Although Beatty was another one of those insignificant places, it gets its own journal entry for a couple of reasons...It was the first time we were out of California (it's in Nevada) and the lady in the motel where we stayed.

Having been unsuccessful finding somewhere to stay actually in Death Valley, we had been forced to drive (using the dregs from the bottom of the tank rather than proper petrol, I think) out the other side into an entirely new state! Beatty is another one of those 'one road' type places...although the motel we stayed at didn't even make it onto that, if you see what I mean(!) The Amargosa Inn (formerly known as the Phoenix - who knows why it changed) was a family owned and run motel where the rooms were fully wood panelled (and not in a characterful ski-lodge type way) and the TV was possibly manufactured in the 1960s, and buzzed when the adverts came on. Very odd. That night we ate in the cafeteria of the local casino (we were now in Nevada after all, home of gambling!) and when we came back found ourselves talking to the lady on reception. She had about 3 teeth in her mouth and most of her dinner down her shirt but she was very sweet and wanted to talk to us about the Royal Family (the actual one, not the TV show.) We told her about our trip and how the next big place we expected to hit was Las Vegas and she told me a story which I thought was very particular to this country. Can you ever imagine this happening at home...Five years ago, she and her family (her husband and 3 young children) had been living in Reno, but had friends living in Las Vegas and so decided to move down there to join them and possibly open their own motel. They had been there 3 hours and she had her handbag stolen with the $500 they'd taken with them and all their ID and papers in it. She decided there was no way they were staying there and so demanded that her husband get them back to Reno. In order to fill the tank with petrol, they sold her son's expensive bike for $20 and got on their way. They ran out of petrol in Beatty and had no money to refill the tank. They had to live on the side of the road in the car (bearing in mind all their kids were under 14 years old.) Then one day a woman came up to them and announced that she had a trailer that  they could live in. She didn't care that they had no way of paying her any rent but she couldn't see them live on the side of the road anymore. Eventually the husband got a job and she started working at the motel, and they moved out of the trailer. They have lived in the motel for the past 5 years and work for their rent and food, only being given cash if they really need it. Would that ever happen in Wales?! I really couldn't get my head round it.

Anyway, that was Beatty. The following day we headed back into Death Valley, as we wanted to come out of the south end and we were on the west. On the way we stopped at this weird sculpture park - I'll try and get the photos on asap. x