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May 1 - Wheels up at 6:46 AM and I’m off. This was nearly a non-stop day blasting 660 miles straight down Interstate 5 to Corning, CA. Home of the Olive Pit and the only reason I stayed on I-5. This place has the best olives on planet earth. Well, at least I’ve not found any others that come close. They only sell their product in their store in Corning and on the internet. I pulled into the parking lot just as they were putting the “CLOSED” sign in the window. Rats! May
2 - I got up the next morning bought a case of “Dynamic
Duos” (jalapeño and garlic stuffed olives) plus an assortment
of other new flavors and hit the road. I drove east over the Sacramento
River (with views of Mt. Lassen off in the distance) on Hwy CR-A9 to SR-99
and then southeast through Chico, where my in-laws spend time each year
on their annual trek down south. |
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At
Marysville I turned east onto SR-20 and the rolling foothills. I entered
Tahoe National Forest just before entering I-80 about 20 miles west of
Donner Pass and followed it all the way to Reno, NV and finally Carson
City. |
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Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Mts. |
 Bodie ghost town 
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Along the way was one of the trip highlights. Bodie ghost town has lots of buildings standing and most filled with furniture and supplies. Since most of the builds are locked I had to shoot photos by sticking the camera up to the window or finding a hole in a wall, door, or window. I some cases my photos provided a better view of the inside of buildings than what I saw with my own eyes.
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| The town was really cool but the views on the 13 mile road (in and out) were an added bonus. This a side trip well worth taking. | ||
 Bodie ghost town |
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 Mt. Whitney - 14,491 ft. The tallest peak in the continental US. |
My day came to an end with Mt Whitney standing regally among a long line of other lofty peaks. |
 SR-136 with Mt. Whitney in the background. |
May 5 - I said goodbye to Highway 395 and unknowingly also to my cable to the digital camera that I accidentally left behind in my room. More about that later… I headed east on SR-136 and SR-190. As the snowcapped peaks became smaller in my rearview mirror the desert became more pronounced and the temperature rose. |
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 SR-190 |
I was far more impressed with Death Valley National Park than I expected to be. As I first entered the park the Sierra Nevada Mountains could still be seen behind me. |  |
 The valley 'before' Death Valley |
The extreme elevation differences seen in one spot is amazing. I stopped and took a panorama photograph of what I thought was Death Valley but it was just a “warm up valley” getting me prepared for deeper and better things. | ||
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Once I dropped into the “real” valley I was astonished by the wild temperature shifts. |
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 Death Valley |
At the top of the rim the temperature was in the upper 70s but the deeper I drove things began to heat up. | ||
The last 1,000 feet the temperature rose 1° per 100 foot drop. I was 107° at 10:30 AM on the valley floor BUT it was a dry heat. It’s true! It really didn’t seem that hot. Thirty minutes later I had driven from 200 feet below sea level to the top of a pimple like hill in the valley (about 3,000 ft.) where the temperature was back down to 78°! The only thing hotter than the valley floor was the price for gasoline. Yikes. I had to pay $3.09 per gallon. The rest of the drive wasn’t anything much to write about as I took Stateline Road out of Death Valley Junction to Pahrump and then SR-190 on into Las Vegas and Henderson, NV. I stayed out near Sam’s Town in the eastern Vegas area. I lost about $50 that first night. Grumble, grumble, grumble. May 6 - I just kicked around the strip and visited Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. That was pretty cool but unfortunately I forgot my camera and my “Frankenstein ankles” weren’t willing to walk back after it. Later that afternoon I found a shop to do routine maintenance on my Jeep (just another wild day in Las Vegas). That night I did a little better, I won $200 dollars. When I went to bed I was $150 to the good as far a gambling went and decided I’d leave town the next morning while I was still ahead.   |
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