Windy, Windy Night!! Glad we are still standing.

Wednesday, February 24, 2012.  We broke camp at Walker Lake and continued our journey south towards Death Valley.  A totally different route, we passed through Beatty, Nevada and over the summit into the Valley.  We were totally surprised at the accommodations that have been made for the masses that want to visit and stay in Death Valley.  Of course there are the old standby campgrounds but they need to be reserved 6 months in advance and therefore are impossible to secure.  Now, however, the park has opened up a huge “parking lot” sort of facility that allows campers – RV’s, Trailers and Tents – to camp in the gravel.  This sounds unattractive but it really isn’t.  The spots are really wide and the fact that lots of us can stay in the valley now more than makes up for the non-campground feel.  You still get the incredible vistas and dark sky that Death Valley is known for.  We (because we are old and have a senior pass) only had to pay $7 a night.  There are toilets and running water (sinks) which makes it possible for tent folk to utilize this facility also.  By the way, these spots are only FF (first come, first serve), unlike the traditional campground.





So, remember the wind that we experienced this morning at Walker Lake?  Well, it hit us with a vengeance tonight beginning at about 4pm.  I have never experienced a wind event like that.  It shook the trailer so bad that it (the trailer) fell off its blocks!  I guess what happened is that the wind moved the trailer off of the wheel chocks, they blew away and since the wheels were now free to move, they did so, thereby knocking that brand new tongue jack off of the block of wood it was sitting on and onto the gravel.  Russ had to go back outside and resecure the trailer tires with scissor chocks (thank God we had 2).  The rest of the night I kept thinking of tornadoes and how they always hit Trailer Parks and how we could end up in OZ, etc, etc,.  Took some melatonin and fortunately (not sure how) I was able to sleep.  

The above picture was taken from the parking lot campground where we stayed.  Not sure it was this windy night but I thought I would share it here.  Need a good way to close this post.


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