Days 6 and 7:

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(Editors Note: We are home and finalizing the Blog)

Saturday had multiple possibilities, but the one we settled on was to head up and check out Solvang. Since we had been told by the Ranger Station that all trails were gated we settled for finding the smallest road we could on the way up. At a bend in the 101 just at the top of a hill is a truck pull out and at the end of that is an unmarked road called La Lata Pl. (on the map) by taking that to the bottom of the hill and going right on Alisal Rd you can do the last portion of the route on a storybook farm road with huge oak tress festooned in hanging moss ala New Orleans. Really a nice drive and it takes you directly into Solvang.

Though we know Solvang is a major tourist spot, we found that the three hours there shopping and having lunch were just about all the time we needed. Lol Things “touristy” tend to not be our favorite thing and basically the whole town is pretty much that. We did find a fairly reasonable lunch place (The Mustard Seed) and dined al fresco on sandwiches and pea soup. Another stand out is the Nordic Knife Shop. I (Mark) love knives and just had to check it out. I had expected the basic mall type shop with fake swords and J.A. Henckels cooking knives. While they did have Henckels they also had an amazing array of custom knives! Not your tourist junk but the real deal, ranging in prices from $25 for a good Victorinox or Buck to $4500 for hand folded Damascus blade mammoth tusk handle one of a kind knives. I had seen a new knife by Victorinox in Outdoor magazine and since it was their first single blade locking type of knife I had wanted to see one. Unfortunately since it is VERY new other shops had not had them but I asked anyway. “I think we just got a few of those in, in fact they aren’t even on display yet, let me see.”, was the answer. A few minutes later I was holding one. She didn’t know the price on it and we went to talk to the owner. He didn’t even know it and had to check on the computer. “$30” he answered, “but we are having a sale on all Victorinox items so there is a 20% discount.” Kari asked if I wanted one and my answer was…well… lets just say that $24 has rarely exited my pocket with such speed.

We made our way an having consulted a book of trails that Paul Young Sr. lent us there seemed to be a way back over the Santa Barbara mountain via dirt that continues of Refugio Rd. I chatted with a local at a gas station and he confirmed it, adding “there is a cement barrier at the end of the pavement, but ignore it and take one of the paths that go around it. Its just meant to discourage people because the road isn’t maintained by the county.” We followed his advice and were rewarded with a fantastic overland route that took a couple hours to make and had hundreds of vistas over both the ocean west and the valleys east. If you take it be advised that its rough in areas and could be a challenge for a 2WD truck. A car couldn’t make it so don’t try. Once you get to the top of the ridge you can continue straight on Refugio or go left and follow the Ridge until reaching Santa Barbara, we advise going left!

At one particularly spectacular place you could see both east and west abnd there was a small section of asphalt so I hopped out to take a video. When I did the small pad for my lumbar support fell out of the Jeep. The wind was blowing very hard and Kari exclaimed, “Your pad is blowing away!” I glanced ant saw it traveling under and behind the Jeep so I dashed around back. There it was, stationary for the moment so took a fast stride to it, planted my right foot and started to step on it with my left foot. All well and good had there not been BB sized round gravel were I “planted” my right foot and suddenly I was airborne, then crashing down with all the force of the landing directly on my left knee. While writhing in pain on the ground I noted a few things. I had captured the pad with my left shoulder, it felt like my knee was broken, and my wife has a seriously twisted sense of the macabre. As soon as she saw that I wasn’t bleeding and able to actually move my leg, though still moaning in pain, she found some sort of enjoyment in taking my picture and snickering and my disappearing act when I went around the back of the Jeep. Evil…evil…woman!  After a few minutes the pain subsided to the point where I could get up, though I was bothered by it for the rest of the trip. (It still hurts a bit actually) We got to the bottom of the road and used our new MV50 air pump to inflate the tires we had aired down for a softer ride. Truly a great little thing, 4 huge tires pumped from 25lbs to 40 in about 10 min.

After that it was back into SB to explore the upper half of State street (slower with my hurt knee). There are lots of shops and interesting folks to watch. Then to Brophy Bros restaurant for the second night in a row where we once again sat at the clam bar and just ordered whatever smelled good that he was making, not even consulting the menu. Wonderful!

Our last day was get up, get packed, get rolling and enjoy the drive down the coast. We had Olive garden for lunch, then stopped in Corona to see 2012 (good flick). Pizza at Rachel and Trevor’s when we got home was a great way to cap off the week.

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