Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri: April 23 –
27, 2012
We simply loved Pahrump. Small town surrounded by mountains. We stayed at a club park for $10.00 – our
favorite! – called the Charleston Peak RV Park. Too bad we don’t drink, because this place was a winery too. The whole park was put
together as if they asked 1000 RVers what they amenities they wanted. RV/Car wash, winery, outstanding restaurant,
cleanest bathrooms ever (and huge), excellent pool, spa – and the nicest people
we’ve ever met.
We stayed for three nights, exploring
the area and visiting an old Lamm’s Lane neighbor. I actually got a big hunk of time to myself
and drove off happily to the PO (Avon samples out to friends!), Salvation Army
Thrift Store, food store, coffee shop with wifi to update the blog, contacted
Courtney Lamm to see if we could meet up – nice time. When I returned home Ton-Ton had been
swimming with his new friends – Leroy from Bullhead City and Rick from Yakima
(retired DEA agent).
 |
| We two and Courntey Lamm, our old neighbor |
 |
| Charleston RV Park Pool |
 |
| Pahrump Sunset |
 |
| Pahrump Sunset |
Roku was OK with this place too, as
there were bunnies and birds everywhere.
Unfortunately the front desk had warned us about coyotes, which of
course caused me to have anxiety about it the whole time we were there. Also, the grass near the pool was a temptation
to a little hummingbird, who would hover over the lush green, kiss the air a
bit, then swoop his little tongue onto a single blade for a bit o’ dew. Tony witnessed it several times as he sat
quietly at a table nearby. I am now
calling him “The Hummingbird Whisperer.”
 |
| See the little dude sitting on the rail? |
 |
| Hummingbird on the flowering bush |
And during our time here we had a
coolant leak in the car so TC took it up to the dealership. $600 later…..
Death Valley was our next
objective. We had planned our visit
carefully, packing as much in as possible.
We left on Thursday
via the dealership, where TC shared with those folks the error of their labor
charges to no avail. Onward we travelled
through some of the most beautiful country yet.
You visit Death Valley through five
major entrances: we chose Pahrump, NV, which was convenient to us. We waved at Courtney as we flew by his house
and were suddenly …….. in Death Valley.
It is immediate. The mountains
surround you, and they are brown, green, black, rust on every visible surface. My vision of Death Valley is all brown with
sand dunes everywhere. Yuck. I did not want to visit it, nor did Tony. Somewhere in our Pahrump discussions we
veered toward the big old Valley of Death.
We had an agenda that was very tight:
visit Zabriskie Point, Badwater, Natural Bridge, Artist’s Drive, Visitor’s
Center. Then overnight at Stovepipe
Wells Resort before shooting out the other side. Drove to the Visitor’s Center first to drop
off Blue and take off the car for faster travel. Onward!!!
 |
| View from Zalinskie Point, Death Valley |
 |
| View from Zalinskie Point |
 |
| View from Zalinskie Point |
 |
| TC at Zalinski Point |
The valleys stretch and stretch before
us, snugging up to those beautiful and immense mountains. They are covered with tumbleweeds for the
most part, but they’re not tumbling – they’re a soft green with wiry, tough
stalks. There are millions of them on
every surface except the tall mountains, well, maybe they are up there in
random faults and cracks. I like it when
I see a dead tumbleweed and take a picture of it. I like the way they tumble across the road,
but mostly I like singing “Tumbling Tumbleweeds.” It is an awesome song. Almost as great as “Don’t Fence Me In.”
I can’t stop taking pictures of what is
in front of us. I won’t even try and
explain, here are the pictures of each place visited:.
