San Francisco to Sacramento

This is the first episode of our armchair roadtrip! We're starting in one of America's most scenic cities: San Francisco. We'll enjoy some time eating sundaes and looking at the Golden Gate Bridge (getting some steps in on the hills!) before hopping into the car and winding our way around the bay and into the Central Valley. It's a short drive to Sacramento, but we'll talk about the second-most flood prone city in the US, which is coincidentally one of the sunniest cities on the planet. We're off to a great start!

Transcript

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Hello everybody. And welcome to episode two. The episode where we will start our great. Road trip across the United States on interstate 80. I hope you have your atlases out. Now I'm going to preface that with the paper Atlas beats, the phone, the phone always wants to zoom in. It always wants to give me the fastest route. It's going to try and tell me something important about getting off the freeway because of an accident. No, no, no, no. We want to use paper. Paper's nice. The weight of it on your legs. Amazing. And it's never going to do anything different besides be what it is. Sorry, phone. Although, if we have to choose I'd would rather use apple maps. Because it just looks nicer to me than Google and it has less ads. But that's neither here nor there, So I said, we're driving from the west coast in San Francisco to the east coast. And I have my random McNally open here, right? In the map of the San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, or at guess just the general bay area. And I'm excited. I'm excited to start in San Francisco. I think San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities in the United States. If I had to make a list of 10 cities to visit that explained the United States, San Francisco. Would it definitely beyond that list. And it would probably be on that list, not because of its history, but because of the golden gate bridge and Ghirardelli Sundays. Which amazing, but we'll talk about that enough and a little second. A lot of people do straight road trips. However, my family has, we've always done sort of a hybrid. Which is we'd fly somewhere, rent a car, and then drive that poor car to its maximum point. Not really, but we would spend a lot of the time in the car. I mean, once we flew to Dallas drove all the way to the panhandle, Florida. And then back on I 10 to Austin and then back up in a week. So we are movers. We are goers, but the hybrid road trip works really well. So we're going to pretend that we've done that we've arrived in San Francisco. A beautiful cloudless blue sky. And then we've taken the Bart bay area, rapid transit train system. Up into the actual city. And as I said is not a visit to San Francisco without going to the golden gate bridge. This is one of the most spectacular. Pieces of engineering I've ever seen in my life. And I don't know if it's because the bridge itself is beautiful, the actual metal, or if it's the color. The color is striking, which I think is why it is one of the most photographed bridges in the world. I mean. It's set in a very scenic place, but it's not like say some bridges in China that are stretching between these mountains that are huge and tall, or even the, uh, uh, viaduct in the south of France. That's very famous. That is so tall above. The valley floor, like the Eiffel tower can sit under it. But it's just a beautiful bridge and the beautiful color. And with the fog, it's a whole vibe, right? So we'll start with the golden gate bridge. The golden gate. Is the actual straight that enters San Francisco bay. And people have been wanting to traverse it in some way, either with a tunnel or a bridge for a very long time. Tunnel would be very hard. It's actually a very deep, straight. Whatever caused it. To be formed, actually gouged out the straight itself. So it gets out, it can be up to like 400 feet deep and on either side, it gets quite shallow. So tunnels would be very difficult. But a bridge bridges they can do. However, all of this comes to not because it would be super expensive, much easier to maintain the ferry system that was in place. This'll be important. The transcontinental railway. We've always been like, oh, it stretches from coast to coast. When in reality, it was really started in Omaha and ended in Oakland. And I think the part that it ends in Oakland is the most fascinating. Because we live in a day and age where we are so used to. San Francisco being physically connected with the other side, either with the train tunnels that now exists because of Bart. Or all of the bridges. That having to stop and get off the train. And Oakland, and then take a ferry over to the actual city of San Francisco. Is just a very different experience. That's what happened. And this is why bridges were so important. Because they were a big deal. The ferry companies didn't want them. Cause good by fairies. But it would make it a lot easier because lot easier to drive over a bridge in bad