At the halfway point of the ride, at Mace Ranch Park, a turkey is waiting for you. This requires some explanation if you are not from Davis.
Davis has wild turkeys
Actual wild turkeys, walking around an actual town, stopping actual traffic. They roost in trees, cross roads with total confidence, and are one of the first things visitors ask about. Every town has a thing. This is ours.
And Davis had Downtown Tom
One of them became famous. A large male turkey took up residence in the middle of downtown, around the Wells Fargo, and decided the pavement belonged to him. He chased people. He cornered them at cash machines, against shop fronts, and in their own cars. The police took a genuine number of 911 calls about a bird.
Wildlife officers tried to move him on and managed to relocate him about as far as 8th Street before he came straight back. He made the Sacramento Bee, SFGate and the Davis Enterprise, and the story travelled far enough to be picked up in Mexico. Somebody started #FreeDowntownTom. For a while in 2017, a turkey was the most talked-about resident of this town.
His reign ended that year. He has since passed, as they say.
The festival has always blamed the turkeys
Which brings us to the official position on how the Zombie Bike Ride apocalypse started. Was it crazy turkeys? Green Putah Creek water? A town obsessed with bicycles? Probably a combination of all three.
So we bring him back
Which is, if you think about it, exactly what this festival is for. Downtown Tom is resurrected every October by Jay Schwerin, who builds him and brings him out to the halfway point year after year, on the same trip as the brain juice. Jay runs Made in Davis, which champions the people who make things in this town, and this is about the most Davis thing anybody has ever made.
So when you reach Mace Ranch Park, get your brain juice, watch the BMX riders, and pay your respects to the undead terror of downtown. He cannot hurt you now. Probably.