NATURAL BRIDGE, DEATH VALLEY:
 |
| Trail to Natural Bridge, Death Valley |
 |
| Natural Bridge |
 |
| Natural Bridge |
 |
| Natural Bridge "melted wax" rocks |
 |
| Gave up and meditated |
 |
| JB and Natural Bridge |
 |
| TC and Natural Bridge |
ARTIST'S LOOP:
 |
| Our favorite part of the Artist's Loop, the road! |
 |
| Artist's Drive colors |
 |
| Artist's Loop road...love it! |
 |
| I said to TC: "Look! They knew you were coming and put your name on a sign!" |
|
|
Once we settled into our RV site for
the late afternoon, Roku and I took a happy walk in the desert. It was a little too open for him so he ran
lickety-split back to Tony, rolling in the dirt for a little love. Once we got him settled inside again we took
off for the magnificent pool across the street at the resort, where we swam by
ourselves under the deepest black sky and brightest white stars. We were eventually joined by a Swedish couple
who live in Chi-town, and had a wonderful conversation with them, all of us
paddling around the sky-blue pool.
 |
| Kitty Boy at Stovepipe Wells, Death Valley |
The next morning we had kind of a late
start and needed to be out of our site by 11:00. We sped to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes which
we could see from our camp site and thoroughly enjoyed their sculpted beauty. We also decided that we had just enough time
to shoot a quarter mile down the road, and 2.4 miles up toward the mountains to
Mosaic Canyon. The road was a mess of
ruts, hence Tony’s expression.
 |
| Wincing, as his 'vertible bumps and grinds up the road |
Again, I don’t have words to describe
the raw beauty of this canyon. It’s
narrow, and as water and debris rushed through the canyon, it polished the
stone to marble. I could have spent all
day in this, another holy place. It felt
right to be there.
 |
| Entrance to Mosaic Canyon, Death Valley |
 |
| Mosaic Canyon |
 |
| Mosaic Canyon |
 |
| Mosaic Canyon |
 |
| Mosaic Canyon |
 |
| Mosaic Canyon |
|
|
 |
| TC in Mosaic Canyon |
 |
| TC in Mosaic Canyon |
 |
| Mosaic Canyon |
 |
| Beautiful rock at Mosaic Canyon |
 |
| Rock at Mosaic Canyon |
 |
| Rock and Marble at Mosaic Canyon |
Settled into our luxurious Boulder
Creek Resort for one night that stretched to two. Neighbors – fabulous; pool and spa – marvelous; Roku deliriously happy
in his surroundings – check. Pull
through site, shade trees, super nice people is what this place is all about, and
we lapped it up like a kitten with spilled milk.
Turns out the town of Lone Pine is one
of the most filmed in the history of cowboy movies – who knew? They document this at their Lone Pine Film
Museum which is so cool it’s off the charts.
Behind the town, toward the mountains, lie the Alabama Hills, and a
winding song of a road called “Movie Road.”
That’s where most of the magic happened and it is a sight to behold :
Spent the evening talking with our very
interesting neighbors, a mom and daughter doing a “shake out” of the daughter’s
trailer, which is a cool fold up type.
Laura, the daughter, lives in a Death Valley town called Ridgecrest with
her husband and son. Turns out the town
is all military – both civilians and enlisted.
She’s an engineer and a lawyer, and manages projects, while her husband
works as an office manager. On the side
they belong to the SCA – Society for Creative Anachronism – and attend “Wars”
and such between different kingdoms.
Very interesting.
Her mother, “The Colonel” (forgive me
for not holding on to her name!), lives in Illinois but visits Laura and family
quite often. She is retired from the
Army and served as a nurse. Talk about a
live wire! She has been in the Peace
Corp, travels to India and Tibet in her nursing capacity, volunteers at the
American Legion, belongs to a walking group and goes to church on Sunday. Whew!
She’s also got a great sense of humor, loves her daughter and is kind to
the bone. She and Tony understood their
service very well and had a lot of stories to talk about and compare. We feel very fortunate to have met these two
women.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Another hot day ahead and lots of
errands on my part. I offered to leave
Ton-Ton home with Kitty-Boy but he needs to travel at all times! Walmart to pick up prescription – surprise! –
not filled! Again! So I canceled. Met Kim at her store to pick up gifts for
Siri and Elliott, my great nieces. Sent
pictures to their grandmother, my seester Dawn, so she can tell me how cool
they are. Safeway for sparkling water
and cookies. Bored yet? Back for laundry, get in a fight about a
broken washer and load adjustment, and who has really done laundry longer. He was right, I was wrong, but I didn’t fess
up. During all this I took this picture
before it went up two degrees:
Into pool with a group of
new-friends-we’ll-never-see-again and lounged around blabbing for several
hours. Lovely, lovely. Faith and Logan, the young newlyweds we met
two nights ago showed up too, so we got to catch up, and I gave her the
bracelet-turned-anklet I had been inspired to make for her. So very cute, both of them, their lives in
front of them. We all went home to eat
then they came over to hang later – had a grand time playing music and
yakking. We’re now FB friends so can
stay in touch – very cool. She’s the
only girl of six brothers, a bullriding (saw the pics, and yes!), tobacco
chewing, tomboy with an angel face and a tough core. Logan was in the Navy, a proud and smart
young man who loves his bride. They’re
moving to Longview, OR near his parents as they heard of more job opportunities
up north – they’re originally from Cali near Porterville. We wish them so well!!!