weather. Then it was to take a ferry. So with that in mind. The golden gate bridge was always a hot topic in San Francisco politics. However the expense was just too great. And the engineering probably just not strong enough. There's changes in the late 1920s. And the early 1930s, when a proposal is put forth by a man named Joseph Strauss. Now I'm going to brag about Joseph Strauss. For a bit. I know that he is not the most well-liked personality he was known for being slightly gruff. However, he comes from my all-time favorite city in the United States, which is Cincinnati. Don't hate on it. It's amazing. It's a. Beautiful place. Great people. Love the reds go reds. And also a big fan of Cincinnati chili. But Cincinnati is also important in American bridge culture and bridge engineering. And we're going to talk about that right now for a hot second. So Joseph Strauss. Was a student at the university of Cincinnati and his parents were artists. And they were heavily involved in the visual arts, but also music. And so he was raised in a home. Where. Hi, culture was very important. He then became the school poet. He wrote a lot of poems. And they're actually really good. And in particular, the ones that have survived to become the biggest are the ones that he wrote while. Being in charge of the golden gate bridge. But he was also on the football team. And he got injured in a game at the university of Cincinnati. And this was fairly early on in his college career when he was a freshman or a sophomore. He gets injured and it's about injury, where he is stuck on bedrest. Lucky for him. He had a view. That stretched over downtown Cincinnati and then across into Kentucky over the Ohio river. And at this time, this would have been late 18 hundreds, very early 19 hundreds, probably more so into the 19th century then. But not. He would spend a lot of his time looking down at view Robles. Roebling bridge. Which if you've never been to Cincinnati. More reasons to not hate on it. And you've not heard of the Roebling bridge. That's okay. But I'm pretty sure you've heard of its very, very famous cousin or probably even sibling the Brooklyn bridge. And if you are big into bridges or know a lot about New York, you notice the name Roebling. So Joseph Strauss looked at this bridge a lot and he admired that the graceful curves of the suspension, the arches, blah, blah, blah. Turns out. The Roebling bridge was commissioned by the city of Cincinnati to connect Cincinnati with its neighbor Covington. And. Kentucky. And they commissioned it from a very. Uh, probably mid tier, but then soon to be extremely famous business or set of architects and engineers, the Roebling brothers or the Roebling family. The Roebling bridge in Cincinnati would become instrumental. Later on in his design for the Brooklyn bridge. So more reasons to give Cincinnati in Ohio less hate. But anyways, I promise to bring this back to San Francisco. Looking at this bridge day after day, stuck in bed, inspired him to become an engineer. He saw the artistic value. Of a well-designed bridge, but then also it's. Utility. And being able to connect to places. So he healed and he became an engineer. And his parents weren't necessarily too thrilled, but he was dead set on becoming a bridge designer. Joseph Strauss. Ended up founding a moderately important bridge firm that made basketball bridges and a basketball bridge. You all know what they are. They just have a very bizarre name. These are movable bridges where one or two of the leaves swing up and down. These you see them all the time near em in New Jersey or in Florida, that they just split in half and raise up or one side is weighted. And so it can carry up the other side to allow boat traffic or other riverine traffic to then go underneath it. He became kind of the name for this type of bridges. And so they're everywhere all throughout the Midwest and east coast. He decided, however, after visiting San Francisco and hearing all the time about this bridge, or we want the bridge want to bridge, he thought he could design a bridge that would span the golden gate. And this is at a time when suspension bridges are fairly new. But he and a team, which he took most of the credit, which also is probably a reason why he's not well-liked. I designed this bridge. And part of this team would a member of this team is Leon moist. Irving Morrow and Charles Ellis. Now each of these men would become important architects in their own, right. And some of them would go on to design some of the most famous bridges. And in fact, a bridge that we will end with the George Washington that connects New Jersey and New York over the Hudson. So these men weren't exactly nobody's. These were people who were rising stars and bridge building and engineering. It was built from 1933 to 1937. It took four years. It was well-known for its safety techniques because it's. Has a high vertical drop from the deck down to the sea. And so there were these nets. It was very precarious because of the constant fog that would roll in through the