Day – 7 Death Valley

Death Valley is one of the more interesting places in America. Jeffrey was fascinated by it, and I had a really hard time. There are a lot of “stupid tourist” warnings that had me a little freaked out about not having enough water, and then the temperature and dryness itself wore on me more being pregnant than Jeffery or the kids. But the sights themselves were very interesting—it was like being in a completely different landscape, like you are no longer on earth.


We took a picture of the temperature at 124 degrees. Seriously hot. At this temperature Rachel and Aidan wanted to get out of the car and play in the sand, so Jeff walked them over to a sandy area off the side of the road. Rachel took her shoes off, and then got overwhelmed by the heat on her feet and Jeff had to carry her back to the car. He wasn't quite sure he could make it.


On the way out of Death Valley there were signs saying turn off the airconditioning for the next 20 miles so that the cars wouldn’t overheat. We didn’t at first, and then noticed our car temperature rising rapidly, so we quickly rolled down the windows and made it out of Death Valley without overheating the car. Whew! Adventure.

Almost immediately after leaving Death Valley the climate changed again. We saw beautiful trees and rolling hills. We drove to the town we thought we’d stay in, but there were no vacancies. Someone told us about a town not on the main road called June Lake, so we backtracked to go find it. We passed campsites and cabins all with no vacancy signs, and as it was starting to get dark we got a little worried. Jeffrey asked Maeve to pray that we’d find a place to stay, and as soon as the words were out of her mouth we rounded a bend and saw a cute little 1950s motel with the big beautiful word Vacancy on the sign. I went inside, and not only did they have a room, it had a full sized kitchen, free breakfast, and was only $79 per night. Jeffrey said that he could spend a week here, and I felt the same.
This was the view from our door.


We saw our first and only bear. As the kids were watching her the bear started to walk straight toward Rachel. Jeff quickly had all the kids get in the car. Later Rachel said, "I know why the bear liked me, because I had candy in my pocket."