|
2011-02-27 tl;dr: I peddled over the San Marcos Pass. This area is green and full of ranches and tourists. So I delayed a week in posting this day's activity. There wasn't much to report anyway.I had intended on waiting until it was warmer before departing Santa Barbara to once again jump over a mountain, but one of our customers was having a crisis, and it seemed the sooner I got to my next stopping point the better. Highway 154 offered another few hours of climbing, but nothing as steep as yesterday. The worst part was the traffic. An almost continuous stream of cars was using the mountain pass. Sometimes there was a shoulder to bike on. Sometimes not. Sometimes the road narrowed while passing through cut rock and I was forced to get out into the lane and block traffic. It is probably just as well that I left when I did, because as the day moved on the traffic increased. This part of California is kind of neat. The mountains are green and mostly covered in trees, but there are large swaths of pasture in both hills and valleys. It is much greener than I would have expected. As seems to constantly be the case with California, jumping over a mountain changes everything. Here are raised cows, horses, deer (not wild), turkeys and ostriches (of all things). In one pasture a coyote was pestering a herd of cattle. Eventually the cattle got agitated and chased it away. I kept snapping photos, but none of them turned out very good. At one point I met another person pushing a very over-burdened bicycle and trailer toward Santa Barbara. He appeared as being much more homeless than myself, and he queried, did I "smoke herb?" At that point we were closer to Solvang and the road had a good shoulder. I warned him of the hills and narrow going. I passed through Solvang (more on this interesting town to come) and found a cheaper motel in Buellton. I will spend 2 days here before going back to Solvang to visit a customer. I visited a decent grocery store. Peanut butter is very expensive here. In case anybody cares, I have peddled just short of 500 miles so far. This doesn't count my brief train and car trips. |
 San Marcos Pass  Lake Cachuma  fenced-in deer and turkeys  coyote and cows  heading into Solvang  OstrichLand USA |