21 Oct 2018
Started the day at Mammoth Lakes and ended in Las Vegas.
What a contrast in reality.
Headed off at roughly 9am after a fairly average sleep. Room was stuffy and walls were thin – what you
get for two stars I guess. An uneventful
drive by Larry along a four lane highway doing 75mph for mile upon mile until
we reached Lone Pine where stopped at Macca’s for brunch. Jenny took over for this part and a straight
forward trip through the wilderness until we had to cross a mountain range on a
winding narrow road and into Death Valley National Park. We were up quite high and had a view into the
valley that was spectacular. We followed a tourist coach to the bottom and
overtook it as we sped across the valley floor and up, up , up again across
another mountain range and into a long downhill drive into another valley floor
that eventually led us to Furnace Creek. We found this drive one of the
highlights so far.
A quick lunch at Furnace Creek and off again in the trusty
Impala as we headed to Badwater Basin to look at the so called Badwater snails.
Didn’t see any but we did reach the lowest point in the USA at 282 ft below sea
level and took the obligatory pics of the sign. The temperature had got up to about 92
degrees farenheit by now so we didn’t feel the need to walk too far out into
the saltwater pan. Just far enough so we
could say we had.
Headed back the way we
came to get onto the Artist Pallet Loop drive which is a one way road off the
main one that they have created in the rocks. It is a great drive of about 15
miles winding through various rock formations.
It is called the Artist’s Palette due to the various mineral deposits
which turn the rocks interesting hues of green and pink and yellow but it was
also fun driving through the narrow twisty rock lined path with the occasional
steep dip thrown in for good measure.
After that we were off again in the direction of Vegas. Crossed the border from California to Nevada
as the Big Bovine (why they have a freisan dairy cow in the middle of the
desert is beyond me). We then stopped at the Area 51 alien tourist
shop as it was on Larry’s list of stop off points. Great shop full of alien souvenirs
and we purchased a few. Particularly
liked the T shirt that read “My parents got abducted by aliens and all I got
was this lousy T shirt!” Back on the
road towards Vegas again and Larry pushed it up to 75 mph once again for mile
after mile so we could reach our destination before dark.
We were following the GPS and it was doing a great job until
we reached the freeway road works then we went off route for a while. A bit of
recalculating and we got back onto the correct freeway and into down town
Vegas. This was very stressful as cars everywhere and poor road markings so
getting into the correct lanes was challenging. This was at 5.30pm on a Sunday!! Eventually we reached the MGM Signature
Towers and checked in to our Air BNB. We had been on the road for about 9 hours
and thankful the check in was easy and we found our room with no issues. We have a penthouse overlooking the strip and
it is very luxurious compared to the fairly basic cabin in Yosemite and the 2
star ski lodge last night. Dumped the
luggage in the room and off to get Larry a well deserved pint as he was sorely
in need of alcohol after that last part of the drive.
Wandered down the street for a bit until we found a Bubba
Gump restaurant and thought that wias a suitably kitsch choice for dinner in
Vegas.. A good dinner and a couple of drinks and we headed to a Walgreens to
pick up some groceries for breaky tomorrow and then back to our room for a Jacuzzi
and a sit down.
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