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10.12.2003: Valley Of Fire - Death Valley
After showers, breakfast and filling up our large water bottle, we left at 11am and drove through the other side of the state park and via North Las Vegas to Death Valley which is back in California. We stopped off for expensive fuel and lunch at Amargosa Valley - not to be recommended. Kirsten had Chicken and chips and some of the chicken was still frozen! Helens fish and chips were ok but we were then served with a small piece of cheesecake that had mould on it!!
We drove into Death Valley (so called for its deadly hot temperatures and the lowest point in America, 282 ft below sea level) and went to the visitor centre - very helpful staff! We got there at 4-20pm and picked up loads of leaflets on various walks, places worth seeing and all the campgrounds in the park. Then they put on a 12 minute video for us in the auditorium. By the time we left it was dark. We drove 32 miles to get up to Emigrant campground at 2000ft above sea level which is the only free campground open at the moment.
We found a spot and then defrosted some carrot cake to have with a cuppa whilst reading through all the bumf we'd been given at the visitor centre to try and make some kind of plan for the 6 nights we'll be spending here before going back to Las Vegas for the nights we've booked there already.
We fried pitta bread with cheese and tomato filling for a snack and then played cards. Helen was being slaughtered but she came back to finally win! It also got very cold and windy. The visitor centre had told us there was a 30% chance of rain for tomorrow - something very unusual for Death Valley!
11.12.2003: Death Valley
It started raining early in the morning, so we knew there was no point getting up early! When we looked outside, the cloud was very low and we could hardly see anything. We decided it was the perfect day to write our computer diary. So we got up and drove to Stovepipe Wells in the rain and left our blue tarp sheet on for the drive! We went to the RV park for a hook up and booked in just after midday.
Then we got the computer out and started writing our reports for the website. We made banana pancakes for lunch/breakfast! The lady at reception said that Death Valley normally only gets 2 days of rain a year! So we are seeing something very rare! By the way, Death Valley holds the Worlds second highest temperature (134°F, 57°C) which was recorded in Furnace Creek in July 1913. The worlds highest temperature was 58°C in Libya. 1913 seems to be a record year for Death Valley because in January that year there was a record low of minus 9°C.
At 2-30pm the rain stopped, but with only 2 hours of light left it wasn't worth driving anywhere. So we packed up our stuff and went for a swim in the heated outdoor swimming pool filled with mineral water!! We did at least 20 lengths and some water gymnastics! Wonderful! Afterwards we went for a monster hot shower!
Then we came back to do a monster washing up! Then Kirsten made a cheesecake and Helen made coq au vin! Kirsten somehow managed to get cheesecake mix into the coq au vin, by spinning the hand held whisk too high above the cheesecake mix she was supposed to be mixing! The table got covered aswell! But at least both tasted ok! We also had to change a light bulb which took an awful long time!
Then we wrote and wrote and wrote!
12.12.2003: Death Valley
We got up at 9-30 am and went for a shower. We filled up our water tanks and got ready to drive off. Then we went in search of the dump station only to be told that we had our own black water dump at the hook up! Very embarrassing! So we went back and dumped our water.
We drove a short way along a dirt track to get to Mosaic Canyon where we went for a 1.5 mile walk along it. It was a lovely walk between white marble canyon walls, scrambling over the marble as we went. Then we drove quite a way to get to Salt Creek. We made ourselves pitta bread with cheese and tomato which we ate in the car park before going on the short 0.5 mile walk along boardwalks to protect the wetland environment. The pupfish are the only fish who have survived the transition from fresh to salt water, but they are only to be seen from February so we are too early for that.
Then we drove to the sand dunes and Kirsten went for a walk over them taking photos. Helen is not really a sand/beach person so stayed with Winnie! On the way back to our free campground at Emigrant, we stopped off at Stovepipe to make coffee and go to the loo. Good job, because the campground toilets had been closed for maintenance - they weren't flushing properly the last time we were there.
We parked up at the campground at 3-45pm and watched the lovely sunset. Then we read our books and Helen won at cards - again! After making soup for evening meal, washed up and then read more of our books before going to bed.
13.12.2003: Death Valley
It was cloudy today, so we decided to go and do the 4 mile walk at Golden Canyon rather than drive all the way up North to go to Scotty's Castle - a 120 mile round trip. We stopped off at the Visitor centre to go to the toilet and noticed that there was oil underneath Winnie. On closer inspection we realised that we had an oil leak and the oil had been sprayed all around the engine. We could see the oil dripping and found that we had lost a quarter of oil already! We were really glad that we had noticed on the car park of the visitor centre - we could have been anywhere in the park and miles away from a phone!
