New Adventures

We had been told there are many different animals in Death Valley - deer, bighorn sheep, coyotes, kit foxes - but we had not seen anything.  No snakes, no lizards, no nothing.  As we were driving out the east side of Death Valley headed toward Beatty, we rounded a corner in a hilly, but dry area.  Standing there was a herd of about twenty bighorn sheep.  Because we had people behind us, we could not stop, so we didn't get any pictures.  The large ram looking at us is an unforgettable image, however.

The trek to Hawthorne was about 5 hours, and we passed through a lot of desolate country.  We did see several sets of wild burros, but we did not see any of the wild mustangs.

As we came through the town of Tonopah, we noticed the McDonald's had closed down.  A sign above the restaurant said it was "Just down the road."  I knew the next town large enough for McDonald's is Hawthorne, which was 100 miles away.  Somehow, just down the road does not seem like 100 miles.

Tuesday morning, we decided not to go to Lake Tahoe, since the RV park still had one foot of snow in it and it was going to snow some more.  Instead we went to Mono Lake.  Now, Hawthorne is an area where hundreds of ordnances are stores - there are bunkers everywhere.  About 15 miles outside of Hawthorne, we were stopped by a flagman.  It did not appear as if anything was going on, so Don got out of the car to talk to the flagman.  He told us that their firm was exploding old ordnances and weapons, and we needed to wait until they were done.  About 10 minutes later, we heard a large explosion.  The smoke started rising over the hill.  Four more explosions later, a lot of smoke and dust, they were done, and we were allowed to head on our way.

"You think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?"