A 'near death' experience.......

(CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE)

6:58 am - PDST - Sunday - 59º F, humidity 35%, wind 3 mph out of the east......partly cloudy with a forecast high of 90º F.

Sun just hitting the mountains to the west Sunday morning

I was up by 6:30 am Saturday thinking about the few things I had yet to do in order to be ready to roll our wheels by 10 am.  We only had about 37 miles to drive back to Tecopa to get some more hot springs action before descending into Death Valley and its many below sea level attractions.  Originally we had wanted to spend the better part of a week in Death Valley, but a heatwave changed our minds.  We have not run our A/C since late November whilst we sojourned at the Elks Lodge in Fontana, CA and we work quite hard at avoiding those situations.  If we must run our A/C we prefer to be attached to an electrical outlet, as it gets quite expensive running the Kohler propane generator for hours on end, plus who wants to be anywhere where A/C is required more than an hour, or two each day.  Hence the two day sojourn in Pahrump, and now two more days in Tecopa before we hit Death Valley on Monday at the end of the heatwave and a return to more seasonal temperatures in the 70's and 80's. 

After dumping our black and gray tanks at the Elks Lodge dump station we were on our way down Basin (departure time 9:58 am) for a few miles, then left on Linda over to SR-372 and a fuel stop at the local Fastrip where we took on 80 gallons at $2.41/gallon.....probably the best price we will see between there and Lake Tahoe a month from now.  After that short stop we found ourselves arriving at Tecopa Hot Springs Campground and Pools around 11:30 am......we parked in site D-6 once again, plugged into the 30 amp receptacle, and immediately turned on the A/C to cool things down inside.

We spent the afternoon watching more NCAA March Madness.....a perfect alternative to being out side in the 90º+ afternoon......around 2 pm, however, we walked up to the bath house for our first soak this time around.  I don't know if I mentioned this the last time we were here but the soaking pools are gender segregated, and clothing is optional.....in other words women have their soaking pools, men have theirs and no one wears any clothing.....:-)  

We were both back a little after 3 pm, and by 4 pm we were on our way to visit Death Valley Brewing Company over in Tecopa proper (next to the USPS office).  When we were here a week, or so ago they were not open on Thursday, and we failed to get over there again on Friday when they were.  You can purchase one of their mugs for $7, which TLE informed me we were.....for her anyway....she chose the Peach Habanero Ale (shown below), and I chose the Caramel Pecan Porter (I had this last time at the neighboring steak house)......

.....it was still a little warm at 4 pm so we sat outside......like that was a difficult choice for us....we always go for the alfresco experience.......

TLE enjoying the alfresco ambiance

.......notice in the picture below the wood sculpture which appears to be a mug of beer overflowing....very, very cool.......

.....we sat on the veranda enjoying our brews and talking for about 45 minutes and then headed back to the coach for the evening just in time to catch the ends of two close March Madness games.  The rest of the evening was spent watching several more games which determined 8 of the sweet 16 bracket spots.....the remaining 8 will be decided Sunday.

So, we are nearer to Death Valley by 37 miles with about 65 to go on Monday......thanks for stopping by!

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