I'm a photographer and professional musician (oboe and English horn). I'm also a wife, mom and drinker of coffee. I attempt to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with my God.
While I slept horribly (my watch nearly reprimands me) yet again, we did not have to wake early. We eventually did rise, and had the breakfast our hotel (Red Roof in Bridgeport — a pretty nice place for the price). Both of us caught up with various things online while we ate, and even after that.
Then it was time to pack the car and make our way home.
We drove briefly into Red Rock Canyon. I was hoping to find the mallow we saw growing all along the highway, but nope, not there. The mountains had a lot of bright yellow flowers, though.
Gas stop was in Tehachapi, where the temperature was twenty degrees lower than Ridgecrest. Yours truly does window washing duty while Dan fills the car. (Too bad I never have the inclination to do that on our house windows!)
I always enjoy the hills by Tehachapi. Today there was a lot of fog and I thought it was lovely. We didn’t stop, though, so no pictures. But the hills were green and the fog made it look a bit magical.
Eventually we stopped in the Central Valley for a bird visit. We didn’t stay long since we still had a bit of a drive, but I snapped a few photos.
And then we were home. Now it’s back to work for me, but my music career is quickly drawing to a close!
Well gee, let’s wake up even 15 minutes earlier, shall we? Yep … 4:15. Painful for this girl, but so it goes.
We got ready, packed up, and Dan loaded the car. Then off we went. Bye bye Beatty.
First stop: Mesquite Dunes. I was surprised to see tons of brown eyed primrose, and another flower I think is another sort of primrose. It’s always amazing to see what can grow in the dunes. I took some shots of the big picture but even more of flowers with my macro lens.
I tend to run out of steam before Dan, and today was no exception: I headed back to the car long before he did. I got a good amount of reading done.
Once Dan returned we went up a gravel road and set up breakfast. Fighter jets roared above us … so much for a quiet breakfast! I shot a few more photos because why not?!
We went to Stovepipe Wells to see if they had a DEVA wildflower book but found nothing. Books must not be popular for tourists.
Then it was goodbye Death Valley.
We decided to go out a different way. The brittlebush was plentiful.
We made our way to Father Crowley Point, where fighter jets practice above what is called Star Wars Canyon.
I walked around to see if I could find flowers. A higher elevation meant fewer flowers, but I did find some. When I went back to Dan he was chatting with a guy. As we stood the younger man pointed … a jet. It flew right past us! The noise was deafening. Dan may have gotten some good shots. Sadly I was just frozen due to the surprise … really shock! … of it all.
We stuck around a good long time but didn’t get another low flying jet.
Driving on Dan opted to take a dirt road detour on the way to Saline Valley.
There were a lot of Joshua trees, and this one was the first we saw.
More dirt road, another tree, among many …
Back to the main road, highway 190. Soon the Sierra Nevada came in to view.
We drove past Owen’s Lake a the tiny town of Olanche, and started looking for a spot to set up lunch. it wasn’t a tremendously scenic spot, and we opted not to get out our chairs and table, but food was eaten.
Next up was a rather ho-hum under one hour drive to our lodging for the night. Hello Ridgecrest.
But OH! A king-size bed is quite welcome, as was a hot shower and change of clothes. I’m a clean machine.
Then it was feet up (clean feet!) and get this blog entry going.
Finally, it was time for dinner. We had a couple of ideas in mind. The first place we were planning on checking out was a French restaurant called Mon Reve. We got there, walked in to see if there was a menu posted, and … well … never mind! We were seated and that was that. Forget the other choice! The server was also, I’m sure, the owner. He did the serving, and his wife, I believe did the cooking. It was just a lovely spot and we really enjoyed a relaxing, end-of-trip meal. (My meal is pictured: salmon and scalloped potatoes.)
Back to our hotel we went, for some reading and rest.
Tomorrow we are homeward bound, although you never know how many detours we might take.
Today began even earlier. Our alarm went off at 4:30 AM. Too early, but up we rose and we were on the road by about 5 o’clock, this time with cups of bad hotel coffee for our enjoyment.
