lit up, warm and inviting looking for me. Felt like home instantly.

Passed out solid...

Happy Valentines day Y'all!

Inside

As much as being alone on Valentines Day can remind you that you don't have someone to tell how much you love them and make a special day of nothing more than being a couple. I found myself quite content with being with me if that makes sense. I think it's important and necessary to bring a whole and contented self into a relationship in order for it to work. Believe me I still need work, we can all improve in relationships and things, but I know that this trip has really cemented in me a much more concrete version of myself. One that does not need a realtionshjiop to fill a void. I can treat myself to a Cookie Dough cone just fine thank ya! I had promised myself years ago that instead of looking for the perfect woman to walk into my life that I would work on improving myself to walk into and compliment theirs...

Gotsta luv yo'self first! (now that's some fancy grammar right there!).

Outside

Pretty cozy little town here that is growing on me. Nice to have a taqueria to chill in for a bit.

With a ton of bike routes near by...pretty stinking' good!

Upside

Looking forward to hunkering down in one spot for a few days. Time to plan out the last week or so of the trip, write some of the blogs I've fallen behind on, get some needed work done on the jeep and even do some laundry again. I need to ground and clean up "hanging chads" before moving on again :)

I'm calling it an upside because I'm actually listening to that voice inside that says to do this first before just plowing ahead. Moving forward peacefully when the time is right.

downside

I know I have a heart that loves to love. I think all hearts do - but maybe this trip just put me closer in touch with mine. I would love to be one of the couples walking hand in hand on the way to dinner here...

Every Which way but east

Staying at an Air BNB here in Folsom for a few days before heading out west to the coast!

I grabbed morning photos of the campsite. Ok so it was late when I got in OK? Sheesh : )

I think the trees sheltered some of the wind last night. Or I was just so tuckered I didn't hear a thing! Jeep needs a bath too huh!?

I moved down to the lake to eat breakfast, get warm, unload the bike and gear for a ride without disturbing the other campers. Sunrise and sunset...always a fav huh?

Early morning chill in the air and sporting a souvenir from the Breckinridge Sno-Board day compliments of the Smiths! (Day 24)

Lake levels seem so low!

A sign warning of 15% grades....luv it.

I love the texture changes in this photo. Water, sand, rock, grass, clay packed trail, trees.

Part of the trail traverses across levees

The water level is so low the boat ramp is unusable. There is actually another ramp at a lower level to the water also though. It looks like when the water rises, the dock and little booth there slide up along the cable fastened to the concrete ramp. Maybe hard to see in the photo here but neat.

Whenever I rode down near the water, according to GPS I was in the water!

The water levels are that low and far out!

Such a different visual from the Canyon like colors of Utah

Me, Myself and I for Valentines Day... #BestDateEver !