Monday 19th September

---

So today was our longest distance drive of the whole trip from Furnace Creek to Mammoth Lakes a total of 204 miles. However before that adventure could begin we had to experience our first 'dump'. As our next campsite would not have individual dumps ,we had been advised to do this before leaving. So it was out with the black hose,on with the gloves and after pulling two levers and rinsing said hose out we were all empty and ready to go. Ours had a leak and we appear to have a rubber seal missing - will have to look for one at our next campsite shop.

After that excitement our first stop was to refill with petrol, another minefield as you have to pay for how much you want then put the fuel in. If you can't get it all in they refund the difference on your card!! So $50 worth went in and off we went. The route out of Death Valley was quite a spectacular drive as we climbed up and up, with some very sharp bends and drops, but the views were worth it. Then we headed into Lone Pine a lovely small town and the home of the Museum of Lone Pine Film History. This museum contains exhibits and displays relating to the 450 films shot around this area. These films were mostly westerns, not a genre I know much about, but I did have my photo taken next to the Lone Ranger and Tonto who I do remember from my childhood. We also bought some more fuel managing to get $60 worth in this time - all that climbing had paid havoc with the fuel consumption!! Ellie has a V10 automatic ford engine with double air con and only does about 10 miles to the gallon. Luckily unleaded fuel is around 2 -3 $ a gallon, but it is still an expense when you need so much!

Our next stop was the Manzanar National Historic Site which stands as a monument to the infamous war concentration camp that was built here during WWII. We have to admit to having no knowledge of this, but the federal government interned 10,000 people of Japanese ancestry here following the bombing of Pearl Harbour. It was an excellent interpretive centre and we learned much about this historic episode, including the fact that in 1988 President Nixon signed a treaty apologising for this action by the US and granting all surviving internees $20,000.

Our journey continued and we eventually started to climb into the Sierra Nevada mountains finally arriving at Mammoth Lakes, our base for the next two nights, about 8 hours after leaving Furnace Creek.

We are now planning our next days adventure.

---