Surprise, surprise!

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7:46 am - PDST - Wednesday - 51º F, 89% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the east.....pretty much the norm here in Lompoc.  Partly cloudy skies with a forecast high of 72º F.....Wednesday is getaway day.....heading to the Elks Lodge in Oceano, CA (next to Pismo Beach) for 5 days, which means more beach time!

We hadn't really taken a long walk since we arrived in Lompoc so TLE suggested we walk down Ocean Avenue to check out a thrift store we had missed the other day, so we set out walking around 10 am when I began to notice art work on the sides of many buildings along Ocean.....I began taking one picture after another......

......I call this 'building art', but there may be a more technical name for it.....it is apparently encouraged in Lompoc.  Over the course of the next 2+ hours we took dozens of pictures, and I am sure we missed some by staying mostly on Ocean.....we did stop in and browse through the thrift store we set out to see, but our walk became about seeing and photographing as much 'building art' as we could......

.....some covered the sides of entire large buildings, while others occupied smaller spaces.....

 Painted on the side of the local fire station

 Celebrating the Chumash Indians from the 17th century

.....we could have spent the rest of the day walking from one piece of art to another....our final destination of the morning was the local Grocery Outlet, which also boasted it's own building art and some car art as well.....

.....we picked up a few essentials (milk, pool noodles, avacado oil, etc.) and were home before 1 pm.  In all we covered just over 3 miles, but the morning became more about the 'building art' than the walk.  Had we not taken this walk we might have missed this cool side to Lompoc.

Around 3, once again, we decided to take a drive out to the 'Surf' beach with another bottle of wine....Zin this time.....

.....the weather was decidedly different from Monday....no fog shrouded beaches.....lots of sun and great visibility up and down the coast.....

.....eventually we took a walk from one fence to the other....

.....mostly to see what the sign said......apparently this beach is only restricted from March 1st to September 30th each year and that is the time of year in which we find ourselves at the moment.....I guess these fences and signs come down after September 30th.....

We were home just after 5 pm at which time we parked the car and walked two blocks over to a local Mexican restaurant named 'El Palmar', which, according to Yelp, has wonderful Ceviché and Shrimp Cocktail.....they get 4 stars on 51 reviews.  It is rare that I am disappointed in a restaurant, especially when Yelp gives them such high praise.  I am a pretty patient guy when it comes to service, and I rarely complain about slow service, but when the Shrimp Cocktail fell a little short of the reviews I became more aware of how painfully slow our service was......there were only 6 customers in the restaurant.  For the record, TLE loved her Ceviché, so this is really just my rant.....I would be somewhere in the 2-3 star range on the Shrimp Cocktail.  

We were home by 7 pm and settled in for the evening to watch the NCIS's, and were in bed by 11 pm.  Of course I went to sleep thinking about the things needing to be done Wednesday morning before we roll our wheels.

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Beach time....

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7:18 am - PDST - Tuesday - 44º F, humidity 81% (heavy dew this morning), wind 5 mph out of the east......clear blue skies greet us this morning....the lack of cloud cover/marine layer makes it much colder this morning!  Forecast high for today is 66º F.

I noticed while looking at the 'BIKE MAP' picture I took Sunday, which I posted in my blog, that Ocean Ave., the street on which the Lompoc Elks Lodge is situated, continues all the way to the ocean......almost exactly 10 miles distant.  I've been looking for a ride that would total out at 20 miles and this seemed to be just the ticket, however, first thing Monday it was still in the low 50's with low hanging clouds so I decided to wait until later in the morning for such an ambitious ride.

As you might recall I have been slowly replacing all the old, worn out weather stripping on all the storage bay doors so I thought I would spent an hour, or so doing some more of the doors whilst I waited for warmer riding conditions.  I managed to get three more doors done before the call of the road beckoned me to get ready to ride.

Another door done!

I headed out on my 20+ mile ride around 11:15 and within a few minutes had escaped gravitational pull of Lompoc by heading due west on Ocean Ave. to Ocean Park.....I was pleasantly surprised to find this road had a wide shoulder and some of the best pavement on which I have ridden in a long, long time.  There was a slight head wind, but nothing too discouraging....the thing to remember when you are doing an out and back ride, and you hit a headwind on the way out......you will almost always have a tailwind on the way back.  I averaged about 13.4 mph on the way out and arrived at Ocean Park to find it shrouded in mist....there is a children's playground, a large parking lot, and a very nice bathroom of which I availed myself before beginning the return leg of my ride.....

