So after a slightly awkward day in San Luis Obispo, we headed South for Santa Barbara. At 110 miles, this section is generally considered a 2 day trip. Our first day we cruised through about 50. However, we seriously stalled on our second day. First we stopped about 5 miles in at Vandenberg Village, a small town connected with the airforce base there. We stopped for coffee at a diner in town where a really sweet lady named Crystal bought us lunch. Then we headed to the library where we once again spent way too much time mulling around. By the time we were ready to go it was nearly 2. And then I was met in the parking lot with a flat tire! After patching it, we finally hit the road.
5 miles later we hit Lompoc. Jon claimed there was nothing to see there and that we would only be passing through or stopping at stores if we needed to. At the South end of town, Josh broke a spoke which meant we had to head back into town to find a bike shop. In the parking lot of the shop, we regrouped and reconsidered our strategy. With only an hour of daylight left, we were not going to make it to Santa Barbara. We decided to ask a local about places to stay and we just happened to ask the mayor of Lompoc! He made some calls for us and informed us of a campsite on the edge of town. We decided to splurge on the $5/night fee.
Once we set up camp, we met a Dutch man in the site next to us named Neik. We had dumpstered a hefty load of food earlier in the day, so it was taco night for the 3 of us and Neik. Our new friend also had 6 bottles of wine which he was eager to share. So we had a bonfire and tacos and wine in Lompoc, and it turned out to be one of the best time on our whole adventure!
The next day we headed into Santa Barbara, where we actually spent most of our time in Isla Vista. On our way out, we hit up some hot springs in Montecieto. The natural springs are not public and are pumped into the rich people's yards in the surrounding hills, but if you hike into the mountains to the source, you can pull one of the pipes out of the wall to fill a pool with! It was a nice way to end our time in Santa Barbara. Also, Jon ran into some trouble with his passport/various family drama and ended his trip there, so now it's just Josh and I.
Santa Barbara to LA was not especially eventful. We got into Santa Monica yesterday, and now we are at Josh's uncle's house in La Verne. It's warm and sunny and there are so many oranges! I don't know if a heaven exists, but if it does I imagine it looking something like this:
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