Joy in the Desert

It's truly grand to be poking around the Death Valley area with one's RV, one's dogs and one's camera! The day was perfect and there was no schedule to keep. Still laughing over needing to be "downtown" Shoshone for wifi, I stopped to snap these pics of St. John(who else)the Baptist Catholic Church.

Here are some more shots of the amazing terrain outside Tecopa of the mineral flats, the hills, and the waters. Some of the pools here can hit as high as 118o. The muds are considered healing but after reading the warning sign, I opted not to get buck naked next to the road and slather up with mite-ridden mud.

The hills are so dramatic in this area. At times they are a quilt of colors; then the scenery becomes just shades of black and gray that more resembles a moonscape rather than California.

I'm always a sucker to get a picture of a fence, a road or a gate. These were abundant.

The biggest delight of the day was stopping at a new(to me) place just outside of Baker and south of Dumont Dunes. It's Cedar Salt Creek and an actual oasis in the middle of rocky dry desert. Birds filled what cedars were left--the government tree-huggers think the cedars must be evil and destroyed since they were introduced by humans.

Read the sign about leaving a few trees so they can bring joy to the birds! Where do they hire these people??? Wonder if the joyful owl leaves the dead mouse who came to enjoy the water with the same feeling of joy as it was plucked from the desert floor to become owl dinner?

I ended the day before heading back to Holy Resurrection Monastery by stopping in Baker to get one of the world's best strawberry milkshakes at The Mad Greek. "Mad" is the operative word here! The parking lot is filled with RVs, sand toys, big rigs all parked helter skelter. Inside it's total controlled chaos. I counted 9 counter workers just taking and filling orders. They were all yelling Spanish to each other. They had to yell because of all the people and the frantic Greek music blaring over the tinny speakers all through the joint! I got the last 3 spinokopita and was rejoicing in my good luck--but I rejoiced too soon. Byrdie managed to get them out of the bag and wolfed down before I got the RV maneuvered out of the parking lot. BAD DOG!!!