Day 303 on the road.

Bulldog Cafe, downtown Solvang

I spent most of yesterday at the Bulldog Cafe in Solvang writing and trying to get caught up on things. I have been driving around the area so much the last few days, I needed a day to just sit and rest for a while.

Late in the afternoon, a side street was closed off and locals began to show up for the regular market that takes place here. Fresh fruits and vegetables were being sold by a dozen or so farmers from the area who had set up tents.

I took a few photos and then walked across the street to eat dinner at the Mustard Seed Restaurant. I won't be back to this tourist trap disguised as a restaurant! The prices were outrageous for the food you received, plus the meal was not that great. I paid $19 for a meal that wasn't worth $4.99. I kept telling myself I was paying for the location and the few of the nice park across the street.

Tomorrow I'll be leaving Solvang. I'm not sure yet where I'll be going from here. I do know I'll be back to the Santa Ynez Valley again. It'a wonderful place to spend a few days.

Current Location: Solvang, California

Solvang is a nice hamlet, or should I say "gehucht." This Dutch community is growing on me. I'm seriously thinking about settling down here.

I'm staying at the Kronborg Inn, just west of downtown. The Kronborg is nice enough, but my room is located upstairs where access is a little difficult. I must climb stairs near the office, then walk through an enclosed balcony of sorts, before reaching an upstairs deck. Then it's a nice walk along the deck, making one turn down another path, before I can enter my room. The patio door leads to a small deck outside my room, and it actually would provide a shorter trip back to my car. But I'm a little afraid of leaving the patio door unlocked while I'm gone.

Ice? To get ice I walk out my patio door (leaving it unlocked, but at least I can see it from the vending area near the pool so I'm not too worried about it) and walk down the stairs near the office. Then I follow a trail along the swimming pool to a narrow path along a wall outside some lower level rooms. I take the narrow path for a short distance before arriving on the far side of the pool where the vending area and ice machine is located. I fill my ice bucket up and return the same way. I feel like a mouse, making my way through a maze to retrieve some cheese.

All of this traversing the paths and narrow walkways of the Kronborg is just another way of reminding me that living in motels can be a bitch sometimes.

Bulldog Cafe in Solvang and Art in Los Olivos

Day 302 on the road.
Bulldog Cafe, Solvang

The Santa Ynez Valley is a charming place. How could you not love this place? The small communities of Santa Ynez, Buellton, Los Olivos, Ballard, and Solvang each paint their own picture of charm and beauty.

As I sat outside a small coffee shop in Santa Ynez yesterday (photo at left), an American flag was blowing in the cool breeze and a young local girl was arguing with her boyfriend on her cellphone. My newspaper was folded just right so the breeze wouldn't toss it on the ground along with the leaves gathered around my feet from the nearby garden. I was drinking a Hawaiian smoothie concoction of coconut, milk, and pineapple juice that I had purchased in the coffee shop. I sat for a while just observing downtown Santa Ynez, which consists of a few aged buildings that are home to a local news journal and other businesses. It's a country town, a western scene from a movie like Shane or El Dorado. I expected a Wells Fargo stagecoach to rumble by at any minute. In fact, this area was a regular stop for the historic Wells Fargo stagecoaches in the late 1800s.

As a Texan, with probably some cowboy, rustler, and certainly gambler, in my DNA, I felt at home.

After leaving Santa Ynez I drove north about 4 miles to Los Olivos. Los Olivos has numerous wine-tasting shops, art galleries, and the "Fess Parker Wine Country Inn" (remember Fess in the old shows Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone?). A fellow Texan, Fess Parker has been in the wine business for years in this area. His winery now encompasses four vineyards on almost 700 acres in the Santa Ynez Valley.

(Photo right: the "Fess Parker Country Inn")

I walked around the downtown area of Los Olivos and visited a couple of the art galleries. I spent most of my time inside the "Judith Hale Fine Art Gallery" just a block north of the "Fess Parker Inn." The gallery is located inside an old building on the southeast corner of the town square. The gallery features sculptures, water colors, oils, jewelry, and ceramics from a wide variety of artists. I also passed a sculpture garden featuring metal works and large sculptures suitable for your patio or home garden.



(Photo left: window view, outside garden, in front of art gallery and frame shop.)















A few miles further north I found the community of Ballard. In Ballard I found a historic landmark, the old Ballard School built in 1882, that has been "in daily use since 1883." (See photo below.)

After leaving Ballard I made my way back to downtown Solvang. I've got a new hangout there, the Bulldog Cafe.

The Bulldog has good coffee and free internet access, so you know I'm going to be there on a regular basis while I'm in town. This morning I noticed a sign near the counter that I had not seen on my previous visits. I had to laugh. It's a bumper sticker of sorts: "Friends Don't Let Friends Drink Starbucks!"

Back to Solvang

Day 301 on the road.
Bulldog Cafe, downtown, Solvang

I'm sitting outside the Bulldog Cafe in Solvang enjoying the beautiful weather. The breeze is keeping me cool on this warm day.

I left Palmdale on Sunday afternoon and drove to Buellton, just a couple of miles from Solvang, to spend the night. Yesterday, Monday, I returned to the Kronborg Inn in Solvang to stay a few days. I'm trying to figure out where I go from here.

I spent time in Solvang yesterday and took some photos (below).

