Left the California coast on Monday - stunning coast, stunning weather - really sad to go. Stopped off on the Monday night in Barstow - the middle of nowhere on the high desert after struggling over the Sierra Nevada mountains. The Whale is really going to need some good TLC before I get back on the road in the spring.
Barstow has an old ghost town next to it called Callico - a Silver
mining town from the early 1800's. The amount of money that was earned
there for those days are astounding.
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The company store in Calico
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After doing the touristy thing, I headed for Death Valley, and for the first time my RV routing software failed me (a bit). It was supposed to be less than 100 miles to Furnace Creek in Death Valley, but the road was closed - still due to Hurricane Hillary from the summer. End result is I had to drive all the way to Las Vegas and then back to Furnace Creek - a 3 hour detour.
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Driving into Death Valley
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Beautiful colors
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Stopped off at Zabriski's Point and did a hike through the badlands.
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Some desert flower...
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The hike was mainly along this river which had been washed out by the recent rains
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Weird formations
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3 different color peaks
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Textures - all Gene's influence
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The salt lake with lots of water
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The black bits are where volcano's/seismic movement pushed lava to the surface
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Search for the people - there are some
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Before getting to the campsite, also stopped at Badwater - the lowest point in the North American continent.
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See the people down there
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Millions of years of rocks washing into the valley creates these amazing alluvial fans
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The salt/borax on the flats
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That guy looked like he was floating
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See the white mark in the rocks above the Whale - about inline with the white vent - that is sea level at Badwater
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On the way to the campsite, I saw one of my best sightings...
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Wiley Coyote
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Stood for the profile shot
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The campsite at Furnace Creek was great - the gas price was not, but at least I did not have to fill up. I do remember that during our 2008 RV trip we were in Death Valley and outraged when the gas price hit $5.50...
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| Operator... |
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| Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh |
Next day I decided to go cycling - and do the Artist's Palette loop - I actually carried the spare battery along, but managed to make it on a single one - approximately 40 miles of serious hills, but stunning scenery.
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100ft below sea level
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My road runner the next morning - so I saw Wiley coyote and the Road Runner in 2 days...
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The Inn at Death Valley - motivation for completing the ride... (see later)
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Beautiful colors
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The reflections were stunning
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The artist's palette
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Parking should not really be an issue there, but... see the little red car. this was way up the canyon
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Mytrusty steed waiting at the entrance to the canyon
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The moon from the Inn
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and the beverage
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Ended the day with Brats on the coals
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The next day I decided to hike to Natural Bridge before leaving the valley.
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Just for the record... that says 1800 miles of which 600 miles was in the last 3 months
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Stunning reflections, but a hellish steep dirt road
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Weird rock formations - although everything was a washout of the alluvial gravel
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It was amazingly quiet and this women was just sitting enjoying
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| gold? |
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The road was not fun going up or down
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The plan was to stop over somewhere in a town called Amargosa Valley. Only thing I got there was a weird shop called Area 51 - which is nowhere near Area 51 New Mexico, but this one had a brothel next door - so I had to be back in Nevada...
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The alien diner
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Bunny ranch - this town has about 3 residents and 10 people that pass on I95 every hour, but it had a bunny ranch??
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In any case, headed on towards to Las Vegas and slept in a Walmart somewhere. Next day was Saturday - 18 March - the day of the Formula 1 Grand Prix in... Las Vegas, and I had to get to the campground at Circus Circus, so I decided to beat the traffic and get there early. Turned out, the traffic was not bad at all and in general the Grand Prix was a bit of a disappointment for Las Vegas in terms of crowd turnout. I however had a great time - walked most of the strip part of the track, but decided that I was not going to pay for a ticket to see the race that only started after midnight (which is wayyyy past my bedtime).
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The RV site - has all the campground amenities - pool, laundry, slot machines.
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The track
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The winners car
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Only in Vegas... 20 minutes to your room. Now that is what I call service
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The dome was awesome
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Monday morning I was up early and moved the Whale to the storage unit. Got there and the parking space looked a bit small. Turns out a tree had been blown over and had fallen into the space - luckily I had not parked there the previous day (we had heavy winds on Sunday in Vegas). Luckily they had it removed and I had the Whale all tucked away by 5pm in time to catch my 9:15pm red-eye to Boston.
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All the fam
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in time for turkey
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and the Whale asleep in Vegas
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Next trip begins at the end of January 2024....
