7/18/13 - Lompoc, CA

The RV park we are staying at in Lompoc is only $20.00 with full hookups, much better than in Simi Valley for $31.00 plus $15.00 to dump.  This is a city park, it costs .25 cents per 3 minutes for a shower but that’s OK.  It was 56 degrees when we got up at 7:30 am.  We were woken up just before 6:00 am by coyotes in the bushes by the Santa Inez River that runs behind our trailer -- the river is bone dry. 

We drove to town and found a geocache.  Then we drove to Mission La Purisima Conception.  This mission was also devastated by the 1812 earthquake and it was rebuilt in the 30’s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) boys.  This is the only mission of the 21 missions in California that is not owned by the Catholic Church (it is now a state park).   It is the only example in California of a complete mission complex.

By 3 PM Jim and I were hungry so we drove down the road to Solvang and had lunch at Solvang Brewing.  There is another mission 2 miles down the road so we went there.  The Mission Santa Inez is a smaller mission and it didn’t take very long to tour.  Figueroa Mountain Brewing opened at 4 pm so we went there and shared a four-taster sampler.

We decided to go to one more brewery before heading back to Lompoc so we went to Firestone Walker Brewing.  We had been to this one before.  Afterwards we went to Wal-mart to pick up a few items and didn’t find everything we needed.  This is a new store and they were still stocking it.  Jim needed to stop at Lowe’s to get another cover for the outside water intake because he forgot to put it on a few days ago and lost it.  He needed another one to keep wasps from crawling inside.  We had such a big, late lunch that we will snack for supper.