gate, into the bay. And this is one reason why when it was finished. They didn't leave it natural, but they decided to paint it a color that is known as international orange. International orange is very well used and a lot of engineering and aerospace. You see a lot as the color for. Um, Like transmission towers. It's also the color, a certain shade of international orange is the color of astronaut suits or earlier astronaut suits when they were orange. And it is also famously the color of the golden gate bridge. And they liked this. The Navy really liked this because it was super visible in particular through fog. But then people who probably were more. Likely to complain about it. Also then saw it and said, do you know what this actually fits with the landscape? And if you've ever been there. It is so spectacular to see with the blue sky and the grayish white fog. And then if you even have the mountains peaking out on the Northern side, it is a spectacular view and the color could not be more perfect. So it's maintained by 38 painters year round. And. One of the other interesting things now, because it is such an important transit point from the Northern suburbs in Marin county, down to San Francisco, it has a movable median that they have a special vehicle that will come move the cement barriers into another lane. So that one side can have more traffic than the other as needed. Now this bridge being so important and expensive to maintain has a toll, which starting this year in July 1st, 2025. The total will be$9 and 50 cents. And this only is for southbound traffic. So if you drive at both ways, I'd say that's a steal, plus there's some really great views from the Marin Headlands and you just have to drive over it. You can also walk it, but. It needs to be driven. That's that? That's its purpose is a vehicular bridge. And you should be able, you should drive on it. It is. However, for all of its beauty, it is very, very well-known infamously as the most, I guess the most infamous suicides site in the world. And a lot of people will say it runs neck and neck with that forced in Japan. But the bridge is extremely high-profile. They've come out with documentaries on it, which was also infamous. Uh, there's lots of signs. If you go there and there's some wild stories about it. It's too depressing to get into. So, I don't want to dwell on that because we're starting out on the road trip, but that is an important point to make about this bridge. However, uh, as to end with a quirkier fact, it has a hum. And certain wins. Which mostly a strong west wind. The bridge will hum. And the tone heard can depend, but it can either be an F G a or B. So, if you are musically minded, they're in strong. Westwind. You can go listen to the golden gate bridge. Hum. I once went in 2018 to get a visa for a study abroad program in Europe and they changed things. So I had to go to San Francisco. I wrote on a one of those hop on hop off buses. Just to go see the golden gate bridge. It was like 50 bucks. It was outrageously expensive. But I had to go see it. Then I went back because the visa appointment was later in the afternoon. And when I went to get my photo taken, you can actually tell my sun burned from where I wore a hat. That across my forehead in my French visa. Visa is a very distinct line because I was so sunburned from driving out to the bridge. People say it's foggy and cloudy all the time in San Francisco. Take note, take sunscreen. So now. Let us start driving into the city, San Francisco. I think in habits of very important parts of the American cultural psyche because of its wild west. I start and the gold rush start, but also because it was a very atypical city. It was founded. By missionaries from Spain, from Mexico, but it was kind of a no nowhere place until the gold rush. And because the gold rush was a situated pretty much just east. I mean, we're going to go right past it in Sacramento and up through the Sierra Nevada. That San Francisco became the natural transit point for people coming by boat and for gold, leaving by boat. And everything else that a city entails. Because San Francisco was so disconnected from most of the country. This meant that certain. Uh, social customs and maybe laws. We're not strictly enforced as well as the large fact that a massive amount of money in the form of gold was moving in and out of the city. Every day. And there was money to be made quite easily, quite quickly. There was money to. Get illicitly from other people through swindling or stealing. And this led to the creation of the vigilantes. Now the vigilantes, I think has attained a mythological status. When, and when you think about San Francisco and the history of California, But the vigilantes were actually only in existence for a very short period. Now the first time that they became a force to be reckoned with was an 18 51. The city isn't quite mature. But I guess we could consider it an adolescent stage. So the city is very rough. The city is inhabited mostly by men. A lot of the men are minors. So it