Joe Looking Fat And Fabulous

Back in the day, I took a picture of my Sabre on this bridge that I'm standing on, the Arroyo Hondo Bridge. That was a long time ago, over two wives ago.

That's the railroad bridge on the left and the old US-101 bridge on the right. I like old bridges like this.

The conditions were rather poor to see the Channel Islands and the oil rigs in the water. You could see them in person, but not on the pictures.

We made the loop on CA-154 and found ourselves back on US-101. There is a rest stop that I wanted to take snaps at, on the other side of the highway. We pulled off here to hang a U, and I noticed the skid marks leading right into the tree. Anti lock brakes don't leave a solid skid mark like this one, so I'm guessing it was an older car.
My poor mom is going to be upset when she sees this, and figures out I was standing very close to traffic behind me to get the shot. I think even Marie wasn't at ease until I got back in the car.

The dam was built in 1953. There's a nice looking campground that we looked at that passed muster. No camping in this neck of the woods is cost efficient. You can pay between 45 and 95 dollars a night for a spot. Recall that the rack rate at Ocean Mesa is $95.

The paper had said the lake was only 20% full, but the tv said less than 40%full, which is how it looked in person. Still, you can see it will take a lot of rain to restore river flow to the Santa Ynez River.

Marie really loved the architectural style in Solvang. I too found it charming. Town is about four good sized blocks long. There's a Danish Days celebration in town, but not this weekend.

Our next stop was the pet supply and gift store. They welcomed Chico into the store and Dee Dee tried to give him a couple of Scooby snacks.
The postcards were 4 for a dollar at the gift store, which is about as good as it gets. I had to sit down and Marie went in to Olsen's and ordered. It turns out that Olsen's provided table service to the sidewalk tables. So, a cutie dressed up Danish brought our treats and coffee out to us. Marie's one request was to eat at the Danish bakery, and we did just that.

Before my back went tits up for another day, we headed up the highway to Solvang. Founded by Danish heritaged settlers, the town looks like a village in Denmark. Here I am posing with one of my Viking brothers. For a while now, I've called myself a "Viking-American." My ancestry to my Nordic homeland comes on both sides of my DNA.