There are dozens of businesses serving the steady stream of
people traveling between the Sacramento Valley and Tahoe every
day, including families headed to sports tournaments, Bay Area
transplants with second homes in the mountains, skiers, weekend
visitors and commuters making the daily climb up and down
Interstate 80. Many travelers settle for whatever fast-food chain
shows up just off an exit. My son Luke and I have learned there
are better alternatives to McDonald’s or Burger King. 

A stretch of the Interstate 80 highway runs through a deep canyon
between Truckee and Reno. (Shutterstock photo)

For the past four years, my tween-turned-teen son and I have made
that drive over and over so he can play hockey. Did you know that
the Sacramento Valley is home to two major youth hockey programs
serving Northern California? Are we crazy for driving two hours
each way — sometimes three times a week — for a youth sport?
That’s a story for another time. What I can tell you is that
after four years, we’ve become pretty great at knowing where to
stop along the way. 

The drive down the hill is typically uneventful, except on nights
when practice starts late and we catch a glowing Sierra sunset
through the windshield. It’s the drive home where decisions get
made, though, after four years, they’re not really decisions
anymore; we have our places. 

A required stop at Ikeda’s

Pies and other baked goods on display at Ikeda’s California
Country Market. (Photo by Nicolle Sloane)

Ikeda’s California Country Market is a required stop at least
once a week on our way back through Auburn, where we order
burgers, fries and pie for dessert. Tucked in the fridge behind
the fries is an Ikeda’s marionberry pie we brought home as a
sweet little reward after another week spent traveling back and
forth along the I-80 corridor between Vacaville, Roseville and
Truckee. 

The most reliable of them is Ikeda’s, a family business that’s
been pulling people off the highway for over 50 years. Ikeda’s
sits right off the Lincoln Way exit, conveniently close to an EV
charging station. What looks like a roadside stop turns out to be
a restaurant, market, bakery and fruit stand, all in one. As soon
as we pull up, Luke dashes out of the car to order his burger and
fries, while I make a lap through the market, collecting fresh
seasonal fruit, prepared meats, tortilla chips, Ikeda’s hot
salsa, a few muffins for the morning and, of course, a
fresh-baked marionberry pie (because you can’t not grab a pie
from Ikeda’s). We’re back on the road in 20 minutes, fed and
stocked.

We always get too many fries, but somehow they stay a little
crisp even when cold the next morning, eaten while standing at
the kitchen counter. 

Detours into Auburn and Davis

The author’s son, with whom she regularly travels along the I-80
corridor for hockey games, enjoys a burger at Burger & Cream.
(Photo by Nicolle Sloane)

If we’ve had a Saturday game and the team
won, the real treat is Burger & Cream. It’s a tiny detour into
Auburn proper — barely worth calling a detour, with a walk-up
window, picnic tables outside and a menu that includes burgers,
fries and a variety of soft-serve ice cream options. You order a
burger, fries AND an ice cream (we always go for the Banana Cream
Pie Twistie). The ice cream (the “cream” in the eatery’s name) is
a requisite — it’s almost the reason to stop here, although the
burgers and fries are great too (don’t worry, they also have
onion rings). 

When we’re in the Bay for a game and passing through Davis, we
have regulars there, too. Guad’s Tacos & Beer lives up to its
name. We pull over for the tacos but skip the beer since someone
still has to drive home, though pale lagers gleam in the cooler.
Luke loves the chicken street tacos, and I typically go for the
burrito bowl; the complimentary chips-and-salsa bar is impossible
to resist, and the portions are generous enough that Luke isn’t
asking for another “stop” an hour later. 

On an early Saturday heading home, we sometimes swing through the
Davis Farmers Market instead — a chance to stretch our legs,
shake off the rink and grab whatever looks good from the vendors.
If for some reason we’re craving dumplings, the nearby Dumpling
House is a quick stop with fast service and enormous portions.
Get the Thai tea and the pork-and-chives potstickers, and plan on
leftovers. 

Fresh fruit and fresh air

Some stops aren’t even really stops. Sometimes it’s just pulling
into Newcastle Produce for cherries in the summer or mandarins in
winter. Sometimes it’s just standing outside at a gas station
near Colfax, breathing mountain air after two hours inside a
freezing rink and more inside the car. 

The town of Colfax is a scenic detour from I-80. (Photo by
Egaowakaii via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 3.0)

An interesting byproduct of this drive is that we no longer feel
like visitors when we stop into our favorite places. Auburn,
Roseville and Davis have begun to feel like odd extensions of
home, familiar enough that we relax a little when we see the
exits. 

What I didn’t expect when we first started making these drives
was how much of our lives would be spent in transit. I dreaded
the drives at first, but after a while, the driving became second
nature, and the stops along the way became comforting. Burgers in
Auburn, farmers market peaches in Davis, and sometimes, cold
fries at the kitchen counter the next morning.

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