S: Paul and Bridget left yesterday afternoon, so we are pleased to have John use the second night of their room and sleep in a comfortable bed before HIS long drive home. He has decided to leave at 4am, using a wake-up call from the hotel.
We wake well before Tony and Sheila. With our new two-burner propane stove, we can have coffee within ten minutes of waking - about as fast as at home with full kitchen. A coyote passes by, less than 100 yards away, and later a roadrunner (chasing it? Quick! Call Warner Brothers!).
We have more coffee and breakfast with Mom, and see her off. She has a relatively short drive to Vegas to catch a flight to Seattle. (Quietly, I am glad we didn't need to go get her in Vegas -- we would've been late to pick her up, and we would now have had to drive to Vegas again for no other reason than to drop her off. I don't really like Las Vegas. It's an ugly place. Don't like gambling or neon, and don't like the conspicuous consumption and desert-abuse that has occurred there.)
Then we see Tony and Sheila off - they will stop at the dunes on the way out and try to see some critters.
Now it's just us, with five days ahead and no plans whatsoever. It's kind of startling, and really wonderful, because I don't think either of us has really thought past the wedding events. Now we find ourselves with all this free time.
We decide to visit Ubehebe Crater at the north end of the park. On the drive up, I notice small greenish things rolling across the road. Finally, curious enough to stop, we find that they are caterpillars - about four inches long, with green and red patterns. The crater itself is pretty cool - an old volcano a half-mile across and a couple hundred feet deep, with the usual coloration you expect from this place. On the drive up to it, almost-black desert is carpeted with swaths of tiny purple flowers - a stunning effect.
We stop at Scotty's Castle for a snack, gas, and orientation ("snacks" go with "gas" more often than you might think). If we were to get a word of encouragement about driving the Saturn to the Racetrack, we'd probably go for it, but instead of that word, we get a piece of informative paper, and again we'll leave that adventure for another visit.
T: The ranger advice about the racetrack is a little confusing; we're told it's very likely we'd get a flat or have problems that would require an expensive tow out (if towing was in fact a viable option at all). I tell them that we did Titus Canyon last year, when it had been recently graded, and we were fine -- would it be worse or better than that? The ranger says it's actually better than Titus Canyon, but more washboard. So it's better, but more likely somehow that we'll have a problem? Confusion is added by one of the Scotty's Castle tour guides hanging out with the ranger in early 1900's costume; she seems adamant that we will in fact have problems and I'm tempted to explain to her that, though we don't have 4-wheel drive, we are not driving a Model-T either.
In any case, there's no encouragement, and since the whole thing seems questionable, we decide to pass this time.
S: We check out the Mesquite Springs campground -- really, a pretty desolate place with not much going for it but the higher elevation and thus cooler temperature. Furnace Creek is still the best campground in the Valley.
Long drive back to camp, and it's hot. I'm going cross-eyed from the oncoming road and accumulated lack of sleep. Back at the camp, I attempt to lay down in the tent, but it's deadly hot - if I fall asleep I'll certainly wake up looking like crispy blackened crayfish. I'm too tired to explore more, too hot to take a nap in the tent. We stew for a bit, and then decide to get a room.
The cabins are cheapest at $90 a night ("off-season" rate, April 16 thru October?). For the remainder of this visit, we can wake early and hike, nap during the hot afternoon hours in comfort, and hike more in the evening if we want.
The cabin (#217) is pretty much bare minimum accommodation, but it has A/C and a ceiling fan, and it's near the end of the row, at the palm trees.
T: There's the usual TV, complete with Nintendo, but we didn't turn it on the stay at all. Though the hotel rooms each have a fridge, the cabins do not, but since most of our beverage-cooling needs are on the road anyhow, the cooler works just fine.
Without realizing it, we had been going a full-tilt since leaving early Saturday morning, with the preceding week full of fitful nights with the excitement of the impending trip. We're just plain worn out, and getting a room is a welcomed luxury.
S: Yeah, the cabin is one of our best choices on this vacation, simply because it frees us to do more by providing a safe and comfortable haven. We couldn't even contemplate some of the stuff we do outdoors later, without this indoors to which we may return anytime. I love our tent(s), but I now believe they're best for cold- and wet-weather camping, and for sleeping on two-day back-country hikes. If the temperature had been ten degrees less, we'd have stayed in the tent for the duration.
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