Dateline: Las Vegas, 22 Mar 09

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After leaving the hotel in Chico, we drove over to see my friend, Ray. Ray and I haven’t seen each other in almost 40 years, but we’ve maintained contact through letters (he doesn’t have a computer for reasons that will become obvious in a bit) and through his cousin, Martha, who is one of my bestest friends.

The obvious: Ray is an artist, and he’s afraid if he has a computer, he’ll spend too much time on the computer with crazy people like me, and not enough time painting! Speaking of his painting, I’ve been trying to get a painting from him for years, and this time he did give me a print of a painting with which I fell in love.

Ray had not heard of Flat Stanley, and became quite smitten with our little Flat Stanlietta, and spent some time in his studio showing her, and Kay and I, his paintings, and giving Flat Stanlietta tips for when she gets home and wants to paint pictures of our trip.

After lunch at Ray’s favorite Mexican restaurant, and more good conversation, Kay and I reluctantly bit farewell to Ray, and drove to Vacaville. Jim, my cousin in Vacaville had given us directions to his house from I-5, so, of course, we came in from a different direction, and after driving around a bit, finally called him for directions from where we were.

Jim and I are cousins – our common ancestor, if I remember correctly, is our Great Great Grandfather. I may be off by one ‘Great’. My Grandfather, Carl “Skipper” McBrayer was the genealogist of the McBrayers, and when he died, his namesake, Carl McBrayer near Oklahoma City took over. Jim is doing the Huckabee side of the family. I am very fortunate they have taken over the begats of our respective families because I’d be terrible at it.

We spent two nights with Jim and Betty, where we met Jim’s sister, Barbara – another cousin, and another quilter – two of their children, Elaine and Oliver, and Elaine’s husband, Matt, and their two children Cooper and Marley. Oh, and Marley’s toad and rabbit.

My friend, Eric, came up and had lunch with us one day, and we had quite a good visit. Eric and I met several years ago, via the internet (we belonged to an online Sangha – not a dating service!), and this was the first time we’ve actually met in person. I am only sorry his wife, Lynne, wasn’t able to come with him. She and I have sort of met – Eric passes messages between us every now and then ;-)

After leaving Vacaville, we drove east on I-80 for a while. Stopped at a little place called Penryn for breakfast-lunch at L’Omlette. A very nice restaurant, and the waitress was a hoot! I needed to find the ladies room, and saw no signs, so started wandering and ended up at the kitchen, just as she came out. She wanted to put me to work, but, instead, told me where to go. When she got to Kay, she told Kay I was busy in the kitchen. Then, just before our order was up, she met Flat Stanlietta, and decided it was time to teach her to properly wait on tables, so here is Martha and Flat Stanliettta. (Flat Stanlietta fell, well, flat on the job, and was summarily fired.)

We stayed on I-80 until we got to 395 and then turned right. Six years ago, we stayed in Bridgeport, but this time drove on to Mono Lake where we got out and walked around and took several pictures of the tufa towers, then headed south.

Drove through some beautiful valleys, and when we got to Bishop stopped for dinner at the Casino (we did not take Flat Stanlietta in with us, as we weren’t sure minors were allowed ;-), and then decided to spend the night there before heading on over to Death Valley. It was a good decision, as there were several motels in Bishop (we stayed at the Vagabond) and we didn’t see too many at Big Pine. It was 74 degrees at 6 pm!

The Vagabond offered free popcorn, so we had a nice evening snack. For those of you who are into hiking, fishing, hunting, skiing, etc., check out Bishop, and check out the Vagabond – not only to they have a large pool, but they have an area to clean and freeze your fresh-caught fish, as well as to BBQ it.

The next morning, we drove to Big Pine, and turned left onto 168 to Oasis and 268. While on this road, we did some climbing, and near the 7,000 foot elevation, turned left into the Bristlecone Forest, where we climbed to 9,500 +/- and had a spectacular view of the back of Yosemite, Owens Valley (where Bishop is), another little valley the name of which I can’t remember, and then we headed back down some rather steep mountains with hairpin curves.

At highway 95, we turned right and right again when we got to Scotty’s Junction. From there we drove into the north side of Death Valley, and Scotty’s Castle. We did get out and walk around a bit, but we weren’t allowed in the castle unless we paid $$ and took a tour, and the next tour wasn’t for almost two hours, so we decided to check out the ‘free’ stuff, introduce Flat Stanlietta to Park Ranger Mary (who, by the way, was quite familiar with Flat Stanley, and was not only delighted to meet Flat Stanlietta, but was quite impressed with her!)