Got an early start
this morning on our way to Pahrump, just past Las Vegas about 50 miles. Old neighbor Courtney Lamm now lives here but
wasn’t available to see us so we’re lounging at a lovely park. It’s a winery and RV park with a pool and hot
tub, and a five star restaurant. Can’t
get much better than that for us. Roku
wasn’t moving after the drive so we went for a swim….a ran into three more
Washingtonians – Yakima, Colfax and Ilwaco – one of whom we had paddled the
pool with in Bullhead City. First time
in almost 10,000 miles we’ve run into a familiar face. They were all very funny and we laughed and
laughed.
Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri: April 23 –
27, 2012
We simply loved Pahrump. Small town surrounded by mountains. We stayed at a club park for $10.00 – our
favorite! – called the Charleston Peak RV Park and Winery. Too bad we don’t drink, because this place
rocked it. The whole park was put
together as if they asked 1000 RVers what they amenities they wanted. RV/Car wash, winery, outstanding restaurant,
cleanest bathrooms ever (and huge), excellent pool, spa – and the nicest people
we’ve ever met.
We stayed for three nights, exploring
the area and visiting an old Lamm’s Lane neighbor. I actually got a big hunk of time to myself
and drove off happily to the PO (Avon samples out to friends!), Salvation Army
Thrift Store, food store, coffee shop with wifi to update the blog, contacted
Courtney Lamm to see if we could meet up – nice time. When I returned home Ton-Ton had been
swimming with his new friends – Leroy from Bullhead City and Rick from Yakima
(retired DEA agent).
Roku was OK with this place too, as
there were bunnies and birds everywhere.
Unfortunately the front desk had warned us about coyotes, which of
course caused me to have anxiety about it the whole time we were there. Also, the grass near the pool was a temptation
to a little hummingbird, who would hover over the lush green, kiss the air a
bit, then swoop his little tongue onto a single blade for a bit o’ dew. Tony witnessed it several times as he sat
quietly at a table nearby. I am now
calling him “The Hummingbird Whisperer.”
And during our time here we had a
coolant leak in the car so TC took it up to the dealership. $600 later…..
Death Valley was our next
objective. We had planned our visit
carefully, packing as much in as possible.
We left on Thursday
via the dealership, where TC shared with those folks the error of their labor
charges to no avail. Onward we travelled
through some of the most beautiful country yet.
You visit Death Valley through five
major entrances: we chose Pahrump, NV, which was convenient to us. We waved at Courtney as we flew by his house
and were suddenly …….. in Death Valley.
It is immediate. The mountains
surround you, and they are brown, green, black, rust on every visible surface. My vision of Death Valley is all brown with
sand dunes everywhere. Yuck. I did not want to visit it, nor did Tony. Somewhere in our Pahrump discussions we
veered toward the big old Valley of Death.
We had an agenda that was very tight:
visit Zabriskie Point, Badwater, Natural Bridge, Artist’s Drive, Visitor’s
Center. Then overnight at Stovepipe
Wells Resort before shooting out the other side. Drove to the Visitor’s Center first to drop
off Blue and take off the car for faster travel. Onward!!!
The valleys stretch and stretch before
us, snugging up to those beautiful and immense mountains. They are covered with tumbleweeds for the
most part, but they’re not tumbling – they’re a soft green with wiry, tough
stalks. There are millions of them on
every surface except the tall mountains, well, maybe they are up there in
random faults and cracks. I like it when
I see a dead tumbleweed and take a picture of it. I like the way they tumble across the road,
but mostly I like singing “Tumbling Tumbleweeds.” It is an awesome song. Almost as great as “Don’t Fence Me In.”
