Murky Morning


Quite a lot of agriculture again today 

Not sure what these are - any ideas anyone 

They mostly use these 'leggy' tractors for light duty up the rows. When the crops are done they used big tracked tractors for heavy pulling of ploughs etc. I really want a picture of one of those beasts - we passed one pulling a heap of implements today but it wasn't a safe place for us to stop.



Finally, it brightened up and we had some views


I don't think we have seen these since Kansas on TransAm 

It was a bit murky and uninspiring first thing but that didn't seem to dampen down the big numbers of day ride cyclists we chanced across early in our day. We passed some on a fairly soulless road which shadowed Highway 101 (yes, 101 is back - we haven't seen that for a few days) - Steve and I joked about what the cyclists here might give for the network of beautiful lanes we have in the UK.  Another example: we have seen day riders turn, apparently doing an out and back ride, but then what else could you do on some of the roads Steve and I have travelled - often there are no turn-offs and no alternative loop backs to where you came from.

We have ridden past a lot of crops again today: more strawberries, cabbage, sprouts, lettuce (I think), some raspberries in polytunnels - it is quite an industry. There have been a lot of people working in the fields, both using machinery and doing hand work. Irrigation is also much in evidence, often pumped by tractor sized diesel pumps in the field. We passed a huge packaging/processing factory making a lot of noise and with 18 wheeler articulated trucks backed up to warehouse doors for loading produce.  Another big fenced off yard was full of sections of rigid Irrigation pipes and pallet upon pallet of flat pack cardboard boxes. They don't do things by halves over here.

131km (including a wild goose chase to a Starbucks which is now closed down - thanks Google!) with 1051m of ascent has brought us to Lompoc. From here we have less than 500km to the Mexican border. Steve and I have been trying to bring our flights home forward a few days - it's a bit of a shaggy dog story - hopefully I will be able to report a successful outcome in a day or so.

Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed to UNICEF so far - it's a great cause in this troubled world.

If you haven't yet and would like to the page is here.


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