One day we drove 3, 4-wheel drive vehicles up Pleasant Canyon. From sea level to about 7200 ft. The view as you can see was spectacular. Along the way up, there were lots of old mines from those hardy characters of long time ago that came to DV looking for their fortune. Can you get there without 4-wheel drive? No. So how did those old timers do it? I did say they were hardy, of course they were also tenacious. The view above is Butte Valley, last year we explored a little bit of this valley.

2010 Death Valley Days came and are gone. Am now hanging out in La Quinta, CA, near Palm Spring, CA. Spent time with Cindy, she is getting her condo here ready for a new renter. Last night she took me out to dinner at the Crack Pot, all seafood meals. It was great.

Got an email from High School friend, “Bob”, he is way out in Maine. He reminded me that I had not blogged since Mar 28th, that was two weeks ago. Of course he is right. So what is my excuse?  I was in Death Valley for 17 days, there there is no cell phone service, and the free WI FY only works around the registration office. Perhaps I should qualify “works”, the blog from Mar 28th, was posted from DV, but it took almost 20 minutes to post. E-mail sometimes takes 5 to 10 min to download; therefore, blogging was not very convenient. That is my long winded excuse.

Lots of photos we took seem to require software enhancing, or it is just me not letting well enough alone, so it will take a few days before I post the 2010 Death Valley album.

So here are a couple of photos, the group, above, and Jeanne playing with Dave in Shoshone NV. On this day we went to the China Ranch, an oasis in the middle of the dessert. There they grow dates, and make an excellent date milkshake, yap, I had two of them.

More later, it is time for a stop at Starbuck’s for a hot chocolate, read the paper and publish this blog. I may get wet on the scooter getting to the Starbuck’s, since it has been raining on and off here.