Ride home from China Ranch

October 25,
We had consulted the GPS when we started out and didn't like her directions but for some reason we decided to let her take us home. We found the "unnamed road"-top pic-and followed it for 17 miles. We then took the left on Cammilla-though it had no sign-and followed the narrow dirt raod for about three of the 6.8 miles when it turned into a dried up lakebed. We followed what we thought was the right track--there were many from the kids-through streams and over small hills until we found another dirt road. We figured we were on the right track because we could see the snow covered mountain that was in front of Terrible's and we were starting to see lights. Soon we were seeing lights like there were at Terrible's Casino and an American flag. When we got to the main road we discovered that it was not Terrible's Lakeside Casino and Campground but Sherie's Ranch with the Chicken Ranch next door.
What made it even funnier was that I had stopped at the local Post Office on Homestead Rd. and had asked if Homestead continued east to Rt. 160 and the lady had said with a kind of smirk "No, it's a deadend."

China Ranch

October 25,
The top picture is the pond at Terrible Herbst's Lakeside Campground with the snowcapped mountain in the distance. It was also a beautiful and well kept campground.
Because we finished Death Valley on Sunday, we decided to take a ride to China Ranch Date Farm in Tecopa, NV. After another boring desert ride, we found China Ranch road. Following it. we left the desert and started going down into a canyon on a narrow dirt road and ended up in a date farm oasis. It is almost harvest time and the date bunches are wrapped in cloth, sometimes dressed in a skirt or shirt. We tasted the different dates grown there, tried the date shake recommended by Bill Kennedy(much better than the huckleberry one) and wandered around the farm.

Death Valley IV

October 24,
We stopped at Devil's Golf Course, where small formations of sodium chloride make the landscape look like old snow piles in New England. The formations are very sharp and make walking in this large area difficult.
We then went to Bad Water-so named because a surveyor's mule refused to drink this water. It's not bad but does taste like epsom salts---so they say. This is the point in the Valley that is 282 feet below sea level.
As we traveled out of the park, we were treated to one of the few beautiful sunsets we have seen while in the west. We also saw the only animals of the day, birds, small rodents and a coyote.

Death Valley III

October 24,
We continued on Artist's Drive and then went back to the main road to go to Badwater. We were amazed to see the amount of water in the valley.

Death Valley II

October 24
We continued north, stopping at the Visitor's Center, passing by the Devil's Cornfield-pic. 1. We continued to the Stovepipe Wells Village, which was a disappointment. We then went back south and drove The Artist Drive. The hills were of many different colors-the pastels being created by the minerals contained in the sandstone. The third picture is known as Artist's Pallette due to the many colors in that small area. In the last picture the sand seems to form the likeness of an Indian woman.

Death Valley

October 24,
We left Vegas and headed for Pahrump, almost on the California border. We had wanted to check out the desert and decided on Death Valley. We drove through the desert-top picture-not sure what to expect. When we arrived at the park, we started on the Twenty Mule Team Loop and saw some very pretty sandstone hills-pic 2. We continued on to Zabriski Point and looked down on some more beauty. We passed by the Borax Works. Borax was mined there but only for a short time, however the 20 Mule Team Borax name has lived on.

Red Rock Canyon

October 22,
Surprisingly a few miles away from the Strip is The Red Rock Canyon with a scenic loop showcasing a beautiful landscape, Thought the weather wasn't the best, the park was. As a bonus we saw wild burros hanging out at the park in the little town of Blue Diamond

Las Vegas

October 17-22
We stayed at the Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort and it was certainly a Class A establishment. Many of the lots were owned but many were empty. Some of the owners had gone all out with Tikis and outdoor kitchens, not to mention very expensive water features. There were 5 pools and a 9 hole mini golf course. Very, very nice compared to most of the western campgrounds.

We finally got to see The Rat Pack, which we had wanted to see in '01 as well as "O". We had been on a bus trip to The Hoover Dam and due to a truck rollover, we did not make it back in time to see Rat Pack. On the same trip, tickets for "O" had to be purchased 4 months in advanced. We thoroughly enjoyed both shows and the diversity, both of locations --Plaza vs Bellagio--and content made them even more enjoyable.

We spent another day checking out Sams Town, the Strip and Freemont Street .

San Diego to Las Vegas

October 17,
Hard to believe but we were actually happy to be leaving California. I guess all the hype on the East Coast makes us expect just too much, plus the roads are in terrible shape and there's just too many people. The ride to Vegas was almost exclusively desert, mountains and Joshua Trees. It's hard to believe that there are so many empty miles left in America. It's also hard to believe that a city as large and popular as Las Vegas just sprang up in all this nothingness.

Coronado Brewing Co.

October 15,
I have to say(or I'll never hear the end of it) that the highlight of our stop in San Diego was lunch with Christian, Diane and Vito Grieco. We met them at the Coronado Brewing Comany-hence the beer signs. We had a very enjoyable lunch and caught up with their lives. We hadn't seen Christian since he was 16 months old and he is now 4 and going to preschool. Diane was just thrilled to be saying "He doesn't always act like this! Honest!!" He wasn't that bad, he just had too much of an audience and couldn't help performing!

The San Diego Zoo

October 13,
We spent a very enjoyable day at the San Diego Zoo. Included in the admission is a bus tour around the zoo. The zoo is quite large so this was an easy way to see the elephants and giraffes that were furthest from the entrance. We spent the rest of the day rambling around looking at koala-our favorite for the day, pandas, unusual monkeys and birds. They had a hippo display with a big tank for them to swim in and a tiger enclosure where he was hidden in a corner, enjoying a bone. Many of the animals and birds were from Asian and were new to us.