As we were driving, we were talking about staying in Beatty. There’s the advantage of saving quite a bit of money. I think it was nearly $1000 less, which is nuts. But the added drive almost makes that savings not worth it. Plus sometimes I’ve been able to get better deals at places in Death Valley.
Our first destination was Lake Manly. Dan had some ideas of where he wanted to shoot for the sunrise, so we pulled over, he got out his equipment, and I got out my phone and did a bit of walking while he shot. Sometimes I’m just not in the mood to pull out the camera. Besides, lots of the flowers were not quite open yet… I think they slept in more than we were allowed.
Of course, eventually I did have to get out of the car. I just can’t resist the flowers, even if they are looking sleepy. And then I found some that I hadn’t seen yesterday so that required the camera for sure!
After shooting those, I wandered a bit more and found other flowers— things I’d already shot yesterday, but why not try some more? I primarily use the macro lens, but did remember to snap a few on the iPhone. Including one that showed the terrain. If one was to look from the road, you might not even notice the flowers.
Later I walked to where Dan was shooting , warning him to watch for sneaker waves. (Yes, I’m really good with jokes. Or not.)
Then we drove a bit to find a nice breakfast spot.
From there we went to Devils Golf Course. (They leave the apostrophe off, so I will too.) Last time we were there I neglected to take a photo, so that was remedied.
Artist Drive & Artist’s Palette was next on the agenda.
We had seen a large bike group heading up the grueling climb. They cheered when all had reached what seemed like the top — Artist’s Palette (I wonder if they knew there would be more climbing, though not nearly what they’d done.
Natural Bridge was a surprise … tons of desert five-spot flowers. I took a lot of photos of those and other flowers with my macro lens.
We didn’t do the entire walk, but we did go past the natural bridge.
Lunch was at Texas Spring, on a rather astounding table and benches.
After checking messages where we had a signal Dan drove toward Ubehebe crater. We stopped briefly at a place prior to that.
Then the crater. I walked as closely to the edge as this wimpy girl could, but had to back away. I did manage a few iPhone photos of the crater and other views, though.
Another drive and it was dinner at Stovepipe Wells. (No photos.) Finally it was the final drive back to Beatty: tomorrow we are elsewhere.
Today began at 4:45 AM. Too early! But so it goes. It also began with putting air in a tire that appeared to be low. Maybe.
Then to Death Valley Dan drove. Without even getting coffee. Horrors!
We first went back to Salt Creek, hoping for a good sunrise. I noticed there were almost no pupfish to be seen. Hmmm do the hide in the mud at night? Guess I’ll have to research. I did a small amount of photography. Dan did more.
Back to the car. Driving and stopping on occasion. I can’t name all the spots where we stopped, but breakfast was enjoyed at Ashford Mill Ruins.
While there I finally found the desert five-spot flower. I had to make a number of photos. It was my brother-in-law’s favorite desert flower. I do get teary-eyed, thinking of him, as well as my dear sister-in-law who has suffered such a deep loss.
We drove on, finding a lot more desert gold, sand verbena, phacelia, brown-eyed primrose, and evening primrose. Plus fields of flowers.
And a bit of fun.
Lunch was at a pull at some pass. Yes, I’ve forgotten the name. Dan said he’d have just one cookie. (Look closely!)
We headed back down and eventually parked so we could read and nap.
Eventually I got tired of sitting, so I went out to shoot somewhere more flowers right by the car. Dan soon joined in the fun. At one point, while Dan was a distance away, I managed to lose my balance fall over, roll around a bit, and actually have absolutely no injuries. My watch however did ask if I had taken a fall and if it should send out an SOS. No thanks! I must have looked hysterically funny. And yes, my camera was fine!
Then back to field of flowers.
The sun was rapidly setting, so we packed up and headed to dinner.
But wait! As we drove Dan spotted friend and wonderful photographer Franka Gabler. We stopped, chatted, and decided to have dinner together.
It was a great way to end our day … although we then had a long drive to our fancy Motel 6.
