Here I go:
Road tripping around the southwest for 14 days, solo is the plan. Me, my rental car, accommodation booked on the fly and enough camera and cold weather gear to make any adventure possible. Did 50 year old Dallice still possess the bravery and tenacity that 25 year old Dallice used to have? Let's find out!
I'm not going to lie to you; departing DIA was not a piece of cake!
4am wake up call (but I had already been awake since 3:15am)
5am bus ride - full bus - in the snow and dark.
8am flight not technically delayed but due to blizzard conditions, near zero vis, blowing snow and complications getting flight crew to work on time, we were #50 (exaggerating of course) in line for deicing.
Deicing was fascinating though. I wasted LOTS of battery and memory documenting ground staff drowning us in orange spray; then coloring us green. Drowning themselves too.
As we waited in line for takeoff, my anxiety was being cultivated and overfed by weird screeching run-up noises, a strong smell of vinegar in the cabin and deteriorating conditions outside. I've flown a wee bit... And this was the first time I felt almost compelled to ditch airplane mode and send a last minute "in case I don't make it" message. The engine nearest me screamed like a wild animal just about to die as we climbed aggressively toward the west. Triggering? Just a bit.
Later, thousands of feet up in the sky over the Rockies the engine now "normal sounding" and the sun shining into my porthole, life seems back on track - mentally! <3
Rental car fears turned out to be unfounded and before long, I was headed out of Vegas in 'Beast' the 4-runner and driving into super interesting Beatty NV. Burros greeted me as I drove down main street... so I stopped to chat! FRIENDLY little buggers! 5 for the win!
Death Valley, just 8 miles up the road was cool at 58F.
Windy too. When you wish for a breeze to fling some sand and make it appear the sand dunes are dancing, but you get this...
... Is it a disappointment? No! It's what over-achievement looks like!
Regardless of whether I was downwind or upwind, every time I opened Beast's window/door, a sand dune hitched a ride. He's going to need a spa day at the end. As will I.
Santa Ana gusts from that wind event in Southern California today? Likely. A little more problematic than it played in my head, but by no means vicious. Just insidious. I had packed for most conditions but didn't imagine this and even if I had, I didn't own a haz-mat suit.
A half mile from Mesquite Flats there were road works - for flood damage. It was the last thing I expected here and yet there was ample evidence of the destructive path of sudden and heavy rains. Where does it go, though?
Even if/when it saturates Bad Water Basin and pools like a mini representation of the lake 2000 years ago, it's reconstituting pillars of salts and minerals. Undrinkable and I imagine toxic for the plants too.
Death Valley is aptly named.
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