We left behind the bright lights of Vegas and started towards Death Valley. It is a couple of hours plus and so we need to have some coffee first.We had a recommendation for a coffee shop which does its own roasting, Sunrise coffee. It was slightly out of town, in a less salubrious area, but I had Linda to guard me. The coffee was excellent and the croissants enormous. Unfortunately, on the way back to the main road, Linda spotted a Walmart so we had to stop for her to go shopping, on a positive note we did buy some supplies for the journey.
We have a nice Ford SUV which has bluetooth so we can listen to Country songs from my Iphone whilst we the people travel along. The good thing about car hire here is you get to test all the cars out first, so I sit in them to see how it feels, then I check what gadgets it has and then Linda sits in them, to see if she would be comfortable. However, if she is not comfortable then my 1 and 2 do not matter, we cannot have that car. It was a choice between a Chevrolet, a Jeep and the Ford. The Jeep was winning, but the seating was not too comfortable and as we have a lot of driving to do then it was not a sensible option. The Ford was comfortable, but more importantly lots of gadgets and electronics for me to play with, so it won! Linda preferred it as well.
We stayed at the Monte Carlo and had a nice room on floor 21 which gave good views of the city. In the evening we went for a walk around Las Vegas, hasn't changed much over the years. We found an Apple store which I had a look round, but did not buy anything. We went to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville restaurant for dinner, it had music on, which was rather loud. I had a nice pork wrap and Linda had a vegetarian option.
We were both tired from having interrupted sleep on the train, so an early night. The problem is when I sit down I still feel the ground swaying.
We left the hotel about 11 and then visited the various places aforementioned before following the signs to Death Valley. It was an easy drive especially with cruise control, a lack of traffic and straight roads. We saw hardly any other cars on the 120 mile trip. Death Valley was given its forbidding name by a group of pioneers lost here in the winter of 1849-1850. Even though, as far as we know, only one of the group died here, they all assumed that this valley would be their grave.
There are a lot of dangerous animals here, scorpions, rattlesnakes, tarantulas, mountain lions to name a few. I am being cautious, I let Linda get out the car first, just in case! In this below-sea-level basin, steady drought and record summer heat make Death Valley a land of extremes. Yet, each extreme has a striking contrast. Towering peaks are frosted with winter snow. Rare rainstorms bring vast fields of windflowers Lush oases harbour tiny fish and refuge for wildlife and humans. Despite its morbid name, a great diversity of life survives in Death Valley.
We are staying at the Furnace Creek Ranch and we booked in. There was nowhere to park outside our accommodation, so Linda was not happy so went back to speak to the manager. They had no other accommodation so they upgraded us to a bigger deluxe room. It is very nice and our balcony overlooks the golf course. I can sit on the balcony in the rocking chair, with my hat and shades on and drink coffee, rocking to my hearts content.
Everything is expensive as they hold the monopoly on food, petrol etc. We went to the saloon and had a drink and shared a pizza, before returning to the room to use the free wi-fi.
It's very peaceful here and some stunning scenery. On Thursday we went and toured the area. First we went to Badwater Basin which is 282 feet below sea level, is not only the lowest place in the park, it's the lowest in North America. We walked out onto the salt plains and Linda took some pictures, well hundreds to be more precise. She had her small camera, her big Canon camera and her mini IPad and just kept changing devices. After this we went for a tour, I just drove and stopped when told, Linda would take a few pictures and then tell me to drive, till the next photo opportunity arose.
We went to see a borax mine, I thought Linda said botex and couldn't understand how they would mine botex. Borax is used in soap, household cleaner, insecticide a bit different from botex. There have been lots of films made here, Star Wars, Return of the Jedi, Spartacus and Tarzan to name a few.
We were out for about six hours and Linda must have photographed every mountain, sand dune, salt plain, tree in this side of the national park. I just drove, a rider in Death Valley.