is a very rough and tumble adolescent city. And as I mentioned with all this money, And being so free out and about in the city. That meant that there was a lot of crime. And a lot of people blamed one game in particular called the Sydney ducks. And these were Australian immigrants. And if we think back to 1850, We're not that far off from the creation of the penal colony in Australia. And that's. Let's see, 1780s. So 60 or so years. So the idea of rough and tumble Australia is also still very real. And they are heckling all these poor San Franciscans. Who knows doing what, but they're a very, very rough bunch. So. To deal with that because a large part of San Francisco. And I guess you could say it's growing elite. Decided that the local justice system was too corrupt and too inept to deal with that. So on June 9th, 1851, they formed the first vigilante group with a membership of about 700 people. And maybe in opposition of what we think today, this vigilante group operated both parallel. And in defiance of the city government. A very interesting position to be in. It only lasted for three months. But those three months, they were very busy. They hanged for people. They whipped one person, they deported 14 back to Australia. They informally ordered 14 to leave the state of California. And they handed over 15 other people to the official city government. Or probably state government who knows. And then it was dissolved in the September elections. It did its duty. I guess people thought, well, you know what? There, there it goes. It worked, it did its purpose. It got the attention of the local government for sure. Because now you have. Extra judicial vigilantes, roaming the street, doing what should be your job. But it's not the end of the vigilantes because in 1856, the vigilante groups were reformed due to crime. And now even worse corruption. And this started with one event when James PKC shot James King. Because James King had run an article that accused the James Casey of illegal activities. We also have to remember, newspapers were very sensationalist at this time. They might've printed. What could have be. Construed as fact much like today, but also they really liked to highlight things that were sensational. So think of more of the New York post, the sun tabloid kind of stuff. However, it's nice to know that you can run trash and a paper and not get shot for it. Hopefully people might think differently now. But back then. He was fired up enough of where it, that he went and shot the author. So the government, once again said, Okay, this cannot happen. A bunch of citizens banded together and said, well, the government clearly isn't doing its job. So in 1856, they re. Bri banded together as a new vigilante group. And this one was much, much, much, much, much, much, much bigger. Bethany 18 51, 1 with nearly 6,000 members. That's a sizeable portion of the population. Probably not a lot, but. With the ratio. That's a lot of roving vigilantes through a city. However, this version worked way more closely with the official government. But its activities were far more gear and far more in the shadows. Than the previous one, the previous one was very public. Obviously they, they did their business, they got over it. They disband in this one. Was shady or. But to disbanded. A few months later. And then was absorbed into an official political party called the people's party. That to did not last very long, but they got the point across. And because of those two times of vigilantes. San Francisco. Has now enshrined vigilantism and its mythology. Crazy Val. Crazy. And I think we've seen this recently with the latest. Bout of inflation and then also policies of the city of San Francisco. Where. There was very, very famous viral. Accounts of stores in San Francisco who. Uh, raised all their prices. To over the threshold for, uh, what. I guess theft the threshold for what? When theft would be considered a crime. So I think it was like$900. They labeled everything in their store that much money, but when you went up to pay. That they would give you a very big discount. So it would go back to what it should have been or what market prices were. And I think that is so interesting because it is a modern form of. That vigilante spirit that dominated a lot of San Francisco and its adolescent phase. Now there's another part before we get on the freeway and disappear into the central valley and wind our way around the bay. That we have to stop for Ghirardelli Sunday. It's not a trip to San Francisco. If you do not stop. For a hot fudge sundae at Ghirardelli square. And you write a trolley there? Probably. I don't know the trolleys optional. The hot fudge is not. You're a deli has become a household name. For target. Especially because of those little squares. But Ghirardelli is actually an example of many companies that were founded during the gold rush. A lot of people, men would go to California thinking they would strike it rich and ended up striking it rich by serving for minors. And Ghirardelli was an