After our earlier visit to DEVA we thought we might come again because it seemed as if there were signs that we’d find some nice flowers in March or April. Then we started reading reports of the rain the park had had and seen photos that implied perhaps even a February trip might be a good idea. Because of that we made reservations for both late February and March, and waited for more news.
Well, even more rain meant now might be a good idea, so early this morning we headed on our way.
The drive was uneventful — especially for me since I didn’t do the driving. Here are just a few shots (the train bit was in Tehachapi).
While in the Panamint Valley, just prior to heading up the mountain, we saw a car veer off the road on to the playa. That’s a huge, ugly, rotten, illegal thing to do. Dan held on to the horn for a good long time and whoever was driving must have gotten the message. But driving on the playa just ruins it for everyone else. What a dumb thing to do!
As we neared DEVA we saw a lot of the yellow … desert gold was definitely plentiful! There were places that were just blanketed. We also saw evidence of Phacelia … the purple does stand out! Eventually we pulled over and did a bit of investigating. I took a few iPhone shots just for the record. (Tomorrow I’ll get more serious about some macro photography.)
I learned about the name Stovepipe Wells…
Dan drove to a few different spots, just to get ideas of where we might shoot in the next few days. We also visited Salt Creek, where we saw more pupfish than we’d ever seen before! Stay tuned for the video … maybe It’ll appear soon, or maybe we’ll have to wait until I get back home.
More driving and I did pull out the Canon with the macro lens. I hope some of the shots turn out nicely — won’t know until I get home, though.
Eventually we headed to our motel. Places in DEVA were outrageously expensive so we found a Motel 6 in Beatty, Nevada for less that 1/3 of what we’d pay in the valley. It’s a drive, but so be it!
We checked in — the kind woman at the desk moved us to the first floor and we were relieved since the elevator was broken and we have a lot to haul into the room. She had her Fox News running — we are in a different part of the world now. Go figure.
For dinner we went to Smokin’ J’s BBQ. I had a turkey sandwich, Dan had turkey slices with fries (and more), and we ordered a salad to share.
Too. Much. Food.
Who knew? But in any case, it was just fine and it was one of the very few places open. Beatty isn’t exactly a hoppin’ happenin’ sort of place. (Population 880)
Then back to our hotel we went. We have to get up far too early in the morning so I am quickly writing this before a bit of reading and then sleep.
Stay tuned for more adventures. Today was just a “gotta get there” day, after all.
Nearly two years ago (March 5, 2024 to be exact) our older son and daughter-in-law had to leave their home due to a fire. We are all thankful no one in the co-op, including Brandon and Lia’s cats, were injured, but it was much worse than we knew at first. There is a video (that even shows our son at the start) about the fire. (They live on the 6th floor, and the fire start in the place right below them.)
I flew to New York to visit shortly after the fire happened. I was pretty horrified!
WHAT a mess, right?
They are still not back in their home.
Even getting start on the repair work took, if I’m remembering correctly, over a year. Or at least close to that.
While the whole family was here in January (celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary!), I mentioned to Brandon that I’d be willing to help paint when things were ready. And, lo and behold, we flew there on the 11th to get going on that.
The flight was uneventful and we were greeting at EWR by colder weather and a bit of snow. Then we took a car to our hotel. Our hotel with a tiny room and no place to hang anything up. But hey, it was less expensive than others, and after a 15 minute walk would be a direct train to Brandon and Lia’s.
Before starting our painting adventure we were able to celebrate my “Brooklyn brother’s” birthday (to differentiate between him and my “Germany brother”). We met up first a jazz club, much to his surprise. (It was fun to see his face when he saw us there!).
We then dined at a lovely restaurant. With Timothy and Margaret. FUN FUN FUN!
The next morning we (somewhat leisurely) headed over to Brandon and Lia’s to see what we were in for. First it was cleaning up and prep day. I neglected to take any photos I guess (Funny that I thought I had!) and Dan got only a few. But we vacuumed. Dan did a ton of masking. Brandon and Lia worked on getting the floors (which are beautiful!) covered, along with more and more cleaning. Sorry you only get these three pictures, though.
