Tuesday, April 30.

190 west of Towne Pass:

We're up with the sun, and we pack quickly and head out.  The slightly faster route is to stay on 190 and go over Towne Pass to the Panamint Valley Road; thus, instead of winding through the more scenic Wildrose route, we shoot up (down?) the Panamint Valley on a very straight two-lane road.  We still go through lovely Trona on this route, and then Ridgecrest.  There are clouds all along the Sierras, appearing to be held back by some effort of the mountaintops - we get light rain over Tehachapi pass, which just makes it a little bit trickier.  Soon enough we're on I-5 and breakfasting at a Denny's.

We will hit the Bay Area at about 3:30 or 4, so we try a new route to skirt the I-80 Oakland/Berkeley and 101 corridors: from 580, we cut north on 680, cross the Carqiunez Straits, and then take 780 to Vallejo, 37 to Lakeville, thus up to Petaluma.  This route is pretty successful and we'll probably use it again.

Sigh, another Death Valley visit is all over but for the photo developing.