example of this. Ghirardelli was founded by Dominica Ghirardelli, who was from a tiny town in Italy, near Genoa in the Northwest corner. He first went to Uruguay in south America and then on to Lima, Peru on the Pacific side. He had a neighbor there whose name was James lick seems to be a lot of James's in this episode. And his neighbor ended up moving to California in 1847. Right before the gold rush in 1849. James wrote back and said, Hey, Dominica, California is amazing. And so he eventually packed up everything from Peru and moved to the United States at age 22 and opened a general store in Stockton, California. Stockton is in the central valley. So there were miners, probably a few farmers. But he operated this general store and soon after, because he was doing quite well for himself. He opened a second location in San Francisco. Ghirardelli operated with spices and chocolate. It's like one of those cooking stores you can go to. Now, there used to be one in salt lake that we'd go to all the time that they would sell cooking implements. Baking goods. And then a whole bunch of spices and also candy. Very fascinating. So now that they've sold chocolate. They have a large store of chocolate in the back room and an 1865, an employee discovered. A process to manufacture chocolate. And this process is now called the Broma process. Obviously back then there was no air conditioning. So when this employee went back into the back room, they noticed that chocolate. And a bag and who knows if it was hanging, if it was on a shelf. That cocoa butter would eventually come out of the bag and drip out and collect. What was left in the bag could then be ground up. Into a powder chocolate. And this produces a more intense chocolate flavor. Ghirardelli takes this to heart. And they become a huge purveyor and chocolate. So much so that it became. A, probably a very regional name. They start divesting themselves of the non-chocolate parts of their business. And 1892, the sons take charge of the company and Domenico. Decides to live her life of retirement. He ends up dying in Italy. In 1894. But before he does that in 1893, if a company buys the pioneer woolen building on the north side of San Francisco. Which is today Ghirardelli square. So they've been there quite a long time. So, as I mentioned, Dominical dies in 1894. And then in 1900, the company decides to only sell chocolate and mustard. A very interesting combination that I am not willing to try. Importantly, it was not damaged in the 1906 earthquake or fire. We're not really going to touch on that, even though it's an big pivotal point in the history of San Francisco. The pictures itself are crazy of what happened. And just want to note that Enrico Caruso, who is the famous opera singer was noted. For having stayed in the hotel. Um, during the earthquake and as he ran out of the hotel, he swore he would never go back to San Francisco and he never did. Even though he was quite possibly the most famous Mel opera singer at the time. And no matter how much the city of San Francisco offered him, he never went back. Anyways. So this building survives. The disaster, which is a miracle in of itself. The famous sign that you can see now was created in 1923. It's just. It's an amazing place. I'm sorry. It's just, you have to go eat a Sunday. Look at the sign. Look at the water at the bread. It's all right there. However, it's not until the 1960s that we get the famous chocolate Sundays. There's lots of versions. You can go on. They do fancy stuff, bike, which are essentially judged about banana splits. But you just want the classic vanilla ice cream, hot fudge sauce. And I think it's been a while, but I think they put a cherry on top. It doesn't matter. You just want the hot fudge sauce with the ice cream. In 1998, lint the Swiss chocolate company acquired Ghirardelli. And then a year later they launched their famous square chocolates, which are now sold everywhere. But once again, They are not as good as the Sunday. It's the hot fudge they used to sell it. And now I found on Amazon that it's outrageously expensive to buy a glass jar of it. However, if you are on the opposite side of the country, I did see that they have opened up a new gear deli shop. In the empire state building. In New York city. So if you're not in San Francisco or you can't make it. You can always try and go to San Francis. I mean, you can always try and go to New York. So. Now that we've loaded up on a bunch of chocolatey goodness. And we've bought a bunch of chocolate squares for the route. We are going to hit the road and we're going to start on interstate 80. Here we go. And the first thing we're going to do is we are going to drive over the San Francisco Oakland bay bridge. It's great. It's in two sections. So we're driving over. Say hello to treasure island. Hello, Oakland. There's a toll somewhere and we're going to make a north turn towards Berkeley. Side note Emeryville, which is right there. This is still where Amtrak ends. It's. California's effort train, which parallels interstate 