Penny Thoughts

Day 7…woke up in the lux king bed at the Inn at Death Valley. Arrival the evening before was too dark to do any exploring plus the wind had kicked up so it was also chilly.

I hopped out of bed and flung open the drapes to see what glorious view laid before me….got a golf cart parking lot and a sliver of mountain. Meh. Off to breakfast.

It looks sunny and serene but it was really quite windy…35mph gusts forecasted. A good day to stay inside with a book and a coffee (w/Baileys!), at least for the morning. Let it warm up a bit before outdoor adventures.

By early afternoon I was already stir crazy so wind be damned, I headed out to explore a bit. First order of business: explore the grounds. Next, the little sister complex to the Inn: The Ranch at the Oasis. Caters a bit more to families. It’s also where all of the gift shops are along with the golf course, horse stables and more relaxed dining options.

The pool at the Inn is spring-fed, and a desert spring feeds that pool a steady supply of 80 degree water. Even on a chilly day that pool is niiiiice.

The Inn takes every opportunity to tell/honor the story of the people that carved and built it out of the surroundings. The entrance is up on a hill so to get from your room to the parking lot, you use a tunnel, complete with a peek into a mine shaft.

Across the street there is what looks to be an old mission. I’m not sure if it’s a refurbed ruin or relatively new construction made to look like a ruin. Either way, it’s a lovely roofless, crumbling wall space.

Currently used for weddings. Today I used it to contemplate and commune with a new, tiny friend.

After bonding with my little hummingbird friend, I set off to visit the Ranch at the Oasis. It’s a very nice complex with shops and a couple of restaurants, and an outdoor museum for the Harmony Borax Works. A sign invited one to venture a little further up the road to visit the ruins on the actual site of the Borax refining operation…so I did.

I love me some ruins. They tell of long gone days when the desert was full of pioneering types, bringing with them hope and promise of a better life. To be fair it also tells of immigrants working for food and shelter basically, and prospectors exploding mountainsides and displacing indigenous people and wildlife. Westward-ho adventurers… not always as romantic as it sounds.

Today it was just windy.

If you ever find yourself in Death Valley I highly recommend a stop at the Harmony Borax Works ruin park. The organization that worked to preserve the area has done an excellent job.

Next stop on the wandering adventure was Zabriskie Point. Just a beautiful area, Got there specifically for sunset and was not disappointed.

There isn’t much to say…the pictures do a decent job but oh what I would give for a quality camera. Sunset just isn’t captured well…maybe we’re not meant to see it through someone else’s lens. Just go there and take it in with your own eyes.

The Black and Tan rolling hills were SO cool…pictures just don’t do it justice At All.

Back at the Inn, reservations are required for dinner and the earliest available is 8:00pm. Reservations required because of reduced capacity due to staffing and covid. The only disappointment in this entire experience is that this place is populated primarily with 70-something mildly wealthy people who, by virtue of age and station, have no concept of patience or grace when it comes to having to wait for a drink or the bill or any other human attribute of the service industry.

I am more than happy to wait for my table, wait for my server, wait for whatever. Not being in any kind of hurry is a glorious way to be.

Splurged for dinner and ordered the ribeye. Enjoyed it next to the fireplace. Simply delightful.

Dinner this evening was delicious, marred only by the septuagenarian at the next table regaling his tablemates with tales of his chronic bloated bowels and painful gas. Against my will I learned that he resolved a lot of these issues with boiled chicken, and the exercises he learned to tighten up his sphincter.

There isn’t much to see after the sun goes down and you leave the penumbra of exterior lighting. You have no idea of the mountains around you, but the stars! So many stars, you can’t help but wonder at the wonder that was inspired by all those stars by people who lived here before satellites and telescopes, before electricity.

Soon enough it was time for bed. The next morning would provide another possibly otherworldly visit, but that’s for Day 8.

Thanks for reading!