Day 28: July 14, 2013: Part 2 – Valley of Fire – It NEVER got NOT HOT!

  • Jul 18, 2013
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Nevada!  A new state for the kids!  We won’t be here longer than 48 hours. We are headed to the Valley of Fire and boy oh boy is it on fire!  The high for today is 108 degrees and the rest of the week doesn’t look any cooler.

 

Scott loves taking “Center Line” photos. Although I took this one since Scott was driving and I was on photo deployment.  Sometimes Scott will just stop the car and say, “Photo deployment!”  Then sometimes I’ll shout, “Stop the car!” and I’ll hop out. When the temperature is “oh so hot” it helps to do some drive-by photography.  We remind the kids, “Look out the windows!”

Okay, so one would probably look at the forecast and say, “Gee, maybe camping is a bad idea tonight.” Somehow the night before when it was 97 degrees during the day, it cooled off to the 70s during the night. Providing most of the family a comfortable nights sleep, at least for the majority of the night. However, last night IT NEVER GOT NOT HOT! We are currently walking through water, although that is figuratively, not literally because if we were walking through water it would be heavenly.

We are currently heading towards Lake Mead in hopes of some cooling. We are leaving the Valley of Fire by 6:40 am. We are sad to be leaving without doing any hikes or even seeing the Visitor’s Center, but at least we got a shower in. The showers were each their very own private two foot by four foot room. There were no push buttons or coins to deposit. AND we could take as long of a shower as we wanted.  After showering Brooke I sent her back to the tent with Scott.  How long of a shower did I take?  Twenty-five minutes!  Happy Anniversary to us!  We know how to live life to the fullest!

Our last showers were on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon on July 8th.  Yes, folks that is a record for this trip.  Six days without a shower!  Scott surprisingly has been oh so happy with his rubbing alcohol spray down bath.  He picked that idea up from something he read.  My hair had gotten to the point where I didn’t really need a pony tail holder to keep it in a braid anymore.  The sweat and grit did a nice job of binding my hair together on their own.  You know it might be too long since your last shower when the first time you shampoo your hair the shampoo doesn’t even produce any lather. I definitely have taken advantage of bathrooms with running water and paper towels though and scrubbed my limbs when I could.  For those of you wondering why I made such a big deal about showers in the beginning I just want to recap: six days of close to 100 degree temps, hiking, jogging, biking, sleeping in an Earth coated tent and not showering for almost a full week.  Now do you understand?

Sunrise couldn’t have come soon enough. Brooke cried most of the night. No. That isn’t correct. She howled all night. Scott thought of using the spray bottle for doing Brooke’s hair to cool us down. I would spray Brooke every now and then. She would scream and then go quiet for at least twenty minutes, and then we would do it all over again. At some point she finally started spraying herself. We kept pushing sips from the water bottles too. One other added interesting fact about the Valley of Fire: the State Park was in the process of actively destroying the nests of Killer Bees in the area. Despite the lack of sleep we are glad for the recommendations to the area. It was a uniquely beautiful area.

On another note: sadly one mouse was captured, but another creature took the peanut butter from the other trap and then feasted on our carrots.  There’s nothing like cleaning critter crud packages up in the morning. The critter search continues…

Below are some pictures from the next morning at the Valley of Fire.

Notice the look on Brooke’s face and the aforementioned spray bottle.

 

Do we look like we had a whole two hours of interrupted sleep?  Scott still talks to this day about how his parents took him to Death Valley in the middle of summer.  I’m pretty sure Brooke will never forget Valley of Fire in the middle of July.  That’s our goal – to provide the kids with memories! :-)

Goodbye Valley of Fire!

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