Day 24: Tahoe to Death Valley
I wake up at 8. I start to get my shit together. Man, do I have stuff everywhere. It takes 3 trips to get everything to my truck. Around 10, I finally go to check out. I hand the guys my 4 keys, tell him that is all of them, and head to my truck. I then realize I forgot to give him the internet box (which I was holding) back. I sheepishly go back in, “Uh, you might want this too”. I get in my truck and try to put my campsite into my GPS. It is awesome, except it has problems finding anything in national parks. Eventually, I give up. The route is pretty easy anyway. Drive down the road, turn at the sign that says “Death Valley”, follow road until I see another sign with a tent on it. Finally, I hit the road, sad to be leaving Tahoe and all of its awesomness.
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| One last picture of Tahoe before I leave! |
Less than a quarter mile down the road, I see a guy standing by the side of the road with jumper cables looking like he needed help. I usually do not stop for random people on the side of the road who need help since unfortunately there are those few shitty people out there who would take my kindness and do me harm because of it. Damn them. Anyway, this guy is there with his wife and kids and on a busy(ish) road. Busy enough that the chance of someone driving by if I was in trouble in my favor. I stop. I maneuver my truck around so his cables will reach. I get out to help and stand there awkwardly as I realize that he knows what he is doing and does not need my input. He gets everything hooked up and gets in his car to wait for it to start. His wife rolls down the window and tells me that it might take a minute or two since it is an older car. No worries. She then tells me they were just talking about how nice my truck is. Hellooo new best friends. We talk about T100s and how awesome they are. Her sister has one and they are thinking about buying one themselves. I shamelessly recommend getting one and tell them that Toyota trucks are the best vehicles ever made. Their car starts and they thank me.
Down the mountain I head. About 40 miles out of Tahoe, I stop at the tiniest post office I have ever seen. The first 150 miles of my trip were very very rural. I walk in and ask the guy for stamps. He pulls out 10 different kinds. “Uhhh, I just want to mail some post cards.” Apparently those are yet another kind of stamp. He asks how many I want. 50. I don’t have 50 to mail now but I don’t want to stop at a post office to buy stamps every time I want to send a postcard. He comments on that being a lot and asks where I am traveling from. Alaska. We talk briefly about Alaska and I depart. I pull out my postcards. And proceed to stamp them all. I throw them in the deposit bin and head off again.
I end up stuck behind a really slow and irregularly driving hatchback. Personally, I find hatchbacks in general to be annoying cars. I am not sure why, but every time I get stuck behind one I get more annoyed than usual. After 15 miles or so, I finally get around it. It is a beautiful drive and I see very little civilization for a while. In the few towns I do see, gas $4.80, sometimes more. I drive by the cutoff to Mammoth Mountain. I am sad that I decided not to go there. My aching knees and shin reassure me that that was a good call.
I was originally going to camp at a campsite on the very east side of Death Valley. However, all of the mountain passes that would have taken me there were closed. I could have taken a very round about way to get there or I could have gone to my backup campsite. I decide to go to the backup campsite, right smack dab in the middle of Death Valley. Right before making the turn to Death Valley, I stop to get gas, dinner, firewood, and beer. I make the turn. I see a jack rabbit run across the road. I have never seen one before.
The drive in Death Valley proves to be gorgeous. However, I highly recommend against driving in from the west if you are scared of heights. There were some pretty sketchy looking areas. The sketchiness may have been made worse by my speeding. I drive up 4000 feet and then descend to sea level. I again climb 4000 feet before descending into the valley where I am now camping. Along the way, I pass a gas station charging well over $5 a gallon. (I am watching gas prices like a hawk since gas is a hugeee part of the cost of my trip, especially in the next week.) Glad I got it when I did. I can make it to Vegas and beyond on the tank I have now!
I reach the campsite around 4. It is the weirdest campsite I have ever seen. It is pretty much a huge parking lot with some picnic tables which has been partitioned with some small rocks. Also, there are no fire pits. Bummer, guess I will save my wood for next time. As I am pulling in, a guy pulls up and asks about checking in and fees. I have no idea. If someone comes and demands that I pay a fee or check in I will happily. He picks a spot and starts quietly setting up. I claim my spot and set up camp like a pro. I have my tent up in a matter of minutes. The longest part of the process was blowing up my camp mattress. I finish and eat my sandwich I had picked up for dinner. I have one of my beers. It is a local amber brew from the Mammoth area. Not bad at all.
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| My campsite |
At this point the sun has started to set. I amuse myself for the next hour by taking tons of pictures of it. While I am taking pictures, another car pulls up. 4 guys ranging from under 10 to middle age hop out. The serenity of the campsite has been shattered. They ask me if I have a match. I do so I go and grab my matches. I talk to them about traveling as the people who have left camp for the day start to return. I see a fox scurry across the parking lot. I spend some time talking to the people around camp and then they wander off to have dinner.
