We woke up this morning and I was in a hurry to get ready as we were going to see Death Valley and Lora Hampton Vann from Grays Chapel (and the youth group). Death Valley is the lowest point below sea level in the Western Hemisphere. The drive to Death Valley was pretty uneventful. I did notice that around here where there is water there is abundant life. Where there is no water life can be a hardscrabble existence. I think that will preach. On the drive here, I have noticed there are sometimes long straight stretches of road. One I checked it was 14 miles of a stick straight road from one mountain top to the next. When we were in the middle of nowhere and we turned left to go to the park at Death Valley and there was this enormous greenhouse complex. I thought this was strange because there was really no where to plant landscaping plants from a greenhouse. Then I saw the sign and it was a cannabis farm. I should have known something because normal greenhouses do not have razor wire fences guarding them. We were meeting Lora and her family at the Furnace Creek Inn. Her husband Josh had been on an overnight trip for his work (He is the park ranger/supervisor of the Death Valley National Park) and he drove up just as we did and then Lora came and we shared a wonderful lunch together. The Furnace Creek Inn was very nice - much nicer than I expected to see in Death Valley. Lunch was really good also. Josh and Lora are blessed with two energetic children - Isaac and Lily. Isaac was a bit mischievous and Lily liked to go walking (running). I miss the days of keeping energetic children out of trouble!!! (LOL- Lynn thinks I like to get into mischief with them… Maybe so…) It was good to see Lora and her family and know that the seeds that were planted in Grays Chapel several years ago were sprouting in the Desert of Arizona.

After lunch we went to Badwater Basin and it was very unusual. Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. Oddly enough Mt Whitney is only 85 miles away and it is the highest point in the contiguous US at 14,500 feet. We went to the devil's golf course and we wondered how they had a golf course in such an in hospitable environment and it was just named that - it was not a real golf course. It was so named because the salt formed round hollow crystals that resembled golf balls. We finished our tour at the Artists Palette - very beautiful rock formations and then at Zabriskie Point. On the way home Matt wanted to see the Valley of Fire Park so we went a different way home to see The Valley of Fire. On the way there we passed the Area 51 Alien Center/souvenir store. Luckily no one was abducted while we were in the area. It was a pretty good ride to the Valley of Fire and we arrived at sunset and everything was gorgeous. I really wish we would have had more time there because it was so pretty. We did see a herd of mountain sheep in the road as we were leaving. They were really the first signs of animal life that we had seen - other than a random horse or some cattle. After dark we drove back to our hotel exhausted because we had driven close to 400 miles this day. We all went to bed because the next day we would drive to Oceanside for Doug and I to begin our bike adventure and to meet Nichole Nickles for Dinner.