Lompoc, CA 5000 miles

We had breakfast at the hotel and left about 11am. The weather was sunny and warm maybe 70 degrees. Perfect cycling. But before we took off I had to take a "drive" around the hotel parking lot (see picture above). We headed south on Rt 1. Today's ride was a big change from the previous days riding. We were finally in "southern California". We are now out of the mountains, in more open spaces, with the golden hillsides of California all around us. We rode the highway to Morro Bay where we got off and rode through the city of Morrow Bay. We stopped for lunch at a deli. Judging by the price of lunch, I would say "welcome to California!". But at least it was "organic". Would it be ok if I have mine NOT organic for $5.00 less? When we left Morro Bay we got alittle bit turned around. Or at least we thought we did. We had to stop several times to check the maps. It just seemed that we were going the wrong way. Then we realized that if we had just stayed on Rt 1 we would have avoided alot of city traffic (and the drivers!) and it was shorter. Oh well we're just out for a bike ride. To make it even more fun, the route we were on was wall to wall traffic. I love traffic. But we had a nice shoulder so it wasn't that bad. Just noisy. As we were riding to San Luis Obispo we saw large dark clouds lining up just ahead of us. Mmmm.....we were headed for Oceano State Park to camp. But it looked like that was where the rain was. As we were going through SLO we saw a Motel 6 and decided to abort the original plan and have a HOT shower and a dry bed. We walked next door and picked up dinner.
This morning we left the hotel and rode to Pismo Beach for breakfast. We saw alot of cyclists today. But then it was Saturday. We stopped at a cafe and sat outside in the nice sunshine. I had banana pancakes and Hap had quiche. The food was good, but it was too expensive and took way too long to get it. One thing that we are noticing is how many of the signs are in spanish. I would think you would have to learn to speak spanish if you lived in California. We saw alot of vegetable and fruit farms again. And along with that all of the migrant workers out in the fields. We also saw (and smelled) alot of eucalyptus trees. It reminded us of riding in Australia a few years ago. We went through the town of Guadalupe. Everything was in spanish. As we were leaving town, the rain that we had been watching (and hoping was going the other way) caught up with us. We stopped on the side of the road and put on our raingear. People ask us what we do when it rains....we ride....and Hap sings! Today's selection was "Here comes the sun." (Although I didn't see it at that point). We continued to ride through farmland. Eventually the sun did come out and we took off our rain gear. (That is what Hap is doing above in the picture). We stopped in the little town of Orcutt for a milkshake. The last 5 miles included a three mile climb with a 2 mile descent into Lompoc. As we were climbing the rain came again! That made the descent into Lompoc a cold one. We stopped to buy groceries and decided we were cold, wet and stayed in a hotel. Or maybe we just wanted to watch football. We love to watch the college football games. And we got a bonus in that we watched Purdue play Minnesota. Ohio State thumped Northwestern so life is good. So here we are in sunny southern California. I heard they need rain, so it's a good thing we showed up to help them out. Later..........