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| T Rex and the Sunset |
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| I've seen better... it is so hazy in Death Valley! |
I go back to my partition of the parking lot and turn on my lantern. It is now pitch black out. It is cloudy and there are barely any lights for miles. I read my book for a while before deciding to retire to my tent. I grab my bear spray and tuck it into one of my easily accessible tent pockets just in case. I think it works on coyotes too. I then check my entire tent for scorpions and potentially deadly spiders. I have yet to see one and I am not sure how one would have gotten in my tent, but I really don’t want to die today.
Aside from the occasional voice, the hum of my computer and the clicking of the keys, andddd the occasional car driving by, it is completely silent. It is a pretty cool feeling. Everything is just so still. It feels untouched and pristine, even if my truck is sitting less than 10 feet away from me.
Day 25: Death Valley to Las Vegas
While I might be a pro at setting up my tent, I did a shitty job of securing my rain fly. Around 10, the wind picks up and did not stop until morning. My rain fly flaps noisily all night. I don’t usually sleep well when camping. I sleep even worse than usual tonight. While I know that there were people who seemed nice nearby and could help me, with all the noise I found it incredibly hard to actually sleep. I manage to doze off a few times but am quickly awoken by particularly hard gusts of wind. At one point, I am having a dream about some unfriendly dogs. I then hear in real life what sounds like a fox or coyote sniffing at my tent right near my head. I am awake, out of my sleeping bag and holding my bear spray before I know what is happening. The noise is just a tag on my tent scratching against my sleeping bag. Needless to say, morning comes and I am rather sleep deprived. Next time I am putting my tent on my truck. Or just sleeping in the cab. Why did I not put my tent on my truck this time? Because no one else in the campsite did and I did not want to look like a noob. However, no one else at the campsite had a truck either which is probably a lot of the reason no one had a tent set up on top of it.
I crawl out of my cocoon of a sleeping bag to watch the sunrise. It is pretty. Unfortunately, my phone had died during the night so I could take no photos. I break camp. It is a much less graceful process than making camp. I awkwardly try to shove everything into the appropriate bag that is just big enough to fit it if it is rolled or folded up perfectly. I head off down the road to do some sightseeing and hopefully find breakfast.
A few miles down the road I see a turnoff down a dirt road for “Mosaic Canyon”. That looks fun. I make the turn and find myself on a really bumpy dirt road. This is not what I want to be doing at 8 am after no sleep and with no coffee. I drive the two miles to the canyon and get out. I wander about a mile up the canyon. It is pretty cool. Mosaic indeed. I take pictures and continue back to the T Rex and on my way.
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| Mosaic Canyon |
Next stop is the Mesquite flat sand dunes, then the natural bridge (more hiking up a canyon), and last is Badwater. At one of the stops, T Rex does not want to start. He chokes after the turn over. Poor T Rex, he spent yesterday at 8000 feet above sea level and now I have him at the lowest spot (below sea level) in the western hemisphere. His poor old onboard computer is having to work extra hard. I really like all of the varied scenery and features here. Canyons, sand dunes, salt ponds, and the rocks are all very different. You see layers of different rocks all shoved together. I try to take my time looking at things since Vegas is only 2 hours away and I am not supposed to check in until 4. About noon, I am tired and hungry and decide to try to check in early.
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| Footprints on the dunes! |
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| the dunes |
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| Oasis in the middle of the desert |
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| Natural bridge |
There is pretty much nothing between Death Valley and Vegas. Needless to say, aside from my snack food I keep in my truck, I still have not eaten when I arrive in Vegas. The outskirts of town are pretty cool and mellow. I am staying on the strip through. Getting to the strip turns out to be a huge pain in the ass. Vegas is the most difficult city I have ever tried to drive in. I try to turn onto a highway. I somehow end up on the exit ramp before I even get onto the highway. WTF? I thought I followed the signs. Apparently not. I make a big loop and try to get on the highway again. I don’t follow the signs and instead go to what looks like it will take me the right direction. I end up going the right way.
I arrive at the strip. I find my hotel. I accidently drive by it. No big deal, I will just go around the block. Unfortunately, every turn goes to some hotel and its parking garage. And there are pedestrians everywhere. I had not expected it to be this busy at 2:30 on a Tuesday. After a few failed attempts, my GPS finally guides me back to the hotel. I make the turn. I cannot figure out where the hell to park if I am just checking in. I end up in the parking garage. Whatever, I will just park. Poor T Rex is not happy. I am stressed out about him. There is some sort of rattling that is only getting worse that I need to have checked out. And braking sucks because the rotors are warped. Luckily that is not dangerous, just really annoying. I will have to get him looked at as soon as I have time… in Arizona, which is longer than I really want to wait.
