Ten-Finger Exercises

Home again, home again, jiggity jog...

I may run out of time to write tonight, but wanted my friends to know I'm safely home.

We had a great vacation, a trip in our own plane planned for two years and finally accomplished. Bill had been stationed TDY (temporary duty) at Vandenberg AFB on several occasions and wanted to see that area again. He knew the airports around the area, and picked Santa Maria for our first few nights because there was a Radisson hotel right on the airport. It was also a good central location for roaming around.

It's a good thing I had good books with me that I was completely happy to sit around and read, because a hotel on the airport was too good. Bill had the screen out of the window, for a better view, his chair pulled up to watch the planes come and go, and his radio in hand to hear all the pilot-to-tower conversations. He was in seventh heaven.

During the days we drove the area from Morrow Bay to San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles, taking pictures of beaches, vineyards and fields growing all sorts of crops. We never quite pinned down what the big, cabbage-y looking things were, the crops we saw the most of; although we saw pickers putting their harvest into boxes marked broccoli. I couldn't see any sign of a solid center in the plants, at least from the road, and that seemed strange.

There are wonderful fields of flowers growing there also. I'll post some pictures tomorrow while Bill's at a meeting and I can use the big computer.

I'll try not to post pictures of lava flows because they probably aren't as interesting to others as they are to me; and I have others like that in my album, I think.

After three days there, and lots of good "jammy" zinfandel-- my new favorite-- we flew to Oxnard and stayed in a resort on the beach for a couple nights. Didn't rent a car there, just hung out and had fun.

Oxnard is surrounded by high mountains, and we had to circle for at least ten minutes to gain enough altitude to fly out.

More tomorrow. It's good to be home.