From there we headed to our hotel, catching a bite at the noisiest restaurant ever. We even texted each other at one point!
The following day Brandon and Lia both had work so we decided to enjoy a lunch at Red Rooster, being fans of Marcus Samuelsson. We had a delicious meal. Dan spent some Dick Tracy time talking to his watch. And yes, yours truly even took a photo of the floor in the bathroom. Because. Of course when I saw Bernstein I had to take a photo!
From there we wandered, with our final destination being the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
We had learned that Jameson and Meghan were going to be at the Cathedral that evening to hear the Gesualdo Six sing. The concert, however, was sold out. BUT … we get to the Cathedral and hear singing. How ‘bout that? They were rehearsing. So we got to enjoy them as we wandered the building.
Toward the back there was a quilt exhibit. You can read about it as well.
More wandering …
And more quilts …
… and wandering …
From there we took a train down to meet up with Brandon and, when she was done working, Lia.
We had some drinks and dinner and then headed back to get some sleep.
On Saturday morning it was work time! I only took a few photos … I guess I was too busy edging and rolling and all that …
For the evening the four of us went to celebrate our hard work and Valentine’s day at an Albanian restaurant in the Bronx called Çka ka Qëllu.
VERY yummy and such a nice way to relax after a day of work.
Our Harlem hotel room looks out here:
Back to work … and look at that beautiful tile in the bathroom!
The above is the kitchen. That’s right, no cabinets, no appliances … nothing. Yet. But soon ….
For dinner we (finally!) got to meet up with Jameson and Meghan as well. Fun times!
Our breakfasts are enjoyed downstairs at our hotel. For me it’s just coffee. (I had a pastry the first morning and was reminded that eating before doing a physical activity gives me the shakes!).
Back to the subway we went for yet another ride up to Pelham Parkway North!
This was our final day of painting. We managed to get a lot done.
The kitchen floor is lovely. (So is Lia!)
The happy painters … and Brandon being Brandon. 😉
Sadly, we had to head back home on Tuesday. But so it goes. We had the first row of Premium Economy … HUGE leg room! Gotta love that.
And hello Bay Area!
So here we are. Back in what is now a rainy San Jose.
Do you wonder what we’ll do next? It won’t involve painting, just so you know. (Although I’d go back and help more in a heartbeat if we had the time and money to do so.
I’ve started doing searches for some flights we hope to take and, oh my goodness, the costs have really gone up. I had read about it, but seeing the numbers staring me in the face really hit hard.
We do have miles we can use, and now we are figuring out how (if) we can use what United calls “pooled miles”. Initially it seemed pretty easy. But one has to read everything to be sure and get it right and, as it turned out, we can’t use pooled miles for the “Miles & Money” option. It does appear we can use them for just miles alone, though. I guess we’ll find out when we are finally ready to make things real.
What does it all mean, though? Well … my flight will be using all miles. Dan’s will use money & miles. This means we can’t get the tickets all at once — we have to book separately and then go back to United and ask to have the tickets linked. All of this is done in Dan’s account because … hmmm … why? Now I’m not even sure! I’ll have to ask him about that. I know there was some reason. Or at least I think there was.
But oh United makes things difficult. Today I couldn’t log in using a particular browser. The one I prefer. Yesterday it was no problem. Some days it will say the flights I’m looking at aren’t available at all and I’ll go to a different browser and there they are. They should also really fix the calendar: when I select the first flight you’d think the calendar would then show only flights after that date for the next flight, but nope, it goes back to today’s month. Silly.
I have chart I use for flight price comparisons. It’s interesting to see how the prices go up and down. I’ve never found any sort of pattern. And oh how complicated it can all be: for an upcoming trip I had five different route possibilities. My brain is … well … what brain, I ask?!
And yes, the images below are tiny. Sorry!
I’ve also finally put templates together for trips that I think will be easy to use. Prior to this I was creating them each time. The images will change, depending upon our destinations, and I’m sure I’ll be tweaking things as I go along.
First is my itinerary page …
And then all the specifics …
It’s all kind of busy work, I know. But I’ve always loved busy work!