I follow the signs to the hotel lobby. The hotel is like a shopping mall, casino, bar combo all in one. Pretty cool and easy to get lost in. I stand in line for 20 minutes, feeling like shit from a lack of food and sleep. The guy in front of me is impatient and keeps turning around to express his frustration with the slowness with me. Buddy, chill. I don’t care. Yes, it’s slow but that’s life. I am just trying not to pass out. There are about 20 check in stations and only two people working at a time. A little frustrating but it is what it is. I finally check in. I stop at a restaurant and grab a sandwich. That is better. I go to my truck and pull out my luggage and head back to my room. A couple of people in the elevator ask me where I am from. We talk about Alaska a bit. I don’t really feel like talking. I am tired.
I go to my room and fall asleep. I wake up around 6. I have missed calls from my mom. We have been playing phone tag and I had told her I would be available and have reception tonight. And I don’t answer when she calls. Good one. I call her back. My reception sucks but I actually talk to her finally.
I decide to shower and go check out downstairs. I head to the Sin City Brewery they have. Woah, there are people smoking inside at the bar. Crazy, I had no idea that is still legal anywhere. I walk to the bar and ask the guy for a Weiss beer, which I horribly mispronounce. He corrects me and asks how old I am. 22. He tells me he better see my ID, ok buddy. The guy at the bar next to me comments “you have a knife, that’s so cool”. Someone is observant. I end up talking to him and the two Canadian guys next to him. The Canadian guys are the first people on my trip that have seen my pinky ring and figured I was an engineer. They also comment that I look really familiar. I try to explain that I get that a lot and there are a number of people that look similar. If that makes any sense. They argue that it’s because I am genuine and sincere. I guess I can’t argue there. I found it to be an interesting comment.
I end up talking to the guy next to me, John. He works in disaster response and is in town for a conference. We talk about Alaska, motorcycles, knives, and engineering. Eventually, he asks if I want to play slots. I don’t really want to gamble, I am not really so lucky in that particular way. He says it’s on him so I agree. I still have a beer and tell him I need to finish it first. Apparently not, this is Vegas and I can just take it with me. He puts some money in a machine and I start to lose it quickly. I change machines a few times and am finally left with 15 cents. Way to go. Gambling sucks. He has been to Vegas a few times so he offers to show me around. That would be awesome. We wander to where they have a fake Venice area and check out the gondolas. That is pretty cool; they have this whole canal built on the second story of a building. We then wander to the other end of the strip to New York New York. We pass by fake France and China on the way. The giant fountain thing is playing its show which is pretty exciting. By the time we get to fake New York, my feet are killing me. I am wearing my boots since I figured Vegas was a good place to look nice in. I love wearing my boots but they are horrible to walk in.
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| This is inside... and on the second story of a building. Crazy |
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| Fake Paris! |
We get some pizza and beer at New York. I decide to walk outside with my beer just because I can. It is crazy, you can take your beer ANYWHERE and no one cares. We stop at the fountain to watch the show. It is just ending so we wait for the next show. We wait for over half an hour. Apparently the last show is at midnight on weekdays. I finish my beer. It is a Coors Light but it tastes 10 times better than a normal Coors Light because I can drink it wherever I want. We head back to the hotel and he decides to try the slots. He starts winning more than he is losing so I decide to try my luck one more time. I put in 3 dollars. At one point, I had turned that into 25 dollars. I should have cashed it out then but I kept trying until I had managed to turn it into 0 dollars. Oh well. He ended up with no money either. Bummer. It is late so we head our separate ways. I get to my room and pull off my boots. I have blisters all over the bottom of my feet. Ow. I go to bed and quickly fall asleep.
Vegas is mind blowingly over the top and fake. However, they still have managed to make it beautiful. It is really weird. Everything is decorated beautifully and someone spent a lot of time on the details. Having bright flashing lights everywhere and a giant water display that sounds like fireworks helps too. There is even a McDonalds on the strip. The sign is illuminated in flashing neon colors. And the music. Everywhere you walk there is music blasting from somewhere.
Day 26: Vegas
I wake up pretty late. I needed sleep. I decide to check out the strip in the daylight today. I shower and get myself presentable and wander downstairs. I also decide that I am going to see the magic show tonight. Why not? I go to a desk that is under a sign labeled “Box Office”. I ask the guy “Is this where you sign up for the shows?” He starts asking me if I am married and if my husband is ok with it, etc. WTF?!?! I just want to see a magic show! Apparently he thought I was wanting to be a showgirl or something… I tell him I just want to see the magic show and he points to a nearby desk. I get my ticket without further ado.
