Today's 13.3 mi. was 7.5 less than I expected--what a pleasant surprise, despite the intermittent light drizzle throughout the day! Coming out of Oceano, I gazed at the familiar vegetable fields, and couldn't resist capturing a shot of the team planting lettuce seedlings by machine. It's still a person-in-the-loop operation, but much more automated than doing it entirely by hand.
Something else that struck me as I walked the Juan Bautista de Anza Trail was that when he brought his settlers north there wasn't a single of the now ubiquitous eucalyptus trees to "greet" him. So many of my rest stops are under the shade of these tall trees. Note the picture through the eucalyptus branches where you can see an "ocean" of plastic-covered fields recently planted with strawberries. The other big attractions are the dunes off in the distance to the west. The photo doesn't do justice to their imposing expanse.
From Guadalupe I took the Flyer Bus east to Santa Maria and took a room for two nights. I'm staying in the county court house/police station area--the 2005 Michael Jackson trial comes to mind as the BIG event here 7 hears ago.
Tomorrow I'll take the bus back to Guadalupe, walk the short 10 or 12 miles to Orcutt, and take the bus north to here.
