We drove 10 hours from Saline Valley Lower Warm Springs to Vegas, from 6:15 am to 4:15 pm. The heat only got worse. We stopped at Panamint Springs, to pee and make sandwiches, but not to buy gas or eat at their restaurant, as their prime location at the edge of the developed part of the Park seems to have turned them into quite arrogant and uncaring folk. Adam and I had the misfortune of staying at their campground and eating at their restaurant a couple years ago, thinking that camping was allowed at nearby Darwin Falls (which is not the case).
There was a huge biker group thronging the place as we arrived to eat lunch. A trailer advertised their motored brigade in a vibrant, painted scene on its facade. "New and shiny" was the underlying message I read. I wonder if there's a place on earth where new and shiny, in any human context, is not alluring. Sure, sure, there are those who favor the old and shabby, but often the old and shabby is discovered anew, hence the excitement. I revise: new and/or shiny.
Further East on the 190, we stopped at Stovepipe Wells, where Adam and I once slept in a sandstorm, for which our tent was no match. Very, very hot by this time (it was about 10:30 in the morning), we winced in the sun to get from car to store, where air conditioning blessed our skin and we breathed sighs of relief. Since they had no Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream, and we knew the ice cream novelties in the freezer box would not satisfy us, we settled for various kinds of iced tea and caramel pretzels (which were stale, but I kept eating them just to make sure). I also labored over whether to buy a turquoise and silver ring, which I finally did. As we approached the cash register, the man behind it greeted us in slow motion:
How you young ladies doin'?
Fine, we say, smiling.
What can I do for you, square dancer? He said to Emily.
Stifling a chuckle, we bring forth our items and pay. It's so hot, we say.
Well, now, you gotta drink lots of water, he says. And go real slow. And you gotta use sun block. Especially you, he said to me. You're melon is weak. (melon - hello?) Even I use sunscreen, he continues. And I'm pretty dark! (his skin is the color of the ice cream I had hoped they would have).
On the walk back to the car, we realized: Oh, melanin.
Back in the sauna van, we went about 40 more miles to Furnace Creek Visitor Center, where Adam and I bought our yearlong national park pass, Emily and I bought postcards, and we looked at flower and scat books. Out of Death Valley, we headed for Shoshone, where Emily had read about a cool solar internet cafe on Chowhound, a good place to find good eats recommendations all over the US. Shoshone turned out to be about 1/2 a block long. I think there were 2 other buildings besides the Cafe C'est Si Bon, where we had delicious mango-coconut-pineapple-banana smoothies, basked in the air conditioning, chatted with David the owner, discovered that the solar internet connection advertised is not quite operational yet, and met Pizza, his Vietnamese pot-bellied pig. Pizza was very cute and let us pet her bristly black hair.
We arrived in Vegas, finally found Emily's aunt Kathy's house (the GPS went a bit crazy for a while there), and began to settle in for our 2 1/2 day sanctuary in air conditioning. It was 107 outside. We ate lots of good food at restaurants all over the city, did laundry, slept well, and watched parts of Star Wars on DVD.
Despite the swell digs, we were happy to head out of the extreme desert towards Arizona high country on Tuesday morning. I was sad to say goodbye to our wonderful traveling companion, Emily.
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