We hit the lowpoint....

Location: Delight's Hot Spring Resort, Tecopa, CA

in the United States at 285 feet below sea level at Badwater, Death Valley. Okay, that was a trick, but it seemed appropriate on Halloween. The temperature last night was no where near the night below, but closer to 45. Needless to say it felt a heck of a lot better getting up and at 'em this morning. We didn't have to walk very far, perhaps 50 feet to take advantage of Keough's finest...a rather run down soaking and swimming pool. We've stayed here a couple of times before so we knew what we were getting into, literally. Nevertheless it still felt great to get a good 45 minute soak before heading off for the day. I took a great photo of Ned sitting in front of the old bath house looking like a man of leisure. What a crack-up! We took our time continuing down 395 stopping for mochas and to visit the Beverly and Jim Rogers Film Museum in Lone Pine - fun, kitschy place. Eventually we veered left and headed for the bowels of Death Valley. The highlight of the day was having a late lunch in Stove Pipe. What a fiasco, kinda like a Lucy Show episode. There were 4 couples in the dining room and one waiter. He was absolutely clueless!! After taking all of our orders he proceeded to bring each table the wrong lunch. To make matters worse he started grabbing plates off each table and switching them to try and make the orders right. At one point we all threw our hands up in the air, to indicate we hadn't actually taken a bite out of someone else's lunch and then everyone started laughing. One woman even started videotaping the "great lunch swap caper". The poor guy even managed to screw up our check which was par for the course.

Since we've explored Death Valley before we decided to drive past Furnace Creek and take the long Southern route through the valley. It was interesting to see Death Valley from the floor looking up, rather than viewing it from the overlooks. It was even better to experience it at 90 degrees rather than the triple digits!

Tonight's spa adventure is at "Delight Hot Springs Resort." It's located in Tecopa, a funky small desert town. There are 4 private baths to which we have unlimited access. They are decorated Greco-Roman style, freshly painted and in pristine condition. Th.at said, the RV park is just that...a place to park your RV...in the desert, with no water available. Because it's Halloween, and it's in the middle of the desert on a Wed night we have the place to ourselves. We've already taken a dip in each and every bath, cuz we could. We are now sitting outside in our bathrobes enjoying the pleasant desert night time air, with some wine and crackers. We are looking forward to a possible midnight soak and then another one before we leave. The good news is "taking the cure" as definitely cured my cold. Let's hope it does wonders for Ned's achey joints.

Cruising Down 395: Bodie, Mammoth & Crowley's Hot Springs

Location: Keough Hot Springs, Bishop, CA

After a chilly start, (it takes a strong constitution to take a pee in the high desert at 29 degrees!) we continued our drive down Highway 395. It had been at least 15 or so years since either of us had been to Bodie so we thought it would be fun to poke around there again. By the time we drove down the washboard road and entered the park it had warmed up to at least the mid 60's. Perfect for doing the walking tour and reading about all the history. Ned was the tour guide and I concentrated on taking photos. There were very few people there and it was quite fun to have the place to ourselves. Hard to believe that over 10,000 people lived in this Godforsaken place! It took 8 days to bring a wagonload of supplies in from Carson City. Temperatures could reach 120 in the summer and the winter could bring 20 feet of snow. Given these harsh conditions it's amazing that there are still parts of this town standing. Our next destination was Devil's Postpile National Monument. We drove by Mammoth Ski Resort which seemed to have about 2 feet or so of snow from last week's storm. When we reached the gate to Devil's Postpile, it was closed for the winter. Bummer. Note to self - remember to check this out in the summer months. We drove around the Mammoth Ski Resort and were wowed with some of it's high end shops and housing. I don't know, give me the low key atmosphere of North Lake Tahoe any day.
We had read about several hot springs in the Owen Valley that were on government land but were below the radar, known to locals and not advertised. We took several miles of dirt roads, followed the printed directions that included such details as "turn right on the alkaline road immediately after the second cattle grate...take a hard right near the large rock and then veer left at the fork." The walk to the hot springs was along a boardwalk about a 1/4 mile. Amazingly we found this sweet hot springs. When we first arrived we thought we had it to ourselves and were just ready to go native when a family of 5 arrived, including their 2 small children and dog. Ned, being the scientist he is, had brought along his thermometer so we could measure the temperature of all the hot springs we are going to visit. This particular spring measured at 102. Perfect! We had a great soak and learned from the locals that the other hot springs in the area were valve controlled and had overheated. This spring is completely natural so no temperature issues. We lucked out! After a very relaxing soak we continued onto Keough Hot Springs in Bishop, a place we have stayed at a couple of times before. The pool and hot springs are closed tonight, but we hope to take advantage of them in the morning. We did measure the natural creek and hot springs that are on government land close by, but since they were only about 92 deg, we are holding out for the private one tomorrow. This desert weather is something else. It was quite pleasant warming up to 76 degrees today, but now that the sun has gone down the temperature is plummeting quickly. Looks like another cold night and morning. Good thing I'm snuggling with my honey tonight!