80. So you still, if you ride the train, you still can not ride into San Francisco. We'll just say that. Okay, we're going up through Richmond and now we are starting to turn it into the interior Contra Costa county and up the Northern arm san Francisco bay area has a lot of interesting names of cities. And I. This is a very curious place where you see. The Spanglish. Have a lot of. Western and Southwestern United States come out. So we are passing. Sorry, let me flip my page. That to the big one. Okay. So there's a city called Valeho, which in Spanish you would not save a Leho because it's a double L it would be But because somewhere along the way, someone said, you know what? We can, we can still say the J the Spanish way, but you know what? I want to pronounce those ELLs. So it's Valeho so, hello, Vallejo. We keep going. And then there's this other town Benicia. Which was also famously the state Capitol for a small period in California history. But initia, we have crossed over and now we are driving Northeast. Into the central valley. So one thing, the first thing that we're going to notice about the central valley. Is that it is impressively flat. And we've also not gained any elevation we did going through and around the coast and up blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But now that we're down in the thick of it. It is flat and we are still basically at sea level. And this is one of the most interesting things I have ever read about California. It hardly snows in the central valley. I mean, we're going to get to Sacramento. We are going to be seeing the Sierra Nevada for most of this day. Now, if it's clear, And yet. For all their snow-capped peaks. It hardly ever snows on the valley floor. Weather here is fascinating. I mean, it'll stay very hot late into the year. But. We are also entering one of the most dangerous floodplains in the United States. Which is ironic considering that California is usually associated with wildfire and drought, rightly so rightly so. Don't get me wrong. But the San Francisco bay used to fill the entire central valley back when sea levels were a lot higher. And there were glaciers melting. That's why it's so flat. That's why it's so fertile. But we're not, we're not driving I five. So we're not going to talk a lot about the farmland. But we're getting to San Francisco. Now. I mean, sorry, we're getting to Sacramento. Now as we are getting to Sacramento, we'll pass Vacaville. We're going to get to Davis. I can't be that one. I guess that is sorry. I'm flipping through my Atlas back to Sacramento now. So. The one thing before we get to Sacramento is that we are crossing. The Yolo bypass, which is this extremely, extremely flat. Marshy with some farm land. Area to the west. I'm always fascinated with how cities are built and eventually where people end up settling. And Sacramento was fascinating to me because everybody is to the east of the city Sacramento sits on the river. At the, let's see. Whereas the American and Sacramento rivers come together. And so Sacramento. Obviously the nexus, but all the suburbs, most of them sit to the east and it's because of the flood plain. A lot of people won't think about this because Sacramento is. Inland. And I think it's considered to be farther inland. Even though it's considerably closer to the coast than most of the country. It's best city to compare it to is new Orleans, Louisiana. And it's exactly because of this flood, plain. Sacramento is currently protected by a very, very complex series of levies. Which have not failed. Spectacularly likes those of new Orleans, but which are just as important. Because Sacramento is the second most susceptible city to floods after new Orleans. Obviously this, you need a lot of water to do that. And I think they have. With the pineapple expresses that have happened in winters past. That they have. Been worried about it. However. California's now way more associated with fire and drought, even the Northern parts. And it is led to some horrific, horrific loss of life and fire damage. But Sacramento has had its fair share of watery disasters as well. As I said, it sits at the confluence of two rivers, the Sacramento and American, which kind of then after Sacramento, they go more or less west into the bay area. But at Sacramento they kind of split. And go north more north, south. Well, the American number does go up to, uh, the Folsom lake. But. There's just a lot of water here. Or there could be a lot more water here. There've been several major floods, which I'm going to list off 1850, which was fairly new city, 1852. This was when the first levy was completed. It was promptly breached. And then 10 years later is 1862. The great flood. And this is considered to be one of the worst floods in Sacramento history. And it was highlighted by the fact that the California governor or. Soon to be governor. I went to his own inauguration in a row boat because of the flood. And then again, there were floods on and off. And then a, another large one in 19 55, 19 64, 19 80, 19 