Scenic Hwy. 166, Solvang, and the Ocean

Day 298 on the road.
Starbucks, H Street, Lompoc, California

I'm sitting in a crowded Starbucks in Lompoc, California trying to recover from a couple of days of traveling through central California. I made the drive to Bakersfield on Wednesday after surviving a sandstorm and 60-mile an hour winds in the Mojave Desert east of Barstow.

The winds calmed a bit after I left Barstow. I drove past Edwards Air Force Base on Hwy. 58 and made it to Mojave in mid-afternoon. Once I made it past Mojave I moved into central California. I stopped for a while in a small community called Tehachapi for a chocolate shake and some fries and then arrived in Bakersfield around 5 p.m.






(Photo left: wind turbines near Tehachapi.)


















(Photo right: just east of Bakersfield, along Hwy. 58.)



I spent the night in Bakersfield (sounds like the title of a mystery novel). I was not that impressed by Bakersfield and don't see any need to go back there. It's a nice place to drive through when you're on your way somewhere else more interesting.



















On Thursday morning I drove south on Hwy. 99 to Mettler, then took the scenic route on Hwy. 166 toward Maricopa. Hwy. 166 between Mettler and Maricopa is one of those scenic routes you must see to believe. The route takes you past beautiful vineyards and farms as you make your way through a valley between the Sierra Madre Mountains to the south and the Caliente Mountain range to the north.





Some photos I took on Hwy. 166, between Maricopa and Santa Maria below:

My destination was Santa Maria, located near the Pacific Coast. Once in Santa Maria I found a Starbucks and had time to reflect on the beautiful drive I had witnessed, including a wonderful scene near the Twichell Reservoir just east of Santa Maria. As an artist or photographer could spend days on Hwy. 166 in this area, with majestic landscapes too numerous to mention as you drive the 50 miles or so west from Maricopa. I found myself stopping many times to take pictures.

(Photo above: near the Twichell Reservoir, just east and north of Santa Maria.)

From Santa Maria I drove south on Hwy. 101 to Solvang. I stayed at the Kronborg Inn in downtown Solvang. After checking in at the motel I walked around the Dutch community that has become a major tourist destination. I'm told that 2 million visitors a year come to Solvang for the wine-tasting, Dutch architecture, and beauty of the surrounding vineyards. Lake Cachuma is 11 miles away and is a major attraction offering RV sites and camping for year-round recreation. The Pacific Ocean is about a 30-minute drive from Solvang, and Santa Barbara is 30 miles south. Therefore, Solvang is at the heart of the central California coastline.

Other communities around Solvang include Los Olivos, Buellton, and Santa Ynez. Over 30 world-class vineyards surround these communities and the views of the beautiful mountains and green rolling hillsides in the area are among the most breathtaking scenes in California.

Yesterday, Friday, I drove south to visit Lake Cachuma. I continued south on Hwy. 101 through the Los Padres National Forest until reaching the northern edge of Santa Barbara. At that point, I turned north on Hwy. 1, the famous freeway that follows the Pacific Ocean coastline. I first glimpsed the Pacific Ocean a few minutes later as I made my way northward toward Goleta and the Santa Ynez Mountains. I visited El Capitan Beach and Refugio Beach, both state-run public beaches accessible from Hwy. 1. These public beaches offer camping and swimming for very little cost. The guards allowed me to drive through without paying. If I parked and stayed a while it would have cost me $8 for a day pass. Camping is $25 a night, assuming you can find a spot available.

I decided to continue my tour of the coast northward, hoping to find a cheap motel in Lompoc. I arrived in Lompoc around 3 p.m. yesterday, found a motel, and checked in for the night. My tour of the day was really just a loop, beginning in Solvang. I went southwest to Santa Barbara, the turned north toward Lompoc. Lompoc is only 30 miles or so from Solvang. One can take a day trip and view an enormous portion of the central California coastline without ever being more than 30 miles from Solvang.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do today. I may drive to Santa Barbara for the night, or I might continue north toward San Luis Obispo.

More photos from my tour of Solvang and Hwy. 1 on the Pacific Ocean coastline below:

Downtown Solvang

Vineyards Near Solvang

Pacific Ocean, North of Santa Barbara

California West Coast Adventure

Day 291 on the road.
Firehouse Coffee Co., Laughlin

It's hot outside and so today's main goal is stay inside. The Firehouse Coffee Company is quiet today with just a few folks eating a light lunch. I'm enjoying the time trying to catch up on some planning, writing, reading, and resting.

I've put in more than 160 hours of poker this month in eight different poker rooms, including three trips to Las Vegas. I've had one tooth pulled, met four Canadians, changed the oil in my car, observed drunken college students on a late night river taxi ride, become intimate with the Las Vegas rail system, flopped a straight flush at the Red Rock, heard a country band play before a mob on Fremont street, discovered that blending cranberry juice and pineapple juice is a good idea, and laughed often with guys like Bruce, Lee, and Tim.

It's been an interesting month in the desert. But I'm ready to hit the road again.

I will drive to Las Vegas on Monday and stay there until Wednesday. On Wednesday I head west to Bakersfield, California. On Thursday I'll be in Solvang, a Dutch community founded in 1911. I've had many people talk about Solvang, so I'm going to check it out. Once in Solvang, I'm not sure of my plans. The Chumash Casino Resort is near Solvang, and so I'll be checking out the poker room there. I might decide to just hit the infamous coastal Highway 101 and drive north along the California coast until I run out of money for gas.

By this time next week, I'll be on the Pacific Ocean thinking about what to do next.