I left Napa around 6 PM yesterday, heading towards Sacramento to pick up some supplies. As expected, the traffic between the Bay Area and Sacramento is terrible during rush hour. I’m looking forward to being in places where ‘rush hour’ means there is a herd of elk in the road.

I ended up camping up the road from Beale Air Force Base which is near Marysville, California. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the infamous Lockheed U-2 “Dragon Lady”, which is based there. I had tried to schedule a tour, but they didn’t have any going yesterday. Given the trials I faced of just getting on the road proved that I wouldn’t have been able to attend a tour anyway. I didn’t see anything other than some hovering lights… which turned out to be the lights of the airfield. I’ll have to catch the Dragon Lady when I swing back this way.

I finally set up camp well after dark. Once my dogs and I settled in, I noticed that Dusty, my male Queensland Heeler (also known as Australian Blue Heelers), was snapping at something buzzing around. I didn’t pay any attention until one landed on me! Mosquitos! Day 1 and I’m already into mosquitos? Geeze, this might be the longest trip ever. I spent well into the early morning hours waking up to buzzing in my ears and then proceeding to swat three or four at a time. I think by the time I had finished cleaning out the land yacht of mozzies, it was closer to morning than I’d prefer. I now know that Izze, the other Heeler in my pack is afraid of fly swatters. I keep it well hidden from her sight.

I’ll be posting a Google Map of each day’s journey and also keep an overall journey link. This is the path I traveled yesterday:

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