The Albatross
Friday 03 May 2024
The Donald, when he was President, decided to create a new branch of the military called “SPACE FORCE” to boldly carry on doing what they were doing anyway, only now everyone gets guns that make “pew pew” noises and really snazzy badges with rocket ships on them.
So, all the road signs to the Vandenberg Air Force Base (AFB) have shinny new covers saying SFB. In our travels today we passed by the front gate and visitor’s centre. No, it is not for civilians, unless they want a few hours questioning and an internal probe. Google Maps have some great reviews of the Visitors Centre.
We have lovely weather here at the moment, just cool enough to need a light jumper, but sunny. My quest was to find a nice spot for a picnic. I could find lots of places up the coast; however, all the picnic tables were all in full sun. So yesterday I found a shady park just out of Lompoc by a little stream, so that was the destination of the day.
First of all, we stopped past La Purísima Mission just out of town. As you can guess it was an old Spanish Mission, where they tried to bring the local people closer to god. They succeeded as nearly all of the local population died of disease. It was restored during the great depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps, which was a way of employing and training young men whilst building much of the infrastructure of the national parks. Anyway, it was nice apart from the local ranger who was self-making a very loud documentary in an extremely perky manner who seemed to follow us around. “The Spanish wanted to make some more Spain” seems a rather simplistic explanation of colonialisation.
Anyway, it was a nice way to spend an hour, and we enjoyed watching the Ground Squirrels standing guard out of there burrows chirping away.
The park was lovely shady and quiet, lots of Blue Jays and Woodpeckers nipping around and a few other folks doing what we were doing. Mission accomplished.