86 and 1997. So those are the, those are the ones that get listed because they're big enough to be listed. But it goes without saying that in between all of them, there's probably a lot of minor floods and minor incidents. This is also because as I said, the central valley is extremely flat. We have not gained much elevation. We're only sitting at 26 feet above sea level. Flat. So we're very low. We're very flat. The water table is very high. And this is why all the city sits to the east because the land continually rises until it's up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Part of the problem. Or part of the solution to the problem is what we have driven over recently, the Yolo bypass. And this sits between Sacramento and Davis. It's, Sacramento's answer to the Bonnie Kerry spillway in new Orleans, which you've ever driven on. I 10 from Baton Rouge down into the city. Right. Before you hit, like you'll pass all these refineries. And then all of a sudden you'll hit a bridge. And you have lake Pontchartrain, but C four heading east. Because that's the best direction without the sun. Lake Pontchartrain will be on the left side of the car. And then you'll have this. Like weird swamp. But also you'll have dry, like these patches without trees. On the right side of the car. And it's a spillway much in the same way of the Yolo spillway. And a spillway is just a place for all the extra water to go, but the Yolo bypass is massive. It is 40 miles, 49 miles long. And three miles wide, this accounts for 59,000 acres. To the west of the city that is used to control flooding, and they do this through weirs, which are low level dams. So one section fills up. And then it slows the water down. Over spills, this low level down. Into the next section. So on and so forth. The water level necessary to spell into the bypass is 33 and a half feet. Which. Now that I'm thinking about it is that 33 and a half feet. So that's only seven and a half feet above elevation, which would make sense. And a half feet of water is a lot of water. Or if you just have a raging torrent of 33 and a half feet on top of the 26. That's probably the other way. So if it's seven and a half feet, More water than what is there. It spills in. 75% of this bypass is privately owned and used as farmland. And when you own it, you are told. This is not our problem. If you lose your crops, it is not insured because it is in a known flooding area, not just a known flooding area. And a place designed to flood to prevent LV. Other areas from flooding itself. That does mean it is very fertile, probably all the sediment that's brought in with rivers. However that means, but. If you have an unlucky year, you're going to lose it all. So, even though it does, it is for flooding, the state retains the right and they save us. The state retains the right to flood the land at any time. And once again, they don't get compensation, so it could be a disaster. It could because the states, the state says, so. So farmers be aware. Now why Sacramento not as high profile for flooding. And I would argue that this is because Sacramento is one of the sunniest places on the planet. Which is odd. You think it's so far north of the equator. It's not in a desert. However it's geography means that it is the sunniest location on the planet for four months of the year from may to August. I saw a thing on social media, which I don't know why I care. Because so much on social media is not true. And they put like sunniest cities and Sacramento was not one of them. When you can find a lot of reputable sources. That say like that they've measured the amount of sunlight that say Sacramento is the place to be. So if you have seasonal affective disorder and the Southern hemisphere winter, Come up to Sacramento in the summer because you are basically guaranteed sunlight. Because many days in July, an average of 14 hours and 12 minutes of sunshine that has 98% of possible sunshine. That's. Unbelievable. So that's probably a reason why it doesn't really get a lot of rain. When they do get rain, pineapple express rain. It's probably insane. But in summertime. They don't have the same problem as new Orleans with summer thunderstorms. Or hurricanes. They just have wildly unpredictable fires instead. But we're going to stop in Sacramento for the night. Because we are going to have to drive up and over the Donner pass tomorrow. And we have to steal ourselves for that story. And we are still probably hopped up on all the Sundays. Wishing we could go back. But instead we're in the state capital Sacramento, it has been a very short. But fascinating and scenic drive. Into the flat flat lands of the central valley with sunshine. I mean it's summer road trips are a summer thing. So it's sunny. So we're going to go out and enjoy a walk around, maybe sit by the pool. Try not to bake to death. And enjoy the state capital of California. Thanks for joining and don't forget to. Have a good night's sleep because tomorrow we crossed the Donner pass into Nevada. Thank you. And see you next time.