We were on the road at 9am this morning! There was a slight delay in actually getting anywhere while we washed the car and nipped into Walgreens. The car has been covering us in dust every time we touch it ever since the Grand Canyon but it's much better now.
Our plan was to head back over to California, starting in Utah and passing through Arizona, Nevada and a long drive through Death Valley before stopping for the night. It was a long and eventful drive and we had a bit of a panic when we realised we were running low on gas just before entering Death Valley, which is not a good situation to be in. We headed for a town called Mercury just to the East of Death Valley in the search for gas and that is where we ended up getting very lost. We finally realised where we were when we saw this sign:
By this point we were practically out of gas but before long we saw a truck coming the other way which stopped to help. Then ███ ███ ███ a spaceship ███ the █████ ██████ alien ███ ray gun ██ █ ███ ███ ████ from mars ██ █████ █████ ███ ████ ███ █ ████ ████ unbelievable ███ ████ ████. █ ██ ██ ███ top secret ███ █████ ███ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███ █████. But we were told that it was classified and we could never talk about what we had seen.
We arrived in Death Valley at about midday. The temperature was 110 degrees F, and I didn't like it. I'm not very good with extremes of temperature, so it's a good job I'm British really.
We had lunch in Furnace Creek, where I perked up a bit when we were given unlimited free popcorn whilst waiting for our food. We ordered a hotdog and a beef burger, partly because they were the cheapest things on the menu. The Americans do something weird with burgers. They cook them like steak, so if you forget to specify (like we did), you get a burger that's pink in the middle. Now, Claire doesn't mind, in fact, I think she quite likes it. I on the other hand, can't eat burgers unless they're brown right through. I like rare steak but not burger. Rare burger is wrong.
So Claire had to eat the burger and I had the hotdog, which wasn't really the plan.
We tried to have a look round Death Valley after lunch. Death Valley has the lowest point in America - Badwater Basin at 282 feet below sea level. We went to have a look, and made a halfhearted attempt to walk out further onto the salt flats. After about a 30 seconds, I gave up and told Claire I'd meet her back in the air conditioned car. After about 35 seconds, Claire joined me. it was so hot, I felt like I couldn't breath properly.The smile in the photo below is actually a grimace.
After that, we decided we'd had enough of Death Valley. I hadn't been overly enamoured with it from the outset. We'd driven through the desert for hours, to get to another place that was just more extreme desert, and too hot to spend any time in.
We decided that we'd spend the night at a town called Lone Pines, as we had a bit of time to spare to get there. Lone Pines is to the West of Death Valley and at the base of Mt. Whitney, which is the highest mountain in California, and, in fact the whole of the USA excluding Alaska. California is certainly a place of extremes.
The route to Lone Pines was hot. We passed a sign that said "avoid overheating, turn off your air conditioning for 22 miles". We chanced it and left it on, and made it through without the car exploding. We passed through more desert, including some proper sand dunes, which made us feel even hotter.
We liked the look of Lone Pines as soon as we arrived. The town looks like something from a Western. We tried a few motels until we stumbled upon Dow Villa Motel. They only had one room left in the old hotel, but as soon as we saw it we knew it was perfect. The hotel is like going back in time, with photos of cowboys on the walls, and a whole John Wayne display cupboard downstairs. John Wayne himself has even stayed in the hotel before us!
After we'd checked in, we went over the road to Jake's Saloon. I'd spotted the double saloon doors and line of bar stools as we'd driven through, and we knew we had to go in, even if it was scary and full of cowboys.
Jake's looks like something straight from a Western movie. We're still not sure if it's real or just a good replica.
We walked in to a group of rowdy locals at the bar, but fought the urge to run away, and soon found the barman to be very friendly and approachable.
We had to drag ourselves away after a couple of drinks, for fear of seriously oversleeping in the morning and waking up with a raging hangover.
Tomorrow we're continuing West, and aiming for Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. The main things we're looking forward to there are green grass and big trees.
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Location:Death Valley & Lone Pines, CA
Get off your horse and drink your milk pilgrim.
ReplyDeleteI wanna go!
Were you probed?