Helen then spent the next 3 hours (!!) on the phone to Triple A. The first problem was that we didn't have coverage for a motor home! Helen pointed out that we only have one vehicle and that she had told them what vehicle it was when she phoned up to become a member. She was not told that there was an extra charge for motor homes. After quite a bit of argument, she paid the extra $23 yearly cover and got them to waive the 5 day grace period that new members are normally expected to wait before being able to use the cover.
The next problem was getting someone out to us. Triple A made some phone calls but the closest garage that could come out and tow us would not be able to deal with the oil leak until Monday and would cost $750!!! We had found out the phone number of a garage 56 miles away that had a 24 hour service van. So Helen phoned up and got him to come out to us. Triple A will reimburse us for the first $200. So we had to wait for this guy to come out. He finally turned up 2 hours later, when we were seriously beginning to doubt he was going to turn up at all. He'd said on the phone that he would be able to fix the problem and had everything with him in his truck. It was a different story when he finally turned up! He couldn't fix the problem and couldn't tow us anywhere either. What he did do was to tighten up 2 bolts which would slow the oil leak down so that we could drive to Las Vegas which was the nearest place where we could get to a Toyota garage who would have all the parts for Winnie. He charged us just over $250 to look at Winnie for 2 minutes and for not a great deal of help! We kicked ourselves for not just driving to Las Vegas anyway and saving ourselves all that effort and money. But then we could've ended up ruining the engine. We're not mechanics which is now proving expensive! At least we will get $200 reimbursed from Triple A where we have the next problem of cashing the cheque they will send us while we are in Mexico! But at least it will only cost us $50 and we can still drive as long as we check the oil level every 50 miles and we can actually see a bit more of Death Valley before driving off to Las Vegas tomorrow which is a Sunday and therefore no chance of getting into a garage anyway.
If we were superstitious, we would think it was the 13th today! Oh ... it is the 13th!! And, on the way down to the visitor centre we had just been discussing when we should get back to San Diego as we wanted to get Winnie in for a service before we go to Mexico which would mean having to get it done over the Xmas and New Year period and before the 5th January when we have to leave America. Obviously Winnie overheard us and didn't want to wait!
Once the man and his truck had left with all our cash (thank goodness we had enough cash with us!) we couldn't be bothered to drive around the corner to a campground which would cost us $10 and only had toilets, no showers. We had already informed the visitor centre of our problem and told them that we would probably have to stay on the car park overnight. So we decided to take advantage of their hospitality and stayed for the night!
14.12.2003: Death Valley - Las Vegas
We got up at 9am and it was already very sunny outside. So we decided to drive to see some of the sights in Death Valley we hadn't seen yet before driving to Las Vegas. We bought only enough petrol to get us to somewhere cheaper and drove down to Badwater, the lowest point in America. At 282ft below sea level it is only the 7th lowest in the world. The Dead sea holds the record at 1360ft below sea level.
We walked along the salt plains and got views of the valley. We could already see a weather front coming in over the mountains on the other side of the valley so we didn't spend too long there and then drove along Artists Drive, a one way road taking us past colourful rocks, the colours taken from the minerals and metals in the rocks - mauves, greens, pinks and various hues in between. The name symbolises an artists palette. Our next stop was Golden Canyon for a 2.5 mile walk between canyon walls lit up like gold in the sun.
After having some cake, we set off for Las Vegas, trying to keep in the sun and watching the weather front closing in behind us! We were just outside LV when the highway took us high into Spring Mountains and the weather front caught up with us. At one point a huge gust of wind blew Winnie onto the wrong side of the road! Fortunately, no one was coming the other way! We stopped several times to take photos as the clouds were gathering in the weird sunset and forming what looked like a hurricane! The only thing missing was the funnel! It was still very windy and it started to rain. By the time we got to the outskirts of Las Vegas we were in the middle of the storm, with the windscreen wipers on double speed, watching as all sorts of rubbish and street signs were being blown across a road we could hardly see!!
Kirsten was driving and both of us were leaning as far forward as possible to try and see where the road went and watch for all the obstacles. Helen was giving directions like - "a bit more to the right, our traffic lane bends to the right a bit up ahead! At one point we said in unison "Man, ist das scheisse!" There's no need to translate!
We pulled over to Pizza Hut to sit out the weather for a while and to change drivers as full concentration was needed. By the time Helen started driving the weather was back to normal, as if there hadn't been a storm at all! Incredible! So we made it back to Circus Circus RV Park, now KOA, without having to add any oil. We booked in for 2 extra nights before our actual reserved nights, and were given the old prices. KOA is a lot more expensive, but the facilities have not changed and they are honouring those customers who have reserved.
After welcome showers, Kirsten started work on the computer whilst Helen did 3 loads of washing and drying.
