The stay at the Inn prepares us to appreciate the comfort and familiarity of Q. We drive north from Furnace Creek to visit a part of Death Valley we haven't yet seen. Ubehebe Crater. This is a fairly young volcanic crater - a steam crater. The age speculations range for 3,000 to mere hundreds of years.
Ubehebe - it is just fun to say that name
Since tomorrow will be an exploration of the Racetrack, we will drive around Ubehebe and head south on yet another washboard road - one that doesn't rattle our brain cages so much because Alex reduces the tire pressure to soften the bumps. The drive is made even more lovely by the presence of big clouds hanging over the mountaintops providing a fresh dusting of snow.
In the night we awaken to howling wind. The wind is musical enough to lull us back into deep sleep - and also sweeps all the clouds away. The waning moon is still very bright - as Alex describes to his mate who tends to miss such things as moon phases and shooting stars because she is such a fine sound sleeper.
The very tolerable washboard rocky road takes us to Teakettle Junction where we assist with a bit of photography. These three friends from Colorado, Wisconsin, and Chicago flew here and rented a jeep. They have been exploring Death Valley's backcountry and camping. They shared their big windy night stories with us. The Chicago Cubs T-shirt wearing guy says he slept through it all because he was wearing his noise-canceling headphones.
They offer, we accept - to take our photo too.
One of the donated tea kettles is a sauce pan that says, "Whar we come from, this here is a teakettle."
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