V3N1A

The HAHA Site

Every once in a while we manage to find a haha site. A haha site is the official name for a spot which we will never visit again.....on purpose. Particularly to spend the night. Such a place exists in a truckstop in Gallup, New Mexico. This site is not named because of the trucks that were going in and out all night, but rather because of the trains that passed by EVERY ten minutes, not more than 100 yards in back of the motorhome. We knew all this before we went to bed, and the trains actually stopped sometime around midnight, but they did resume about five the next morning. Here's the kicker! At 4:30 in the morning I woke up and it was cold in the motorhome. The furnace quit working. Probably the result of trying to get the generator started the night before. It took about 4 or 5 minutes of cranking to get it going and drew the batteries down to the point that they couldn't carry the furnace through the night. We kept from freezing to icicles, in the 10 degree weather, by starting up the motorhome engine and running those heaters. Haha sites get their name because of the absolutely stupid things that happen, either by accident, or circumstance, which inconvenience even the most seasoned traveler. We have only been to a few, but we continually try not to visit any more than we absolutely have to.

Death Valley N.P.

Four days and about 1000 miles later, and we can say that we have seen most of Death Valley National Park. From the green oasis at the Furnace Creek Visitor's Center, to the salty brine left at Badwater, at 282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in the contiguous United States, we have seen it.

One of the things that you notice when you first enter the park is that the mountains appear to be void of vegetation. So the colors that appear in the rock are natural and extremely varied. They range from coal black to a creamy beige all in the same group of mountains. And reds and pinks and oranges abound everywhere you look. The Artist's Palette is a canyon that encompasses all the colors including blues and greens. Photographs taken here, as in the Grand Canyon, will never capture the grandeur.

If additional color is what you seek, then a trip through 20 Mule Team Canyon is a must. The rolling dunes and cliffs bordering the road are the yellow of margarine. It's as if you could take a knife and scoop up a dollop and spread it over toast. As you drive through the canyon you wonder if the car broke down, which way would be the shortest way out to the main road. Luckily we didn't have to find out.

A short trip from Furnace Creek reveals the Harmony Borax Works. The first commercial borax producer in Death Valley. While looking at the combination of 2 borax wagons and a water wagon, it's hard to believe that the entire load weighed 36 tons, and a 20 mule team handled it very nicely. It was actually a 19 mule team, and a team of horses. These teams pulled those specially built wagons for 10 years without a breakdown.

Spectacular is the word for the panorama at Dante's View. 6000 feet above the salt flats at Badwater, the lowest point in the U.S. From here you can see the entire valley floor some 80 miles long. The road through the park appears as a fine line weaving around the white of the salt. Vehicles appear as small spots if they are actually seen. They are difficult to see because they are hardly noticeable as they move so slowly.

Last but not least, is Scotty's Castle. Misnamed because it never did belong to Death Valley Scotty. It was actually owned by Albert and Bessie Johnson, a wealthy couple from out east. The Castle is a technological and architectural marvel. It's setting is in the northeast part of Death Valley, constructed of heavy timbers, from California, with all the comforts of home, including electric lights, gas appliances, swimming pool and air conditioning......of sorts. The air conditioning was actually a humidification system which was accomplished by running water down an inside stone wall. All this being completed before the 1930's. The castle still stands in all its splendor and glory.

Surprises, Surprises

We have had a couple of surprises since we came into California. The first is the price of gas here. When we were in Pahrump, NV (On the California border) sightseeing through Death Valley N.P., we encountered fuel prices in the $1.51 range. Thinking we were really going to get nailed when we entered California, we filled up at Pahrump. We no sooner had gotten into California at Baker when the prices miraculously dropped to $1.25 and we ended up with egg on our faces. We are now in the process of exiting the state and still finding the occasional station selling fuel for $1.27.

The second thing is the number of orchards that we have no clue what they are. Not being agricultural 'experts', (HaHa) we unfortunately, can't tell an almond tree from a peach tree. Or for that matter, nectarines from pecans, or apricots from plums. We can identify the grape vines, however, and the orange trees are easy to recognize. We have unequivocally concluded that they are the big fluffy green bushes with the round orange fruit on them.