I head outside. It is warm! Almost too warm for my jacket. I start walking down the strip, looking for the Imperial Palace. I call my mom, no answer. I call a friend and we talk until I lose reception. Every time I go in a building in Vegas I lose my call. Grr. I walk into a mall. How many Coaches, Guccis, and other high end fashion retailers does one city need? Every casino seems to have at least one of these afore mentioned stores. The mall has some “normal” mall shops too; AE, A&F, Hot Topic, Forever 21, etc. About 10 minutes of the mall is about all I can take. I am trying to save money. I find the food court and get some lunch. I decide I should look up the location of the Imperial Palace. It is right next door to where I am staying. Oh. I finish my food and head back outside. I call my friend back and continue my conversation… “No! I will not be bored with Alyeska when I get back. All these ski places are great but Alyeska is diverse enough to keep me interested…”
As I walk, I am again impressed with all of the water everywhere. For being in the middle of a desert, every hotel/casino seems to have some sort of large water thing going. I am also impressed with all the pedestrian bridges they have built over the roads. Very nice for everyone. I finally make contact with my mom and talk to her as I arrive at the Imperial Palace. I finish my conversation and head inside. I am looking for the Auto Collection. It takes me about 15 minutes to navigate my way to the 5th floor of the parking garage. These places are so ridiculously big!
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| 1923 fire truck!! |
I spend the next two hours looking at classic cars and a few trucks. They have everything ranging from a model T to the suburban used in the Sopranos. They even have two vintage fire trucks! I head back to my hotel and to the magic show.
It was a good show, though I feel that the tricks were more or less the same, just with different props. Someone goes in the box, they disappear or are “cut up”, and then they come out of the box. Very fun to watch but a little more varied in the types of tricks would have been nice. I wanted to see a rabbit get pulled out of a hat or something! I guess most of illusions are making thing appear and disappear though.
When that is over, I decide to try my luck (what luck?!?!) at the slots. $10 isn’t too terrible to lose. I have dropped more out of my pocket before. I go for it, turn it into $25, and then lose all my money. Oh well, it’s dinner time now. I go to a place called the Burger Joint. The service is pretty bad. I order a cheeseburger. I end up with some sort of chicken sandwich thing. I catch the waitress’s eye and I think she acknowledges me. She never comes over. Ok… I guess I wanted a chicken thing? It is not bad, but when I was expecting a cheeseburger it was a little disappointing. I want to get out of there so I put my credit card on the table. She takes it before I even get to see my check. Huh?? She brings everything back. I was only charged for a cheeseburger, so that is good. Overall, I was not impressed at all.
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| Super cool fountain! (the video is much more impressive) |
I wander back to Sin City to try another beer. They are all out of all of their brews. WTF?!? That is sad. I wander out to the strip to see the sights of tonight. I feel that I should take full advantage of being able to wander around wherever with alcohol so I search for a bar. I find one in the Planet Hollywood casino. They have no beer on tap. Damn. The first thing I could think of that they would have in a bottle is Heineken. Ok, that will work I guess. I wander over to the super cool water fountain show. I watch a couple of songs before my beer is gone. I decide to wander off and find some more. I go the opposite direction and find a place that is full of what looks like slurpie machines. Instead of cherry and blueberry, the flavors are pina coloda, strawberry daiquiri, rum and coke, margarita, hurricane, etc. You can get these in sizes ranging from 16 to 52 oz (or maybe more). I remember a friend telling me about an awesome drink he got in Vegas that was in a football shaped cup. I found the place! I don’t get a football; I opt for a smaller option.
I wander back to the fountain with my pina coloda. The wind has picked up now. Every time water is shot into the air, everyone downwind within a quarter of a mile is misted. The longer I stand there, the heavier the misting becomes. I finally move to the side to try to avoid getting soaked. I really like watching the fountain. Eventually, I start to freeze. Between being soaked, the wind, and holding/drinking a frozen drink I am starting to shiver. I feel like the worst Alaskan ever standing in the middle of a desert shivering. Oh well. Vegas is cool but I think I have seen enough. Time to head to my hotel and get ready for the next two days of camping! (Which will hopefully go better than the last one. No more thinking that some little fox is going to kill me…..)
Day 28
This will get it's own post sometime. Butt I am at a McDonalds, sitting in my truck, using their free wifi so I can post this :) On my way to the Hoover Dam and Mojave Preserve! Boy is it windy today!
WHen do we get the next installment?
ReplyDeleteAs soon as my pictures upload, it will be posted :D
ReplyDelete