Day 7, The Long and Lonely Road

March 28, 2023

Death Valley, at 3.4 million acres, is the largest national park in the contiguous 48 states. More than 90% is protected wilderness. As we left the park, we made sure we had gas since we'd be driving for a long time with not more much besides vast expanses.

We drove through Death Valley Junction. Pretty much at all that is there is the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel. It was originally built by the borax company but was abandoned in 1925. In 1957, Marta Becket came across the abandoned building and felt it was asking her to ressurect the building. She moved from NYC and began offering dance and mime performances but the audiences were small so she began to paint an audience on the walls. It took her four years. There were no tours anytime close to when we passed through so the image is from the web.

From Death Valley to the Mohave.

We are outside Barstow tonight. It is about halfway to our next stop. I found a Harvest Host at Slash X Cafe, about 10 miles outside Barstow. Turns out, it's only open Friday-Sunday and is a biker, ATV, OTV destination. It must do a great business since there isn't anything else for miles. It has a huge area out back. So far, we are one of three RVs, all with plenty of space.

When we arrived, we found our battery hadn't charged while we were driving. Luckily, we have plug-in solar panel charging. Denis spent lots of time researching, testing charges, etc. I contacted his brother-in-law, Jim. He and Denis's sister were out 2.5 years in their RV. We had been on battery power for 4 days and had run the battery down to the point it wasn't enough to recharge while driving. It's good to know our limits 🙂 and to have the solar suitcase.

It's a bit windy tonight. Luckily, we have everything we need so we'll have an easy evening and an early night.

A note on Death Valley camping: I like to know we have a place to stay. I remember one night on our cross-county trip that we were lucky enough to get a space miles from the park. We watched RV after RV drive through the campground looking for a spot. I wondered where dune of them ended up. 

Death Valley has many campgrounds and many spots each night. The one we might have liked to stay at was full every night we were there. But, for the senior cost of $7/night, we probably could have been happy at another of the campgrounds. On the other hand, we stayed in Death Valley at a campground run by a concessioner. We paid $28.00/night and had clean bathrooms with flush toilets, Internet, access to a spring-fed pool, and warm showers with shampoo, conditioner, body wash and towels. There are California state parks that cost more and offer less.