September California Trip
9/15/2024  •  Rancho Guadalupe Dunes Preserve 

   1st stop today (and last stop of our beach trip)...   

It should have been the 3rd stop yesterday afternoon.  

When we got to Santa Maria the car started acting up.  We stopped at Pep Boys to get a new alternator.  At 1pm.  At 6pm, when they were almost done, they broke a bolt that they had to have shipped overnight.  Oh, joy!  So we ended up riding in my first Uber to get to a hotel, with no change of clothes.  

I also had no stuff for my contacts, so I walked a mile (round-trip) to get some solution and a case.  

They finished around 10am the next day and then we went on to the beach.
• This beach is just north of Vandenburg AFB.  Totally a NO-DRONE zone.  
• A couple of notes... 
1 - there are a few pics of a seal.  This animal was actually roped off as it is sick.  Some kind of virus.  The ranger explained to us that it's pretty common, and that sometimes they recover and sometimes they don't.  
2 - if you look carefully enough, you'll see an unintended selfie of dad.  I was shooting with my cell phone out his window, but in the process got his pic (and my arm) in the side mirror!

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