Delta Bike Tour 1 – Rio Vista

This is the third post in a new series that explores some of my research and adventures while writing the Zombies Are Human series.

I stopped us a lot on that first day to take pictures. Even though it was only 50 or so miles to Rio Vista, we didn’t arrive there until the late afternoon. Rio Vista is a beautiful delta town with a long history and a growing arts community.

We ate dinner at Foster’s Bighorn, which is right on the main strip of town. Animal trophies from the former owner’s hunting safaris mount the walls. Most of these animals were hunted during the 1920s and 1930s. Rare elephant ivory, rhinoceros horn, and other unique species are on display. These animals were killed before laws had banned hunting them. In many cases, Bill Foster taxidermied the trophies himself. It’s a strange place. The food was good, but I felt odd eating while under the gaze of dozens of taxidermied eyes and fur more than fifty years old–especially when I noticed a a mounted trophy of the rare rhinoceros that takes center stage in my Young Adult coming-of-age adventure, Rhinoceros Summer.

After dinner, we wandered the local high school, watched the sunset, and explored fantastical 90s relics like: a video rental store, a working pay phone, and a decrepit radio station on a hill. Don’t be surprised if some version of a few of these relics show up in Zombies Are Human or a future story. Pictures below.

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