And yes, this was one big long ramble. Because I not only like busy work. I also like to ramble.
I didn’t write yesterday … there was really no time (as you’ll read later). But we made it home safely.
We rose at 5:30, hoping to get out of the area in time to avoid flooding. Packed and in the car and checking out at 6:20, we were then on the road. It was just barely sprinkling when we began. We were grateful.
But then rain did get heavier. Not killer “we can’t drive in this” heavy, but still, we knew it meant watching out for flooding on the road. Getting to the top of the spot between Death Valley and Panamint Valley there were rock slides. No boulders to speak of, but very large rocks that Dan had to avoid, driving in whichever lane was clearest.
As we headed down to Panimint Valley we could see water at the edges of the road that were headed down. Near the bottom, we saw the start of that flow and it was clear that it would land at the bottom and pool. I hadn’t really understood just how roads got so quickly flooded. Now I do.
Videos don’t really do it justice, but I’ll still post a few …
Dan then had to be careful for the drive for quite some time. Reaching parts of the road that were flooded (shallow, mind you … not something he couldn’t get through), Dan would slow and carefully drive through. As he mentioned later, you don’t know what’s under the water as you can’t see that.
Driving through Trona a whole lot of the road was flooded. That was a bit of a surprise … they must just accept the flooding and not work on guiding water elsewhere.
For this trip we went through Ridgecrest so we could get breakfast. That city, too, was quite flooded already. But we made our way to Starbucks (have I mentioned that these kinds of trips are the only time we enter Starbucks? And never in Europe. Nope. Isn’t gonna happen!)
Next up was getting to Tehachapi, where we’d fill the tank.
Except.
The freeway — if it’s called a freeway up there? — we were to take to there was closed! In our day of phones with maps and guidance systems we could fortunately find another route somewhat easily. Waze and Google maps gave the same directions while Apple maps gave different ones. It was two to one — Waze and Google won. It wasn’t a direct route … we had to go a distance and eventually ended up on the Grapevine. But we made it.
The Grapevine was slow moving, but at least it was moving. (I later read that the day before it was a total mess due to accidents.)
From there it was “easy” (as in Dan knows what to do) and eventually rain diminished. We did take a Buttonwillow bathroom break. And there we saw something … um … words can’t desscribe, really. (Excuse the blur.)
Finally, we even saw blue sky and the green was lovely to see … what I think of as “Spring green” was right there in December!
And we saw a rainbow.
So the rest of the drive was pretty uneventful, but what a LONG day. We arrived home at 4:00, and had a Christmas Eve dinner reservation at 5:00, so we had just enough time to unpack the car and get changed.
Our alarms were set for 4:50, and when they went off Dan got up and looked outside.
Gray. Gray. Gray. And no stars to be seen.
That meant back to bed and sleeping in (which means up at 7:00 for me). There was no point going out for a non-existent sunrise, after all. It also means that today will probably not be much of a photography day at all, but of course the iPhone will get used so I can post things here.
After sitting around for a bit Dan made us some coffee. Not the in-room stuff, but good coffee using his aeropress. We then walked to the spots that serve breakfast. The breakfast buffet was $21 per person. No thanks! We don’t eat enough to make buying mediocre food worth it. The coffee spot had pretty sad looking pastries and muffins. Instead of those we went back to our room and enjoyed the breakfast food we brought with us, sitting on the little patio outside. Worked great! (And the price was right.) Oh … and some odd fungi outside our door which I’ll include here.
Eventually we drove down to Manly Lake (or is it Lake Manly?) again just to have a look-see. On the way we stopped a bit so I could take some more iPhone photos.
Finding parking at the lake took a bit of time, as there were a whole lot of people out there. Dan opted to only shoot a photo of the crowd, and I did the same with the iPhone, but I can’t quite capture things well.
Then we drove to Natural Bridge Canyon and after parking we took a few photos looking back at the lake.
Then it was walking time. Good thing I read the sign about the snakes. Whew!
On the way I noticed more green. I do love to see green!
The bridge isn’t a terribly long walk. And of course I took photos.
