We got up this morning and had breakfast at this cafe by the hotel. The group loved it, they thought they'd stepped into a movie. It was great fun! The waitress told them their accents were "pretty" ha, they thought that was hilarious. Then I told them they were considered pretty exotic for those parts and they thought that was even funnier.
We headed to Bodie in the morning. An hour away and down a road into the open places and then there is this HUGE town. Its so amazing. What a cool place. I loved every minute of it. They just left the whole thing as it was. The store still was stocked (you can't go in but you can see it) the school books were gathering dust on the desks. It was fantastic! We got there just in time for a historian to tell us some stories and then we walked around.
We headed to Lee Vining next for some lunch. My goodness, there are some good places there! I bought some provisions at the market and then met my group in time to shoot off for the South Tufa grove outside Lee Vining. that place is really cool as well. I'll put a picture on tomorrow. Its getting late and I have a 4:30am wake up call tomorrow. We leave for Death Valley at 5:30am. Ouch!
When we pulled into Lone Pine we had a nice quick check in at our hotel and then I sent them to get food and find some dinner as they "roll up the sidewalks" at 8pm here and so off they went. Right on the corner by our hotel was a produce stand of fresh local stuff and also a taco truck so guess where I ate tonight? $2 tacos! So good. I ate at a table set up next to the fruit tables and had a great time. I walked around Lone Pine for a bit and then headed back to the hotel so I could look up some stuff for Las Vegas tomorrow afternoon evening.
The group is really nervous to go into Death Valley and really really excited to get to Las Vegas so you can see the natural progression there. We'll speed through the park and then lunch in Baker and then onto Vegas to get checked in and changed and out the door again! Oh boy! I'll be ready for a nap by then.
Today was a better day than yesterday. I stopped and read signs more and talked to locals when I had a chance and then I could share some stuff with the group. It was better today. I've got one problem child and he isn't even the child of the group but beyond that they are fantastic. My problem person kept asking me a ton of questions as I was trying to keep us alive in a gale force wind on the highway. I kept saying "I'm concentrating on the road, give me one minute" as I was swerving to keep us on course. Sheesh. Finally someone in the group told him to leave me alone.
Our hotel was a little scary looking but clean and the owners are nice. I got the master suite room with a king sized bed and jacuzzi tub! Its really nice! I even got a table and chairs to do my work on!
The hotel (and town) sit just below the mountains. Mt Whitney is just behind us. The sun was setting behind them tonight and it was casting beams of light up over the peaks. It was really beautiful. What a great place. It is really hot here. Like 90 degrees and that was at 8pm. Its supposed to be 115 in Death Valley. We'll see how they do. I told them we wouldn't have Air Conditioning so they are really panicked. I'll turn it on for them though so it will be okay.
This is really hard work. I haven't found a good system for my stuff and keeping it all together and giving myself time to take a break. Not sure how to fit that in actually. Today I stopped in Bishop at the Starbucks so I could buy some much needed items for the van and also find out everything about Lone Pine before I got there. So I felt pretty savvy about having pulled that off. They just thought they were getting a cold coffee stop.
Off to bed. Its late now and I have a huge day tomorrow. Tons of driving and really hot temps too.
By the way Walker CA is a great little place. Everyone is friendly and the food is great and our hotel is run by the nicest people Sam and Linda (Toiyabe Hotel) I really enjoyed myself there. The walls were a little thin though I realized this morning when I sneezed in the bathroom and one of my group members said bless you. Ha!
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