Traveling to Santa Barbara

I made it a point not to stop at any even gas station traveling south so I didn't go inside anywhere or even stop for a Starbucks or fast food even in a drive through or anywhere people were this trip because of just how very infectious the Delta Variant is which is maybe 10 times worse than last summer with so many children and people under 50 dying. People my age over 50 aren't really dying much because 85% of us are vaccinated.

Where I live on the Northern California coast near the San Francisco area it has been unseasonably foggy with high and low fog since April and even now is still foggy most of the time even now in September. It used to be only in June it was like this but now it's turning into 6 months a year of mostly overcast weather during the summers.

However, as soon as I drove inland 10 or 20 miles the sun was out even though it was quite hazy from wayward smoke from fires in the lake Tahoe area and other fires mostly to the north of us inland. I didn't feel the smoke or smell it most of the time driving south to Santa Barbara though. But, I felt myself cough every once in a while so I closed my windows and turned on the air conditioner and recycled the air so I wouldn't cough at all then.

The warmest it got was around Paso Robles at around 97 degrees Fahrenheit and Buellton which was about 89 degrees just before you go near the northbound tunnel which is where you go out to the ocean once again. I could Just barely see Santa Cruz Island out to sea then as I drove the last 45 minutes or so into Santa Barbara. 

It was great to see the sun at all especially with the last 6 months mostly of overcast weather. I love the  cooler weather when everyone else is 110 degrees to 120 or more degrees but the overcast really gets old when you are someone like me who mostly grew up in the Los Angeles area where it is sunny most of the year except for a few days of the year where it cloudbursts rain on you and then you have flash floods something like they just got on the east coast which never usually flash floods at all.

So, this summer where I live while everyone else was 110 to 120 degrees our weather was 55 to 70 mostly during the days even though it was mostly overcast too.

The other remarkable thing about driving down this time was the amount of green along Highway 101. This means that the monsoon weather has also hit along 101 some for the amount of green I saw along the way or the high Fog off the ocean is coming really far inland on some days or both likely.

Things most years would have been much drier especially from Paso Robles south to Buellton if there hadn't been a lot of high fog and monsoon rain this summer in this stretch of Highway.