2 Nov 2009

2 Nov 2009
Healdsbrug - Santa Rosa 15.9 miles (25.4 km)
Helaine and Louis gave me totally $ 200 for my three days salary, I just recieved $ 160, I know my work did not worth $ 200 even $ 160, mostly the money is they are helping me and sponsored me, thanks a lot! Because of Helaine's persuation , I changed my route, I will not go to north any more, firstly is the weather is cold, and most important reason is my rear tire sucks and does not work well either. So Fappiano winary, Healdsburg is my most north town in California.

They introduced their cousin in Santa Rosa, see you next time! From Healdsburg to Santa Rosa is very easy, their cousin has a bread factory, when I got there I got a shock. This is my first time at a Bread factory, everything for me is curious, now I know how the bread is made everyday and how they get to market. Tonight I slept in an empty truck outside of the factory.

30 Oct - 1 Nov 2009 Foppiano, Healdsburg

30 Oct - 1 Nov 2009
These three days I stayed at Foppiano winery and worked there. The work itself was pretty easy, picked the oranges from trees, cracked waltnuts and sanded the wood smooth. Helaine drove me to Healdsburg downtown everyday to meet her friends and everytime she let her friends persuade me to not go north, because it is becoming cold, and every one of her friends said to me "do not go to north!" Helaine and I became good friend's even with 40 years difference, two generations and from two totally different social system countries.

At Halloween Louis and Helaine brought me to their Italian American friend's house and had dinner. this is my first time with an Italian family, the dinner was so wonderful and delicious. They are totally American middle-class family: huge fridges, big house, nice decoration, but me, a poor Chinese cyclist. They are really friendly to me, they do not mind that I wear very dirty clothes. Today they also celebrated an Italian custom, long time ago, when their grandmother's generations were very poor and they had nothing to eat, what they could eat was just walnut, so today they had a walnut celebration, because it helped their grand's stay alive.