First Hot Springs of the Trip

Location: Side of the road behind a bush near Bridgeport, CA

If I had any reservations about turning 55, today certainly obliterated them. Sign me up for those senior breakfast discounts and hanging out with old people "taking the cure." Seriously, the best birthday present I could have ever wished for was traveling again with my hubby. It felt so great to have him by my side traveling the backroads.
As we headed for Lake Tahoe, our first destination was Sunnyside Resort. We picked up a tshirt for my brother-in-law, Eric, and marveled how different this favorite summer hangout is in the late fall. The beach was deserted, the tables stacked up and no scantily clad tanned bodies roamed about. The trade-off was having the crisp fall day to ourselves. There's something quiet and wonderful about visiting Tahoe between seasons. We continued on highway 89 stopping off at several turnouts to admire the view (does one ever get tired of seeing the crystal blue water of Tahoe?). We had a late lunch at Bert's, a mom and pop diner, then continued on to Grover Hot Springs, our first stop on the "Hot Springs Fling". Even tho it's relatively close to home, neither of us had visited this hot spring before. It absolutely exceeded our expectation. The hot springs pool was about 104 degrees and the cooling off pool was in the mid-80's. We spent a good hour and a half going back and forth between soaking and swimming. Of course it didn't hurt that the air temp was in the mid-70's.
The good news is that Ned tried to see if he was able to swim again. In July he tried it and was unable to do more than 2 freestyle strokes. Today he swam 2 laps before his shoulder gave out. That's great progress! At it's peak, there were about 20 or so people there, the majority of them middle aged and visiting from Russia, Japan, Australia and we think Mongolia? By the time we left at about 4ish I was completely relaxed. Our goal is to visit a hot springs every day for 2 weeks - some private, some public and some just tucked away on the side of road. So far, I'd give this one a solid B - great water, good atmosphere, and choice of both hot and cool pools. If this is day one of our trip, dang, I'm gonna be one mellow chick by the end of the "Hot Springs Fling"! The campground at Grover was closed so we decided to drive over Monitor Pass, connect with highway 395 and venture onto one of the various National Forest campgrounds along the way. The drive over the pass was absolutely stunning! The late afternoon shadows, pink alpenglow and golden pockets of Aspen turning colors were quite a sight. Unfortunately every National Forest campground was closed for the season and after our low-key chill day, we couldn't bring ourselves to be in a seedy private campground. We finally decided to camp outside of Bridgeport, near a reservoir on a deserted dirt road. We have a great view of the snow-capped Sierras overlooking the water. A glass of wine for moi, cranberry juice for Mr. Ned and a rousing game of skip-bo were the perfect way to end the day. As I write this we can hear the sound of the coyotes calling in the distance. Night!
p.s. We woke up this morning to the most beautiful sunlight on the Eastern Sierras.
Check out the last photo. (It was a balmy 29 degrees...thank god for the heater in the Winniemobile!)