I probably didn't help cyclist-motorist relations this morning: I was waving a black VW Jetta to pull through so I could merge into the left lane, she hung back, and I kept waving and yelling Go! Go! Go! I think she was just trying to be nice, I was trying to be safe and efficient but I probably looked like an impatient and ungrateful jerk.

Except for that, which came at the very end of the ride, it was a wonderful ride in. I left at 6:40 and was able to get in a 20 mile detour by heading towards the Delta. I crossed over the Sacramento at Freeport, headed south towards Clarksburg and then took a 2-mile jaunt along a creek on a gravel levee road. I felt like an old-timey Tour de France rider bouncing across the dirt on my lugged steel fixed gear bike.

Lots of birds on the levees and creeks: robins, redwing blackbirds, ducks, coots, herons, and a redtail hawk.

Back onto the River Road and then down onto Jefferson Boulevard where you make a trade off: better pavement and a tailwind but a lot more traffic. But by this time it was getting on towards 8 and I needed to get to the office.

In the end, I had 25 miles in 1:20 for a very respectable 18 mph avg.