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Babs and Pia
Babs and Pia
10/18/24

Wiebke's visitWiebke's visit
09/27/24

Brazil 2024 - Fernanda Brazil 2024 - Fernanda
09/06/24

Miska 2024 - JuneMiska 2024 - June
06/01/24

Miska 2024 - MayMiska 2024 - May
05/01/24

Miska 2024 - AprilMiska 2024 - April
04/01/24

Miska 2024 - MarchMiska 2024 - March
03/01/24

Miska 2024 - February Miska 2024 - February
02/01/24

Miska 2024 - January Miska 2024 - January
01/01/24

Miska - December Miska - December
12/01/23

Miska - November Miska - November
11/01/23

Miska - OctoberMiska - October
10/01/23

Miska 2023 - September Miska 2023 - September
09/01/23

Miska 2023 - AugustMiska 2023 - August
08/09/23

India and Taj Mahal 2023India and Taj Mahal 2023
03/18/23

Germany (and Iceland) 2022Germany (and Iceland) 2022
12/01/22

Brasil 2022 - after BHBrasil 2022 - after BH
10/18/22

Brazil 2022Brazil 2022
10/07/22

Bathroom in the AnnexBathroom in the Annex
11/13/20

2020 Summer and Fall and Winter in the Pandemic2020 Summer and Fall and Winter in the Pandemic
08/23/20

Long Island 2020Long Island 2020
07/24/20

Balcony GardenBalcony Garden
05/05/20

Baltimore 2020Baltimore 2020
02/09/20

Train show at the NY Botanical Gardens Train show at the NY Botanical Gardens
12/07/19

Mohonk - Winter Wonderland Mohonk - Winter Wonderland
12/04/19

Oktoberfest 2019Oktoberfest 2019
10/06/19

Cool pictures of our apartment Cool pictures of our apartment
10/06/19

Burle Max at NY Botanical GardensBurle Max at NY Botanical Gardens
09/14/19

Papai In MemoriamPapai In Memoriam
08/04/19

Aussie Parents' VisitAussie Parents' Visit
05/15/19

[...]
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Road Trip, Day 17

The 'Devil's Golf Course'
The 'Devil's Golf Course'
(Click to view)

Nevada, Death Valley, California


Today we drove from the deserts of Nevada into the deep desert of Death Valley. Crossing into California is interesting, because it is the same desert, yet it seems somehow cleaner, better taken care of; Nevada only has this desert, so they drive their trucks over it, build their casinos on it, throw their trash in it. California has this part of it that is desert, something special. Or maybe the heat was getting to me and I was hallucinating.

And what heat it was! From the already hot desert, the temperature just kept rising as we drove deeper into Death Valley (and deeper is the correct word: Death Valley has the lowest point in North America at 85.5 meters BELOW sea level). Death Valley in the summer is something so stupid only Germans do it. All the tour buses were full of 'em (except for one with Italians). The German in me came out, as I was excited to go to minus altitude, and see how hot the temperature would get. I had the GPS unit showing altitude, and the car thermometer showing the temperature. We drove all the way to Bad Water, the lowest point in the park -- and in fact the continent -- stopping along the way at the Devil's Golf Course, and doing Artist Drive on the way back. I kept hoping for the magic 122° F, which is 50° C -- exactly halfway to boiling. We were up to 118° F at Bad Water. Fernanda was wilting when we got out here. We didn't even walk too deep into the salt flats. There were lots of tourists here, most of them German. On the mountain beside it way up was a sign saying "Sea Level" where sea level was.

As we left Bad Water, the temperature hit 120° F. Then along Artist Drive it hit 121° F, and then around 12:30, we hit the magic 122° F. I got out to cavort in the heat.

The heat was painful -- if you were on the sunny side of the car, it hurt your eyeballs. The breeze coming in was hot. It was better to have the windows open only a slit than to have them wide open. And yes, we weren't bothering with the air conditioner. What fun would that be? Plus the thermal differences would more likely lead to head-aches and discomfort. Anyway, I maintain, more so now than ever, that 50° C in the dry desert is much more palatable than 30° C in 90% humidity. For the last 60 miles or so of the park, which is uphill, they advise not running the air conditioner lest you overheat your car.

So 50° C reached, and it not even being the absolute hottest part of the day yet, we were ready to leave. But it's a big park -- the biggest, in fact, outside Alaska -- and we had a long way to go, and it was uphill, and the temperature never went below 40° C. We stopped at the visitor's center in the middle of the park, and NOW they want us to pay the park entrance fee or show our pass. I had to walk back OUT into the heat to the car to get the park pass -- the rangers can't be bothered to man the entry booths in this heat, but make an innocent visit to the visitor's center, and they're all over you.

So, a long drive later, we were finally out of the park, but not yet out of the desert. We stopped to look at a dried lake bed just after the park up close. Up mountains, down mountains, the temperature never fell below 36° C, and mostly stayed above 40° C.

We drank liters and liters of water and gatorade. We weren't really hungry and didn't stop to eat lunch. Late in the day we stopped at Lake Isabella on the south end of Sequoia National Forest for a swim. A little later I also took a quick dip in the river. We drove through Bakersfield, got on the freeway and drove up north, heading to Sequoia National Park. We finally stopped just short of it in a sprawl kind of city along the freeway where they have a bunch of motels. We got a deal at the Motel 6, but somehow again we ended up without wifi. The motel has a pool, so maybe that was all we saw. We took a delicious dip in the pool, had dinner at this Apple Annie restaurant which was good, and then went out hunting for wifi so we could figure out what exactly we were going to do tomorrow when we eventually get to Yosemite. We ended up parked in front of the Quality Inn, trying to find lodging in Yosemite.

So, a long, hot day. Tomorrow, yet more National Parks. Oh, and in this day of milestones, 50°, 85 meters below sea level, we also hit 6400 km, aka 4000 miles. Unlimited mileage, baby! [Actually, due to some accounting error, I was off by 1000 miles from Arizona on -- actual mileage passed this day was 5000, or 8047 km, not really an interesting number... 6400 km was done entering Arizona couple days back.]

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View Calendar

Previous Entries

:-(
06/19/21


Açores
08/29/18


Our New Bathroom Saga
11/17/16


Europe 2015
03/16/15


The Berkshires
10/18/14


Road Trip South
03/23/13


Greece!
07/26/12


Our Trip to Ireland
08/09/09


Google Map of our Trip
09/17/07


Road Trip: The End
09/15/07


Road Trip, Day 27
09/13/07


Road Trip, Day 26
09/12/07


Road Trip, Day 25
09/11/07


Road Trip, Day 24
09/10/07


Road Trip, Day 23
09/09/07


Road Trip, Day 22
09/08/07


Road Trip, Day 21
09/07/07


Road Trip, Day 20
09/06/07


Road Trip, Day 19
09/05/07


Road Trip, Day 18
09/04/07


Road Trip, Day 16
09/02/07


Road Trip, Day 15
09/01/07


Road Trip, Day 14
08/31/07


Road Trip, Day 13
08/30/07


Road Trip, Day 12
08/29/07


Road Trip, Day 11
08/28/07


Road Trip, Day 10
08/27/07


Road Trip, Day 9
08/26/07


Road Trip, Day 8
08/25/07


Road Trip, Day 7
08/24/07


[...]
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