We continued on for a bit, and I continued making iPhone shots.
We opted not to climb the rocks to go up even higher. I had seen a family working on getting down and they were young and agile. I’m not interested in taking a chance of falling. Plus I’m lazy. The rocks, though, are so beautiful. I mostly took photos with my camera, so those will wait until later to be posted and go up on my photography site at some point (if they are decent). But above you can see a few images.
Then back down we went.
While we don’t necessarily feel the need to revisit the Artist Drive, we did so since photo ops weren’t plentiful. I do find the rock colors pretty astounding.
Can you spot someone on the rocks?
More of the drive …
Lunch was at our patio again, using up more of the food we brought with us.
Oh … I forgot to mention the weather! Looking up at the higher mountains, near where we were yesterday, it looked to be snowing. Sure enough, later when we checked there was more snow on them. We had a few tiny drops of rain down below, but that was it.
After lunch, a bit of reading, and whatnot, Dan figured maybe we’d do a loop off of the road to Beatty (I think). So out the door we went.
But wait! What was this we saw?
SUN.
Yep, the sun was shining on the mountains just across the street from The Ranch, too, and so we simply drove across the street and out came Dan’s camera (and my iPhone). They were beautifully lit!
From there we moved on, and stopped a few more times. Dan was sort of chasing light at this point. As he said, anything he got was a bonus since we really hadn’t expected to have the right lighting and all for photos. Quite a wonderful surprise, and a good — maybe great? — reason to have stayed today.
Yep, you read that right: we had actually considered coming home one day early, even while we knew the place was paid for and there was no chance of getting the money back. I think we (okay, Dan, really) made the right choice!
Finally it was back to our room, dropping things off, and then dinner time. Dan had a nice piece of salmon. I had pasta with a mystery white wine sauce, meaning there was no sauce! Oh well. Thankfully I had added chicken to the plate and that was good. Prices here are ridiculous, but as Dan and I frequently say anytime something is a bit off, “It’s Death Valley!” You get no food photos. But heeeer’s Danny! Hah!
Dan decided I “needed” some chocolate since my dinner wasn’t great, so we went to the store. What do we find? A book with Dan’s image featured on the front!
When we returned to our room it was shower and packing time. We are going to head out quite early so we can, we hope, get through DEVA and a bit more before the rain really hits. Stay tuned!
It was an early morning day: our alarms (yes, both mine and Dan’s) went off at 4:15 AM. At that point I wasn’t sound asleep in any case so it wasn’t a miserable awakening.
While loading the car a runner went past. That’s one early run! She wisely had lights on both front and back as I learned when we later passed her on the main road.
I sort of dozed on and off as Dan did the long drive in the dark. I do have a tendency to fall asleep in moving vehicles … not only in cars, but in trains and planes as well. It’s a gift. 😉
The final road to our destination was not “sleepable”. It was washboard for a while, and at one point quite narrow. Again, I’m grateful for the driver. I think the drive itself was a bit more than an hour.
We arrived at Aguereberry Point at a very good time. Sunrise was still a bit away, but the colors … well … they were amazing. I didn’t use my good cameras, but the iPhone was just fine.
I’ve been to Aguereberry a few times now, and today’s visit was really rather pleasant. It was chilly, yes, but not like one time when the wind really made it ridiculous and another when it was pretty darn freezing.
Dan continued to photograph. Me, not in the mood, sat in the car part of the time since even with the nicer weather it does get cold, what with the wind and the clouds that were blocking the warmth of the now rising sun. And mostly I was really enjoying the peace and quiet one experiences in this area.
From Aguereberry Dan drove a short bit to a different view, hoping to get some light on the water down below. It’s possible a bit of dozing took place as well.
It appears that the light today might not be a photographer’s dream, and tomorrow Dan has read that it will be rather gray. We’ll see how it goes. I enjoy the area no matter what. (I’m not sure I’d want to be here in a huge storm, though, and while I’m glad to have experienced a dust storm once in my life I could do without that as well.)
More driving and a brief stop at a small cave Dan investigated … it really didn’t go anywhere.
