Saturday, Sep. 15, 2007
A Step Back into History
Vandenberg AFB → Oceano Dunes
Distance: 150.6km , Total: 475.82 km
After I woke up i discovered
myself wrapped in a very thick fog! The clothes I did not pack properly and my sleeping bag got very damp during the
night so I’v decided to pack all (!) of my clothes and even the shoes into the waterproof bags
starting from today! As mentioned before this fog by itself is vital to hot areas like California which 'seems never to rain' ... So, nothing to be angry about but
respectful to the great blessings of mother nature.
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Thick Fog from the nearby Ocean
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As I cycled along San Antonio
Creek Road the fog cleared noticeable. Later I went onto the
Cabrillo Highway 135 into the direction Los Alamos and the sun pushed the rest of the
fog aside. After the weather cleared I noticed that I was obviously riding in a desert, sand as far as the eyes could see. Now and then I could see
some artificial well trimmed green islands in the distance which turned out to
be vineyards taking advantage of the morning fog and the hot sun during the
day. Some vine was planted directly beside the road and I took some pictures. I
could not hold myself to pick up and to try some grapes – delicious. Striking
was that in the beginning of each line of grapevine there was one rose tree
planted; I could not find out the reason for it.
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Roses planted before the row of Grapevine
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Directly
beside the entrance into the 1300 citizen community of Los Alamos I passed a
signpost with the inscription “Welcome to Los Alamos, the valley of the
Cottonwoods, founded in 1876”. As soon as I rode into the town on main
street I felt myself taken back 100s of years ago. Nearly every house was made
out of wood with an distinctive antique aura of the 'Wild West', between them some grass. An
abandoned gas station indicated the difficulties to be commercially successful
in this remote area. But nor far away from it I noticed a guesthouse right out of the
1800s in which some renovation work was going on inside.
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| Welcome to Los Alamos |
On this still early day I saw
two young men sitting in a park playing with a small child. This picture let me
believe that it is difficult in this area to find a job...
From the main street I just turned right to look
a little behind the historical front. There was nothing except the Viking
Custom Upholstery working on the bench of a Ford of the 1920s? The car looked
great but in my opinion a car should be painted in a color of its period of
production. Living in the 21st century I watched many car restoration
shows. But as a German I feel a kind of pain seeing
historical car treasures with 'matching numbers' torn apart and 'restored'
with modern engines, disc brakes and modern paint; some custom builders even incorporate changes into the built. Once
the matching numbers are torn apart, the car is, in my opinion, no more historical
and can never be returned to its original…
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Viking Custom Upholstery
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On the way out of of town I discovered the Los Alamos
Market housed in a historical wooden building from 1876. I went in and bought something to
drink and food; all the employees looked clearly Asian to me…
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Los
Alamos Market
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