......on the way out I passed the entrance to the famous Vandenberg Air Force Base, so I snapped a picture for posterity's sake.....

.......on the way back the tailwind kicked in and at times I was pounding out 25 mph, but settled in at 23 mph for most of the 10 mile return ride......sweet!  As I pulled into the Elks Lodge my mileage read 20.5 miles in 1 hour and 19 minutes with an average speed of 15.5 mph, and 1271 calories burned into oblivion......

When I made the turn into Ocean Park I noted there was a sign indicating an AMTRAK station and a place called Vandenberg Surf Beach  was another mile, or so further on if I had continued on Ocean Ave. to its terminus so later in the afternoon TLE and I took a bottle of Pinot, a couple of beach towels and ourselves out to see what was there, and what a pleasant surprise it was.....naturally, since most of the ocean front along this stretch of California coastline is military property there are a lot of restrictions about using the beach, and there is fencing at each end of the surf beach blocking your way north, or south......in all there is probably 1/8th of a mile of public beach, but that is all one needs, right?

You have to walk through the AMTRAK station and across the tracks to get to the surf beach

......we found a nice spot up on a sand bluff, spread our beach towels, and opened the bottle of Pinot.......we sat quietly talking about our summer plans as the marine layer rolled in and out continuously for the 2 hours we were there......we pretty much had the beach to ourselves......

 If you look carefully you can see the AMTRAK station in the background

.....one of the things we missed by not getting a spot on Rincon Parkway was being able to walk on the beach every day.....with this cool discovery we can take a 10 minute drive and get our beach fix........

.......and, of course, we did indeed walk on the beach...............you can almost make out the fence marking the end of the public beach in the distance......

The sun came out occasionally and I loved how it seemed to dance on the waves

......pretty soon the bottle of Pinot gave up the last sips of its lovely elixir, and it was time to head back home.....the marine layer was rushing back in with a vengeance and the air temp was cooling quickly.  We were home about 5:15 with smiling countenances.......on the drive home we marveled at how blessed we are to live this nomadic life, and how precious these moments are in our lives.  We are so grateful that all the choices we made last Thursday resulted in us landing here in Lompoc, and finding out what a hidden treasure this little community is.

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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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"Your 'mission', should you decide to accept........"

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6:25 am - PDST - Sunday - 48º F, humidity 88%, wind - CALM.......supposed to be clear blue skies today, but too early to tell.....😋....forecast high today is 65º F....we have decided to stay in Lompoc a few more days past Sunday.

Saturday started out with clear blue skies, no winds and a promise of temps in the 70's and that is what we got.  We decided early on that we would do some more exploring.......there are a couple of Spanish missions (La Purisima and Santa Inés) as well as the Danish themed tourist town called Solvang.....we have been to Solvang before, but it has been almost 20 years.

In all there were 21 missions in what was known as 'Alta California' back when Spain, and then Mexico controlled this land.......

......some of the missions no longer physically exist, but many still do, and La Purisima was wonderfully restored back in the 1930's and now provides an excellent example of what mission life looked like back in 1787 when this mission was founded as the 11th of the 21 Calfiornia missions......

 The main mission building....in all, back in its 'hey day' there were more than 100 buildings spread out over 300,000 acres and 24,000 head of cattle

 The main sanctuary

......we thought we had visited all 21 of the California mission sites, but after visiting La Purisima we are convinced we never saw this one and are glad we took the time to take the self guided tour.

Next we were off to Solvang to see the California version of Denmark.......all the buildings reflect a loosely defined Danish influence

  

 Looks like more of a Netherlands influence.....:-)

.....we quickly found a public parking facility replete with restrooms.....and that is one thing we noticed this time around.....there are an abundance of public restrooms which we thought was a thoughtful touch, because even on an April weekend this place was SRO.  We spent about an hour just walking around enjoying the ambiance of the city until we found this small respite from the typical hustle and bustle of a tourist town.....

.....we visited Cafe Dolcé where we ordered some coffee and then found a table with an umbrella, sipped our coffees, relaxed, and caught up on the latest social media.......

....all too soon we were back on the street headed for the car and on to our next destination....

 The time shown was actually the correct time

......next stop?  Mission Santa Inés, which is located on the east end of Solvang just as you are leaving town.......