At one curve I noticed a lot of trees below and figured there must be a water source. Going around further we saw a very bright cottonwood which was catching the sun so of course we had to stop. But gee, what are these pink things on the ground? Flowers. In December!
Crossing the street I then saw a spot of orange. Mallow. Another surprise.
Since Dan was continuing with his photography I walked up the street a bit, seeing tons of evidence of the wild burros but no burros in sight. And then more mallow. Plus this marker. Who knows if it’s for real or not? Guess I should look up the name.
More of the trees …
Finally we wound up at Wild Rose Campground. Breakfast time!
After eating we drove up the road a bit, seeing a few building that may or may not still be in use, and then headed over to Skidoo. The drive was long and bumpy and, for yours truly, sometimes scary. I’d done the trip before, but I’d forgotten at the drop offs in some areas. Thankfully Dan knows my fear and is very careful. He also suggests I grab my emergency passenger brake. It works so very well. How do I know? Well … we’ve not gone over a cliff. Yet.
Here is the photo of my emergency passenger brake being put to use:
We didn’t go all the way to the mine, but stopped at what used to be Skidoo, which was a convenient spot for one of us to get a bit of a rest while the other worked on this blog entry. (Waking up at 4:15 and doing ALL the driving while yours truly nods off does mean a nap or two is in order.)
Then back where we came from. This time, though, Dan mentioned that he thought we could probably find Furnace Creek from where we were. Sure enough, I found it, could spot where our lodging was, and where the fancier place up above and to the right was. Can you see them? (The Ranch is a darker rectangle, if that helps.)
More driving in a very windy area as we looked for a lunch spot. We ended up near a nearly wiped out abode (A cabin? An actual house? Dunno!) and driving past that we wound up near a mine that was a bit more sheltered. We first took a quick look into the mine … but no, we don’t go into these things.
Then we set up our chairs and table and worked very hard and diligently on eating. So far I think we should get an A+ (and everyone who knows me knows I don’t even believe in pluses!) when it comes to eating. Hah!
We saw some interesting clouds as well. Dan mentioned that seeing Mare’s Tail ones was often interpreted as “rain in 24 hours”, and we did see those, along with other strange clouds.
We walked back to the ramshackle place and took a few photos. Dan has probably taken photos nearly every time he’s been here, so he wanted to grab more, knowing the place isn’t long for the world.
From there we drove to another building. If the dates are right it was built in in 1951, but who knows if that’s really true. It was in better condition than the first, but of course there’s no way in the world I’d ever want to stay there. Dan got the door opened, so I could shoot a few photos of the inside, but I wasn’t even about to walk into it.
Our drive then took us to another “Oh, I might as well take a photo!” spot for Dan, as the light was good. I worked more on this blog then. When I looked back up that light seemed to be going. One has to work very quickly with photography!
Side note: we often think, “Oh, it’s 1 hour to our next destination,” but get distracted by photo ops. Go figure. (Good thing there aren’t many flowers … we’d get distracted even more then!)
It was decided that we’d head back down to Stovepipe Wells and see what the light was doing when we got there.
Turned out it was doing nothing but fading to gray.
We filled the tank (it’s unbelievable how many miles we drive to get from place to place!), and then sat in the car below the power pole location to see if the sun decided to poke through the clouds.
Eventually we drove up to the end of the gravel road. We saw a strange plant someone had placed on a rock. And then … gee, some flowers on the desert holly! I’d never seen that before. Obviously I had to pull out my macro lens and shoot that, along with another plant with incredibly tiny leaves. I hope something turns out — I’ll only know when I get things into Lightroom.
Then it was halfway down the road to wait to see if that boring light turned into something magical.
The answer was no. Ah well … can’t have great light every single day.
We went back to our room, unloaded all the gear, and headed to the tavern here. We enjoyed some pizza and salad and I neglected to take a photo until it was too late so you’ll have to use your imagination. But yes, it was yummy and yes, I ate too much.
We don’t know what tomorrow will bring: the weather forecast isn’t promising. But only time will tell …
