Saturday, June 6, 2020

Distance 71 miles, Folsom to Ham’s Station, CA

Riding Time: 7:26

Average Speed: 9.5 mph

Altitude Gain: 7902 Ft

Maximum Speed: 45 mph

Our night at the Sam’s Club parking lot worked out well. No one interrupted us and we were gone before the store opened. My Bryton cycling computer has been locked up for two days. This morning it started working. What a miracle! I have been trying to get it to work for over a month. We headed south from Folsom toward Rancho Murieta. This landscape reminds me a lot of the Texas Hill Country. It was fun to ride with alot of climbs and downhills.

After seeing several dead rattlesnakes on the road I decided it was time to forget all modesty. If I needed to go to the bathroom, I would do it right on the road, hopefully between cars. I was not going to go wandering through the brush.

We met up first in Rancho Murieta and had lunch in Mt Aukum. All business’ in town were closed and we had the parking lot all to ourselves. We spent all afternoon going through wine country. We turned onto a highway called the “Old Sacramento Road”. This was not the same as Napa Valley, but it was just as beautiful. The road kept up it’s climb and by Omo Ranch we had reached a summit with an outstanding growth of Redwood and Ponderosa Pine trees. The vistas were stunning.

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We had decided to meet at Cook’s Station. We had talked to the owner earlier in the day and he said almost everything was closed in the area. He said most RV owners were pulling out into the trees since the campgrounds were all closed. When I pulled into Cook’s Station, it was closed by Covid-19 and Kathie was not there. I decided to ride to Ham’s Station to see if possibly Kathie had misunderstood me. At Ham’s Station they were open but the bar tender said she had not heard nor seen Kathie. I left word with the bar tender that if Kathie showed up, I had gone back to Cook’s Station. I turned around and rode back to Cook’s Station. When I got there, a man and lady were waiting at the summit pull out in their Jeep. I asked them if they had seen Kathie and they said no. They said Verizon was the only mobile phone company that had any coverage there. They were headed downhill into Jackson, CA. We spoke for a little while. He was a retired truck driver that was used to driving up over “the hill” over Carson Pass. They said if they saw her they would send her my direction. When they left, the sun was setting; it was 39 degrees and I had only 2% battery life and no cell phone coverage.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Kathie had been in the Sierra Nevada range on the same road as me but the GPS we were counting on quit working. When she came to the Highway 88 junction, she thought it made more sense going toward Jackson (to the right). I was going to turn left to meet her at Cook’s Station. She stopped at the first store coming into Jackson. She had tried to use their Wi-Fi, but the store was unwilling to give her their password. She was trying to get ahold of me. No luck. She kept trying to get phone assistance. No luck. After several hours, a couple in a Jeep pulled up and asked her if she had any connection to a cyclist that they had just met up the canyon. They said they had just talked to me and knew where I was. Just then the store gave her their password and was able to ask where I was. I told her Cook’s Station and then the connection went dead.

Meanwhile, back up on the mountain, I was trying to make plans to live through the night. It was approaching freezing weather. I was sweaty from my climbs and only dressed in cycling shorts and jersey. I found some people visiting at Cook’s Station, but already on this Saturday evening they were passed the stage of drunk. If you can believe it, both Kathie and I have been doing some praying. Just then, up over the summit pulls our friend couple in the Jeep with Kathie following behind. Our trucker friend walked up to me and said “We found your wife. Please be kind to her as she has had a rough day.” Kathie and I were thrilled to see each other. We spoke to the Jeep couple for a few minutes. We let them know we were very, very thankful and that they were an answer to our prayers. What a miracle!

After they left, we drove to Ham’s Station to tell them we had found each other. In our conversation the owner said he worked for the state road department and the state shed parking lot was only two miles up the road. It turned out to be the home for our first Sabbath on the road. We started a Miracle Journal.