Mission Santa Inés is still an active Catholic Church to this day....

.......at the far end of the main building is an unrestored example of one of the original 19 arches which support the roof covering the veranda.....

  

Unlike La Purisima where the entry fee was $5/car to do your own self guided tour, the fee at Santa Inés is $5/person, so we opted to just walk around the grounds.....the main sanctuary was closed to the public this day anyway due to a scheduled private event.  

We were on our way home by 2:30 pm arriving back at the Elks Lodge just before 3 pm.....just in time to watch the two 'Final Four' NCAA basketball games featuring Gonzaga vs. South Carolina in the first game, and then North Carolina vs. Oregon in the second.  Both games went down to the wire with Gonzaga eeking out a 4 point victory over South Carolina, and North Carolina a 1 point victory over Oregon.....both games could have gone either way, which is all for which I always ask.  So Monday will see North Carolina v. Gonzaga for the National Championship.

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Ahhhhhh......unevenftul!

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8:24 am - PDST - Saturday - 49º F, humidity 71%, wind 3 mph out of the east......the wind is gone and we have clear blue skies.  Forecast high for Saturday is 71º F.

After Thursday's 'event filled day' it was good to have an uneventful day Friday......the wind we fought all the way from Ventura brought with it a very chilly morning requiring me to wear a hoodie sweatshirt, my previously owned Nike sports pants, and slippers to go outside......

......and this is what outside looks like here at the delightful Lompoc Elks Lodge.......

I puttered around for an hour or so moving stuff from the front of the trailer to the rear so I could open my work bench and get at my tools and finished by deploying all four of the window awnings, but not the patio awning......just too windy still.  We are facing due south so we will be getting sun on both sides of the coach during the day.....hoping Saturday to see a lessening in the winds so we can deploy the patio awning, too.

Around 12:30 pm we decided to do some exploring......TLE had been busily researching Lompoc on her iPhone looking for thrift shops, the local Walmart, the local Napa Auto and Truck Parts (need to replenish my coolant reserves), and breweries.  We visited several thrift stores and TLE found a replacement salt/pepper caddie (ours broke recently) for $5.  Of course if there is a local Goodwill we always check it out.  Then it was over to the Walmart to replenish our supply of paper towels, and to stockpile some filtered water.....since we still have no sewer connection, and do not expect one until we reach TVC*, we cannot use our RO** system for the reasons I explained in my recent post.

Our last stop before the micro brewery was Napa where I picked up 2 gallons on the red coolant concentrate for heavy duty diesel engines......I can cut these two gallons with two gallons of distilled water and have a total of four usable gallons of coolant.

By this time it was about 1:30 pm and time to visit the local 'Hoptions' Taproom and Eatery (Solvang Brewing Company) which has only been open a short time.  They have a wonderful facility which features outdoor horseshoe pits, tetherball and ring toss, as well as a large alfresco dining area.  The inside features two large roll up doors which when open gives those inside the feel of being out side.....we like the setup a lot....

 The view from our table just inside the roll up door

The outdoor seating area

.......we chose a table just inside one of the open roll up doors as it was a little breezy, and then sat down to wait for our server.  As is often the case with a new restaurant the service was quite slow, and based on the Yelp reviews I have read for Solvang Brewing Company (owner of 'Hoptions' Taproom and Eatery) this is a problem being experienced by most of their customers.  We're retired and as long as we have a brew sitting in front of us and alfresco dining we're happy to put our 'patience in our pockets' as long as the brews and the food are very good, and they are.  For those who still occupy the 'workaday' world we have left behind it is a big issue, and I hope they get it.....the service......ironed out soon!  We ordered two appetizers......beer battered onion rings, and chicken strips with french fries.....the portions were enormous.....way more than we needed, so we ended up getting a 'doggy box' to take the rest home.

We were home just after 3 pm with smiles on our faces.......now it was time to do something we had not yet done Friday......do our daily workouts, and we did.  I'm glad we are both working hard to lose the unwanted weight and inches, because it is so much easier to be consistent when someone else is pushing you to be so.....sometimes it's me pushing TLE, and some days it's the other way around.....it's all good and we are making great progress because of that.

So nice to be able to use the term 'uneventful' to describe our Friday......thanks for stopping by!

*TVC = Tahoe Valley Campground
**RO = Reverse Osmosis

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