4. Lompoc Area, Mission La Purisima, and Just Another Day watching a Space Launch.
My first (and only) live space launch was a Cape Canaveral Space Shuttle deal with a group of fellow students for a business course in the area. Quite a long time ago. Oh yeah! I have pictures! HeHe.
DW hadn't yet had an opportunity for live, but the last SpaceX launch in which Elon Musk sent his sports car into space. Ummmm - how is one supposed to feel about THAT! I guess like everything else in life there are pros and cons to everything.
But we couldn't get over the pictures beamed back, and the re-landing of the reusable boosters! Holy Mackeral Andy!
So we kinda felt it was worth getting up and getting into position on Ocean drive near the Vandenberg AFB barricades to check it out. But that was tomorrow morning, and today is today. We had the beach site until Noon, so we took it! Then over to dump and another drive back up the Hana Highway to Lompoc (pronounced Lom-poke).
Late starts - yeah that sounds like us. Ease into the day, know what I mean Vern?
First stop was La Purisima Mission.
Took too many pictures, but here's a sampling. Enjoy!
One of the chapels.
Lots of various rooms, as the best description of a mission is "a community".
Lots of neat courtyards and covered walkways.
The Park Ranger locked the door of the final building we were to see, JUST as we got there. That's the problem with late starts. ;)
He was like, "the buildings close at 4:30 and the parking lot at 5:00" (it was about 4:35), but he finished up every sentence with, "do you have any questions about the Mission" - like it was a job requirement - you know? Wouldn't he have been frustrated if I tried to keep him busy for the next 30 minutes with questions. LOL! No - I'm not that kinda guy.
We left the parking lot (before we had to spend the night) and drove east toward some Guide Book communities - Fist stop, and a walk around the streets, was the charming Danish community of Solvang with it's old European style of building and lots of windmills. Too cool! I have Danish ancestry.
Then through Santa Ynez, very tiny, but quaint, and the sleepy little town where "Return to Mayberry" was filmed, Los Olivos. There were some places for sale! Zillow placed them around a million and more.
By the time we got back to Lompoc (known as the flower-seed capital of the world - due to blooming we were a bit early for), we found our place to overnight, along with our new best friend - the school teacher - who along with others had been kicked out of the park for the next morning's launch, even though they paid! Weird, wild stuff. The community will need to decide how they're going to handle that, as the launches are now about one per month!
Yes, we set the alarm and waited on coffee until we were in place. About three minutes later the launch went off, and I was still fumbling with the SLR camera, and a battery that died before the video being recorded could complete. Doh!
You owe YOUR views of the launch to DW!
This one wasn't shooting Elon Musk's RV into space, as I had wondered. No, it was another group (largest yet with 10 satellites) for the Iridium Next-Gen Satellites system. Apparently. Connectivity had been spotty.
Then we had coffee - and breakfast, and hit the open road! The drive from there through Oceano, our next campsite for two nights, was through wonderful agricultural growing areas. Come to find out - the Santa Maria Strawberries we stopped and bought along the roadside (along with oranges, and corn, and several other wonderful goodies) are know far and wide for their sweetness! And HUGE I tell you, HUGE (and did I mention juicy?)!
Have you ever driven you RV on beach sand? Well - that's next.
