Friday, March
18
Morning thoughts:
Up early to get our day going…although the air is
warm, it’s a bit on the cool side for riding so I’m packing a jacket. But by the time we actually leave for the
park, it’ll be considerably warmer.
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Already have reservations made for a KOA in Needles,
CA for 4 days. We’ll use that as a
jumping off place to explore areas along the western side of Arizona. While we don’t want to have a strict schedule
to our time, it feels good to know we have a place to stay. Although, I suppose in a pinch one of us
could bunk in the back seat of the truck and one could squeeze in with the
bikes in the trailer, but I think our bodies would scream at us in the
morning. Reservations are a good thing!
Evening thoughts:
Spent the day riding to, around in, and back from Death
Valley National Park…150 or so miles. The heat was brutal (89o at the
Visitor’s Center at noon, 190 ft below sea level) and being dressed for riding added another dimension
to the heat. Two days ago we were in 15o
weather and today it was over 90. I
sunscreened and reapplied…I’ll know shortly if I needed more or I missed any
exposed spots. Kim’s arms are quite red
right now, but soon he’ll have a nice tan.
Not saying it won’t hurt in the meantime, but his skin tans very
quickly. My skin burns,
hurts, blisters, peels and stays red; I just don’t tan. So sunscreen is my friend. If I were a plant, I’d be a hosta. They do well in the shade…so do I.
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Made it to Badwater Basin in the park today….the
lowest spot in North America at 282 feet below sea level. Darn hot, too!! We were going to walk the 1/2 or so out to the salt flat
area, but after walking in the open sun for about 10 minutes, we turned back. I mean, the salt flats are interesting
and all that, but not worth heat stroke. Sometimes you just have to prioritize.
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*Death Valley is famous as
the hottest place on earth, and the driest and lowest place in North America. Higher
elevations are cooler than the low valley. Temperatures drop 3° to 5° F with
every thousand vertical feet.
*The highest ground
temperature recorded was 201° F at Furnace Creek on July 15, 1972. The maximum
air temperature for that day was 128° F.
*The greatest number of
consecutive days with a maximum temperature of 100° F or above was 160 days in
the summer of 2001. The summer of 1996 had 40 days over 120° F, and 105 days
over 110° F. The summer of 1917 had 43 consecutive days with a high temperature
of 120° F or above.
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We had lunch with Ray and Victoria Wallick
today. They usually head west for the
month of March and spend a good deal of time in Death Valley exploring. So when I texted her about our plans to
visit the park today, she called and we arranged a lunch date. We were a little late due to stopping to take
pictures of the desert flowers and generally not knowing where we were going or
what we were doing. Spent an hour or so
with them, then we were on our way to Badwater Basin and I assume they were
headed back to their air conditioned room.
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I forgot how dirty my hands, face and arms can get when
riding…add sunscreen and heat to the mix and it becomes a special kind of yuck
that only a proper shower can erase.
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Sure it was hot today, but when riding I didn’t feel
like my head was sweating. Itchy, yes…sweating, no. However, when I took my helmet off at a stop…OMGoodness!
the top of my head and do-rag were soaked!
But both were dry in about 10 minutes
with the wind, the sun and the dry heat. Read dry
heat to mean that while it was hot, there was no humidity in the
hair. Not really sure what style I was
sporting as it dried because when I take my helmet off, I do a lot of head
scratching and hair fluffing. But dry is good and the helmet goes back on
anyway.
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On our other bikes trip, we utilized every inch of
storage space because it was just us and the bikes. This trip is different in that most of our
gear will stay in the truck or trailer, so we’ve got extra room in the
saddlebags. We’ve decided that there’s
no such thing as too much water on this trip….riding in the open sun and high
heat can cause dehydration quickly. I
had two bottles with me today…not enough for the heat we encountered. It didn’t stay cold, but it was wet and that’s
what mattered. Lesson learned!
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There was so much beauty all around us today and it
was all natural…nothing man made. The road
was just two lanes with a gravel shoulder.
Not real good for stopping to take pictures, but we did a time or
two. And of course, there was parking at
Badwater, which allowed us to snap away without worrying about being in the way
of traffic. Wasn’t until we got back to the hotel that Kim
discovered he didn’t put the SD card back in the camera last night. So while he really didn’t take any pictures, he claims that he took some really good
ones. Another lesson learned!
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