I told you it was an interesting route. We’re currently in NYC, having climbed the Statue of Liberty this morning. It was remarkably, well, small. Both of us expected something large when we got to the crown, but it is only the size of a small bathroom in reality.

Managed to get into standby line for Letterman for Friday night taping, so sometime on Saturday night (assuming we get in), we might be on TV Aussie time.

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001
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Coming to you after a refreshing break in Death Valley yesterday, we’re here in Ridgecrest, California.

After leaving Yuma, we headed north and went through the Joshua Tree National Park which was, well, not that interesting to be honest. Certainly not worth going out of one’s way to see, but then, if you’re in the area and have a National Parks card, might be worth having a look. Or perhaps if you’re more of a U2 fan on a pilgrimage or something.

Anyway, headed further north through some very small towns and found fuel to be the most expensive here in the state of California that we have found anywhere. We knew it would be higher with the higher taxes, but really didn’t expect to see it hitting US$2.40 per gallon so quickly.

Spent a night at the Ocatillo Wells Off-Road Vehicle Recreation Park and now present you with a quiz, to make this a more interactive MooQuack.

Q: The 1990 Ford Econoline, when off-road, in soft desert sand, is most like?

A. A dune buggy.
B. A spritely lizard scampering over the sand.
C. A 4-wheel motorbike.
D. An ocean liner.

Yes, alas, the answer is “D” and we were just turning around to leave the park when the van went down, bogged to the axles in thick soft sand. Bugger. We went and found a ranger who used his truck to pull us out after we had dug ourselves a bit of an exit path with a margarine container and a few sticks, followed by shovels when they arrived. Hurray! Rather embarrassing, but a very cheap place to stay once we got to some more hard-packed sand to rest the night. The camping cost was $FREE and the shower was US$0.50 for five minutes of hot water with high pressure. Lovely!

On the way northward, we left Joshua Tree (okay, this is all out of sequence, but tough luck) and found some large salt pans by the side of the old Route 66 (we ended back up on it somehow). We got out and had a look. There was a chloride company nearby with industrial operations, probably because the water was so briny that salt crystals were actually forming on the surface of the water, like ice.

A few miles down the road, we found a place called Amoby Crater, near the town of Amboy. It’s a national natural landmark, but there is no road to it. In fact, the only way to get there is to scramble across uneven lava flow and rocks all over the surface. It looked like a short stroll from where we could get to with the van to the crater, but it turned out to be about 3 mile round trip to the base and back.

There was another couple with us, from Canada, who had stopped at the same time as us. When we reached the crater base, we halted and looked at it. There was a path leading straight up, but it was very steep. They made it halfway and then the loose gravel and steepness of the slope pulled them to a stop. I decided I was not going to go half way up a volcano after a 1.5 mile moderately strenuous hike to get there and so went up the top by myself. When I reached the top, my lungs were burning and I thought I might be better off to lie down and die than actually bother going down again.

There was a path leading around to the back of the crater and I came down that, but I was almost exhausted by the time we got back to the car. The heat of the day was oppressive, and on top of that, we were walking over heat-absorbing black rocks and highly reflective white sand, so it was like a sauna. The lack of breeze did not help. To find the car, we picked a mountain peak that seemed likely and aimed for it, since there was no way to actually see the car or road from where we were. A most horrid exercise in stupidity that I am glad I did, but recommend only doing if you are in the mood to feel your lungs burn and your head spin.

When en route to Death Valley, we actually just went north a little and dropped over the border to Nevada to buy fuel since it was going to be less. Just over the border was US$1.98 per gallon in Nevada. On the other side, was a fuel station selling it for $US2.39 per gallon in California. We figured all the locals would jump over the border to buy fuel due to the price disparity, and highly recommend anyone travelling the way we did, to do the same. It’s only 7 miles to the border from the turnoff so if you get more than a couple of gallons, it’s worth it.

In Death Valley, it got to 38C/102F, so we can say that we cracked the ton in terms of temperature. Diana really felt it was too hot for words, but I didn’t mind it so much. Not sure I’d want to walk around in it for too long, but I was just happy to see some weather that was not requiring a polar fleece jacket and wind jacket just to walk 50 feet outside the van!

Very beautiful area in some ways, though you have to wonder about the strange souls that actually decided to live there to mine the borax out of it using mule teams. Madness. Sheer madness.

SPOTD went to the woman in strapless high heels who walked straight past the sign saying “do not go past this sign as there is a delicate ecosystem found only in Death Valley” and walked straight to the sign announcing she was at the lowest point in the USA (282 feet below sea level).

Today’s SPOTD went to a guy in the little town of Trona, on the way out of Death Valley. I needed some fuel, so decided to get a few gallons in Trona to get me to a town where the fuel was not US$2.15 per gallon (most expensive fuel we’ve bought so far). One of the things that is beginning to grate on me in the USA is the stupid arrangement where one has to park the car at the bowser, then go inside, line up, pre-pay the bowser, come back out, fill up, walk back inside, line up, collect the change and leave. It really slows things down when it comes to being able to buy fuel. Anyway, the Texaco in Trona is no different.

I went inside and handed over US$20 to pre-pay the bowser and then went back outside to fill up. Nothing. I went back inside and had to line up behind two dope-heads discussing how good the stuff was they had been smoking (”I can see it in your eyes that you’re happy, man! Huh! Huh! Huh!” “I can’t help that man! It’s good stuff! Huh! Huh! Huh!”). Finally, the guy tore himself away from his personal phone call to Dave long enough to tell me that to get fuel, I had to squeeze the trigger of the pump.

No! You don’t say! I naturally informed him that I knew I had to squeeze the damn trigger, but he had to activate the pump first! No, apparently it was my fault for not squeezing the trigger.

I went back outside, hung up the nozzle, took it off again, and tried once more. Nothing.

I went back inside. He looked at me and make trigger-squeezing motions again. I just told him to give me the money back and I’d go somewhere else where the guy behind the counter would do his job. He promptly hung up the phone, ran over to the counter and pressed in on his little machine the sequence to activate the pump. I stood there and watched him do it - he put $20 on Pump 1 and then ran outside to show me how to squeeze the trigger to get fuel out. Of course it worked this time, since he had not activated the pump before…

The moral of the story? This is why people shoot other people in the USA. People are stupid all over the world, but only in a country with lax gun laws would I have been able to pull a handgun out of my pants and threaten to squeeze that damn trigger! Grr!

Ah well, I am calmed down now and ready to relax. To make this a more positive update, I am positive that he was a damn idiot…*grin*

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001
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