I can’t stop taking pictures of what is
in front of us. I won’t even try and
explain, here are the pictures of each place visited:
We liked Badwater, although the half
mile walk to the salt flat while it was 95 degrees we decided, was
useless. I felt the same about the
“easy” walk to the Natural Bridge; too hot, gradual incline, gravel. And at the end, a hole in rocks. Whoop-di-do.
The Artist’s Drive was cool only because the road was so great –
winding, dipping, cutting through the rock.
The colors we were expecting to see were just OK, in our book.
Once we settled into our RV site for
the late afternoon, Roku and I took a happy walk in the desert. It was a little too open for him so he ran
lickety-split back to Tony, rolling in the dirt for a little love. Once we got him settled inside again we took
off for the magnificent pool across the street at the resort, where we swam by
ourselves under the deepest black sky and brightest white stars. We were eventually joined by a Swedish couple
who live in Chi-town, and had a wonderful conversation with them, all of us
paddling around the sky-blue pool.
The next morning we had kind of a late
start and needed to be out of our site by 11:00. We sped to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes which
we could see from our camp site and thoroughly enjoyed their sculpted beauty. We also decided that we had just enough time
to shoot a quarter mile down the road, and 2.4 miles up toward the mountains to
Mosaic Canyon. The road was a mess of
ruts, hence Tony’s expression.
Again, I don’t have words to describe
the raw beauty of this canyon. It’s
narrow, and as water and debris rushed through the canyon, it polished the
stone to marble. I could have spent all
day in this, another holy place. It felt
right to be there.
Coming out of Death Valley toward the
west side involves going over more mountains, so we left the car off. Blue is still filling her filters with the
algae left over in her fuel tank so performance is not at the top of the
scale. I was so happy driving the car,
listening to tunes. This western road
out of the Valley was also stunningly gorgeous and we both soaked it up,
although separately.
We had decided to stay in a Podunk
called Lone Pine – we’re not finding much out there as far as camping,
particularly State Parks. Went to Lone
Pine first and got some lunch at a non-descript place
that of course turned out to be the
best burrito I’ve ever eaten. I ate
half, and Tony had the rest for dinner.
Stuffed with slow roasted pork, home made beans and rice, topped with
guac and sour cream. And all in a cute
little old diner.
Settled into our luxurious Boulder
Creek Resort for one night that stretched to two. Neighbors – fabulous; pool and spa – marvelous; Roku deliriously happy
in his surroundings – check. Pull
through site, shade trees, super nice people is what this place is all about, and
we lapped it up like a kitten with spilled milk.
Turns out the town of Lone Pine is one
of the most filmed in the history of cowboy movies – who knew? They document this at their Lone Pine Film
Museum which is so cool it’s off the charts.
Behind the town, toward the mountains, lie the Alabama Hills, and a
winding song of a road called “Movie Road.”
That’s where most of the magic happened and it is a sight to behold :
Spent the evening talking with our very
interesting neighbors, a mom and daughter doing a “shake out” of the daughter’s
trailer, which is a cool fold up type.
Laura, the daughter, lives in a Death Valley town called Ridgecrest with
her husband and son. Turns out the town
is all military – both civilians and enlisted.
She’s an engineer and a lawyer, and manages projects, while her husband
works as an office manager. On the side
they belong to the SCA – Society for Creative Anachronism – and attend “Wars”
and such between different kingdoms.
Very interesting.
Her mother, “The Colonel” (forgive me
for not holding on to her name!), lives in Illinois but visits Laura and family
quite often. She is retired from the
Army and served as a nurse. Talk about a
live wire! She has been in the Peace
Corp, travels to India and Tibet in her nursing capacity, volunteers at the
American Legion, belongs to a walking group and goes to church on Sunday. Whew!
She’s also got a great sense of humor, loves her daughter and is kind to
the bone. She and Tony understood their
service very well and had a lot of stories to talk about and compare. We feel very fortunate to have met these two
women.
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