Happy Halloween! I woke up earlier than usual and it was still dark outside. Without glasses, I thought I set the microwave to 10 sec to warm up a piece of cinnamon toast…I guess I inadvertently set it for 1 min. Billowing smoke was coming out of the microwave. The smoke detector was going crazy…..oops. FUBAR for me. We got the smoke cleared out, but there was still a lingering smell of smoke that , I am sure, we will continue to smell for awhile.

We were on the road around 8:25am heading for the Death Valley Inn RV Park in Beatty, NV. An appropriate destination for Halloween, don't you think? We passed through three states, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada, in a span of about 30 minutes. The stretch of HWY 15 through Arizona was through huge tectonic uplifts. We can only imagine the force needed to create such formations.

The section of Nevada that we passed through was pretty barren, but a lot of action in the air. We saw at least three instances of fighter jets running practice maneuvers with dips and crosses….pretty exciting. Also, we passed by Creech Air Force Base and watched a few touch and goes by drones.

We arrived at Death Valley Inn & RV Park around 12:00 pm . We ate lunch before heading to Death Valley for an afternoon of sightseeing. Scottie's Castle is closed until 2019 due to road damage from floods. We were fortunate that we visited Scottie's Castle in 2015 just before the floods. It is a beautiful Spanish Colonial home. Today's destination is the Furnace Creek Visitors Center and the Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level.

Nice time of the year to visit Death Valley. The temperature in summer can reach 140 degrees. Today, the temperature was a pleasant 80 degrees. Driving into Death Valley, we saw a herd of wild burrows. That was a first for us all. There is not much to see outright, but if you let your imagination take flight, visions of salted caramel nuggets, mounds of dark chocolate ice cream with melted milk chocolate sauce running down the sides, stirrings of neapolitan ice cream piled high, and chocolate wafers scattered all around….okay, so I like ice cream. I am sure others would see only rocks and sand…how boring. The Badwaters basin from afar looks like an ice covered lake, which we know can't be possible. Up close, the salt crystals reflect the light causing a rippling affect that makes it appear as if the basin was fluid with soft waves lapping the shore line. We didn't walk all the way out to the basin, but far enough to say we were there and taste the crystals.

We drove back to camp and relaxed before having a Skinner meal of Sauteed shrimp and sausage over a bed of linguini…excellent.

Tomorrow, we head for Lake Isabella, a stop over on our way to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.