Bishop CA

Saturday 26 Aug
Day 39, 12,573 km

Back in California now, trip closing to an end, better to do an update now to wrap up Las Vegas, and today's run through Death Valley.

Fremont St

Completed the stopover in Vegas with the evening at the 'old' part of town, Fremont St, keeping its end up as a popular venue of colour, sound, and light.

Most of the street's covered, and a light show plays overhead on the hour, dress-ups thread through the crowd below, Chaplin, Elvis, Kiss, go-go dancers, showgirls!!!, a bloke playing sax, I suckered for his CD.

We had a $14 go-for-it smorgasbord at one of the casinos, and left like bloated ticks.

A taxi driver told us he'd never leave Vegas,

everything he needed he could get here, and I believe him. Anytime he ever went anywhere else, the place was usually closed.

The weather's great. At 2-3" annual rainfall, it never rains, and apart from the couple of months either side of our visit, the temperatures are most equitable, mid-winter maybe 16-18c.

Checking google, average house values, mid $200ks, rates av $2800, av income $32,000.

You might think it'd be more here, but when you consider all the jobs you see, croupiers, cab-drivers, doormen, girls serving drinks, cleaners...

looks about right.

I was trying to justify what one cabbie told us about commercial property taxes on several of the stalled mid-city casino building projects

He said, $27 million per acre annual rates........ going down the gurgler as the recession crawled on.

Who knows........

Certainly a wad of electricity and water getting utilised along the Strip, the metropolitan pop is 1.6 million. Sure everything they ever want is available here, but its all carted in...

including the tourists who mostly cart themselves in.

Who's to judge if its good or bad, pleasure or sin...

I think its fun, as long as the ATM holds out.

Speaking of....,

the ATM coverage is heaps better this year, never been short of a place to get cash, anywhere.

I put in my BNZ card, and the screen says 'Hello John'

And have mentioned before, Vodafone's global roam partner, AT&T, has improved its coverage.

Had an interesting chat with a cell system engineer in my travels, who confirmed AT&T's investment.

On enquiring about what we had in NZ I mentioned Telecom and he quizzed.... T Mobile?

and I said, well, maybe its what we call XT, and he looked skyward and rolled his eyes.

Lol, sorry folks.....

seems like its been a lemon here too.

The inter and intra-state competing company system here, is still an impediemnt to comms and coverage while travelling.

The best way is still to get yourself a SSHD netbook, and email off the free wifi available at all self-respecting motels, but texting works seamlessly and cheap to and from all your contacts list numbers.

Back to the weather, and the prevailing 2 months of summer heat.....

Its not like this all the time, and maybe it would be more astute to tackle Death Valley any other time of the year.

Lisa Tamati ran it a while back in an ultra event, so by motorbike shouldnt be a problem.

Despite the hoohaa its a Natl Park, heaps of tourist traffic.

If you strike problems, stay with your vehicle is the mantra, someone will pass by soon.

The place got its name when one of the original group of intrepids died while trying to get a wagon train through the salt and over the mountains, to California and the coast.

They didnt know there were actually 3 valleys and ranges to conquer, ate all their wagon oxen

and walked out, but I'm not sure exactly where, or if, they succeeded in breaking the trail.



Badwater 282' BSL



It was 116F going through Stovepipe Wells, a small mid-desert community where you can get gas, the record is somewhere in the 120's.

Out of interest, the CB held itself to 88-90c engine temp through this, but rose to an almost alarming 105c in the 4900' climb out of the valley.

This year I took H178 from Shoshone, which climbs over 3300' Salsberry Pass before dropping to sub-sea level Badwater Springs at -282'. This way you get to travel along the valley, rather than just pass over the top via H190.

You miss Zabriskie Point, iconised by the movie 'Vanishing Point', but down this way you get a cute little drive around Artist's Drive, all sealed road, coloured gulleys and gulches.

Out of all this heat, gets one down to Lone Pine, approaching the same time as a thunder storm, with accompanying lightning. So hove into the Lees Frontier gas station for a salad and milkshake, and an hours storm dodge.

There was another looming from the northwest, so when the poplars started to bend, time to hit the road, one storm chasing, the other off to the southeast, and only a wet road to contend with, but a nice straight 4 lane run on new surface down here to Bishop...

and a couple of cans beside the pool.