On a personal note (like this whole blog isn’t a personal note???), I wasn’t too impressed with the northern part of the valley, where Scotty’s Castle is. When we dropped down out of the hills onto the valley floor, I became (again) impressed. I love the openness and flat of the valley, with the gorgeous, barren, rugged, and multi-colored mountains surrounding it.

Kay and I remembered a gas station at Stove Pipe Wells, and Kay was pretty sure she remembered a motel there. After filling up the vehicle, we went across the street, and got the last non-smoking room with two beds! We stopped and hauled our chairs out to the porch and had a light dinner of cheese and crackers, and a bit of wine. Then went shopping. Saw lots of things we liked, but I ended up buying a floppy hat for shade.

We actually got up before the sun, and managed to get a few nice shots of the sunrise, then went into the restaurant for breakfast, loaded up the car and our water bottles, and headed down the valley, stopping every 10 or 15 feet to take pictures. Well, at times it seemed like it.

First stop was to shoot the dunes while we could get them with shadows, then headed down the road to Salt Creek. What a delightful boardwalk the Park Service has built. It is level, wheel chair accessible and a mile and a half round trip. We saw lots of pup fish in the creek – they are tiny, not much more than an inch to an inch-and-a-half long, with a life span of about a year. There are several varieties of then in the park, each having evolved to survive in their own little niche. They are the only fish I know of that must drink water to survive.

The desert is full of wild life, though we didn’t see much beyond the pup fish, lizards, and one lazy coyote curled by the side of the road hoping we’d toss him something to eat. We didn’t. We heard Grackles, but I never saw any, and, of course, the ubiquitous Ravens were around. We did see some smaller birds, what I call ‘house’ birds – the same found in most back yards. We saw no other wild life.

From Salt Creek we went to Golden Canyon – earlier flash floods had washed away some of the trail, and neither of us felt like going all the way in, but we did go in a bit. It looked like it would be a gorgeous hike.

We stopped at the Harmony Borax Mine, and wondered how they found wood to burn in the boiler to process the borax. Signs were up all over the place, but nothing mentioned that tidbit, so we stopped at Furnace Creek to ask the Ranger. She didn’t know, either, and sent us to the museum down the road a bit. There, after asking, we found out they had charcoal kilns 63 miles away, up in the mountains where the forests were, and when they hauled out the borax, they filled the wagons with charcoal to haul back in!

There is a beautiful drive, one way, called Artists Drive, that goes through some of the most beautiful rocks I’ve ever seen. How I wish my friends John and Nancy, both geologists, were with us to explain everything we saw! We stopped for pictures here and there, and I took several at Artists Palette in what I hope will become a panoramic. The rocks were pink, brown, green, white, red – and because we didn’t get there until high-noon, the colors were a bit washed out, and shadows hard to find. Also, the air over the valley was very hazy, which didn’t help.

While on the one way drive, which was very narrow and filled with hairpin turns (no vehicles over 25 feet in length permitted) we came around a blind curve and found a car parked right in the middle of the road! Turnouts are everywhere, but this joker, in his brand new, black, and unlicensed Jeep, stopped right in the middle of the road, and didn’t seem in too much of a hurry to move, and seemed to resent the fact we entered his space. He did, however, move on and pull over. (There really wasn’t anything all that spectacular where they stopped anyhow!)

Just down from the Artists Drive is the Devil’s Golf Course, which, of course, we had to visit. I doubt the road (dirt) to the golf course was more than a half mile, but what an interesting geography! It’s out on the floor, where the water and salts have played havoc on the ground. People are allowed to walk out there, but it didn’t look like anything I wanted to try – very rough. I doubt wagons, let alone mules or people, could have traversed it.

From the golf course (with no 19th hole, by the way!) we went to Badwater, the lowest place in the US, at 282 feet below sea level. We ate lunch there, and then began our journey of exit from the south end of the park on highway 178 to Pahrumps, NV, then took 160 into Las Vegas, where Kay’s son, Todd, lives. We are here for a few days for Rest and Recuperation, laundry, and visiting, not for time on the Strip. Well, we’ll have to go someplace to find a Starbucks so I can get this blog, and the photos uploaded ;-)

"Do, or do not. There is no 'try.' " -
 Jedi Master Yoda