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Well off to a double without enough training again. I set the alarm for 4:30AM so I could leave by 5:00 to
miss the rush hour traffic. However, I seem to be inept at the alarm clock thing, because I get up at first
alarm, gather everything, and notice the clock in the kitchen, 2:38AM. Hmmm, weird... The clock in the living room
says . . . 2:38. Hmmm, some moron must have set the clock forward two hours while setting the alarm. Anyway I couldn't get to sleep, so I
Left at 3:00. I got to the Hoover Dam early in the morning.
I love these bronze sculptures. I got better pictures of them on the ride home.
Since I got into DV at 10:00 Nevada time, I had a couple hours to kill before my friend Bret got into town.
This is a picture of one of the 20 mule team wagons. It sits out front of the Furnace Creek Ranch.
The Furnace Creek Ranch also had a museum. This is an original train that they used to carry borax out of
Death Valley. It actually was in service outside of DV until about 1960 and donated back to the museum. If you look
really close you can see a light blue blob on the running board. Someone put a toy train on it.
One of the prettier stages at the museum. They had three of them, but I liked this one the best.
I decided to do a bit of sight seeing in the valley. I've been here before, but only on bike rides, when I'm not really in
the mood to do a lot of looking. This is Badwater, the lowest elevation in the US (282 below sea level.) There is water here year round, but as the name implies, it's not really potable. It's a tad
salty.
This is the salt flat at Badwater. The snow covered peak is Telescope Peak, which happens to have an elevation over 11,000 feet.
On the way back to Furnace Creek, There was a turnoff called "Artist's Drive." I had to go take a look. This is one of the hills on the drive.
This is another one. I got to the point where it said "Artist's Palette" or something like that. I didn't think it was very pretty so I didn't take a picture. It had
the copper green and iron red along side the pink, yellow and brown of the layers of soil seen in the photos here.
I went back to Furnace Creek and Bret had arrived. We did take a 30 mile recon ride of the last 15 miles of the ride. The headwind on the way back didn't give me a good
feeling about the end of the ride I was facing.
Onward to the Ride Pictures ---->
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