Foxy Brown

I think I might have misnamed the van.  She was so well-behaved all day through Death Valley that maybe her nickname should be "Foxy Brown".  She didn't fry any of our electronics today but that's probably because we didn't plug in any.

Here she is in the morning.  Isn't she beautiful?

We left Lone Pine at 7:30 and spent the entire day in Death Valley National Park, the fifth largest National Park in the U.S. and the largest in the lower 48.   Here are John and the girls at the entrance to the park.

And this is why John now enjoys the van.  He can nap while I drive.

We stopped at Badwater, 282 below sea level, the lowest point in North America.  

We then drove Artist's Drive in the Park, and it was stunningly beautiful.  But it was the only time Vanna gave us pause.  We had to descend in second gear and she started making a "ting ting ting ting ting" noise that went away when we put in the clutch.  So I suspect it's an issue with the transmission and hopefully a minor one too.  But later in the day it was harder to shift into first gear.  Keeping fingers crossed...

Here's Artist's Drive:

We drove hwy 178 for miles and encountered few cars.  But we did see this, another "foxy":

Actually there were two of them.  Here's a video.  

http://youtu.be/I0MHKCHCork

We then headed to Palm Springs and the most direct route was I-15 south.   Driving it reminded me why I am avoiding freeways.  We saw little of interest as billboards, fast food restaurants, and gas stations flew by and many other drivers were rude.  I don't think they appreciated a VW Westfalia. 

No more interstates for us.

We rolled into Indio, California around 7:30 at night to spend a couple of days with Roy and Randy, good friends and snowbirds from Seattle.  And no, John is not wearing a suit under that towel.