A Jalama kind of day.....

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7:31 am - PDST - Monday - 52º F, humidity 94%, wind - 1 mph out of north northeast......FOGGY!   Saw the marine layer rolling in as the sun set last night.

Sunday was our fourth day in Lompoc and it was time for me to do a little exploring from the seat of my Cannondale Bad Boy.....I headed out about 10:30 am looking for a bike path I had seen the entrance to a couple of days before when we were out shopping......right at the beginning of the bike path is this map of all the bike paths, lanes and routes around Lompoc, so I took a picture of it to keep on my phone for future reference......

.....as I made the turn around at the end of one bike path I noticed the ride of my bike was feeling rougher than it should.  The road surface did not seem to be rough so I glanced down at first my front, then my rear tires to see if perhaps I had a flat tire....nope....both tires are fine....then I look at the 'Headshok' and see that it is entirely collapsed and, therefore, providing no shock absorption resulting in the rougher ride feeling.  This shock is a combination air/oil dampening system built into the 'headset' of a Cannondale bike.  At first I thought I could just add air and pump it back up, but it would not hold air, so I suspicioned the 'Schrader valve' had failed.  It was not a surprise to me as I've had this bike for about 14 years and never had to replace the 'Schrader valve'....they do fail.  For those who may not be familiar with what a 'Schrader valve' is they are found in virtually every bicycle tire tube made, and have many other applications.  They are found in the valve stems on my large 22.5" tubless tires on our Newell, as well as the valve stems on the VW, and I have had to replace one of them in the past, also.  At any rate the Headshok has a lockout switch to turn it into a ridged fork, so I flipped the switch and made my way back home to replace the defective 'Schrader valve'.  In all I covered just 8.5 miles....a short day for me, but sometimes something breaks and you've go to take care of it and ride another day.

Schrader Valves

I arrived back home about 12:15 pm and got to work removing and replacing the 'Schrader valve......in all it took me about 20 minutes to get out the bad valve as it was stuck, but  a little penetrating oil and a few minutes of waiting did the trick and my bike was fixed and ready to ride once again.

On our way into Lompoc Thursday evening we saw a sign indicating a turnoff for Jalama Beach.....I have heard of Jalama Beach for years, but have never been there so we decided to take the drive out there around 3 pm.........

.....it took us just about 35 minutes to make the drive, and this narrow, twisty, windy road is not for the faint of heart if you are driving, or pulling a large RV.....I am not sure I would attempt it with our 62' length, but upon arrival there saw many rigs in the 40' + range which had made the drive.....

......you can see some of the large rigs in the picture above up on one of the terraces.  Jalama Beach is a Santa Barbara County Park set in a rugged part of the California Coast.....there is NO cell phone reception whatsoever....they do offer WiFi, but I did not check to see how good, or bad it is.  If you are just coming to Jalama to sit on the beach you must pay a $10 day use fee, or you can get either a 10 minute free pass to drive around, or a 1 hour free pass to visit the famous Jalama Beach Grill/Store and that is what we chose.....

......we walked down the beach for about an 8th of a mile and then returned to the store to buy a couple of small bottles of wine to sip while we sat enjoying the ocean air......

 

.....all too soon our hour was up and it was time to begin the drive back to Lompoc.....Jalama Beach is a cool county park, and was packed on this particular Sunday with the family Spring Break crowd......would I drive our rig into that park.....I think I could, but I don't think I will.

We were back home by 5 pm.....in time to watch the marine layer which had greeted us in the morning, roll in once again for the 'night shift'.

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