Death Valley, CA

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Jimmie Arrives in Los Angeles!!! I picked him up at LAX around 930 and we went straight to the Farmers Market near The Grove in Hollywood. The Grove is an somewhat upscale, mostly chain store, shopping area at 3rd and Fairfax. It reminds me of a backlot. The Farmers Market is attached to The Grove and has a lot of little food vendors and much more of a flea/farmer's market feel. We picked up a piece of cake for Kelci before leaving to meet her for lunch at In-N-Out. Jimmie is taking 3 weeks vacation. Here is our itinerary: spend a couple of days here with Kelci, go camping in Death Valley for 3 nights, go to Vegas for 3 nights, then road trip to my sister's in Tucson for a few days, back to L.A. for a night, then off to Vacaville for New Year's Eve, on the 1st we go to Costonoa, a "luxury" camping resort in Northern California for 4 nights, to San Francisco for 2 days, Shay's for a night, then down Hwy 1 and 101 all the way to L.A. We left for Death Valley early on the 20th. After a long, interesting (there have got to be fugitives in some of those little towns out there in that desert) and sometimes beautiful drive, we arrived at our walk-in campsite #14 around 5 pm. Shay and Mike pulled up, horn blowing, maybe 10 minutes later. It took us awhile to set up the camp and for the next 3 days we endured cold nights (29 degrees…there were ice crystals outside of the sleeping bags), windy weather (the last night we had 35 mph gusts) and long drives (to get anywhere in Death Valley). In spite of all this (or maybe because of it) we had a great time in Death Valley. It is really a unique and beautiful place.

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Photos

Death Valley
Me and Jimmie

Death Valley
Clean that windshield Jimmie

Death Valley
Shay and Mike arrive

Eating s'mores
ummm..

Death Valley
stargazing

Death Valley
Jimmie, King of Fire, stayed in shorts (in freezing night temperatures) almost everyday for 3 weeks!

Death Valley
Cozy, cozy

Death Valley
Is Shay warm enough?

Death Valley
Breakfast.