I wonder what is in store for us today after yesterday's car problems. We still have the bad road to contend with today. Patrick is worried about getting another flat. His truck's tires have six lug nuts whereas ours have five, so he can't use our spare. Luckily, we are able to use a long mailing tube to keep open the Explorer's lift-gate. The tube is not long enough and we keep hitting our heads. It is a good distraction from our other problems.

Patrick and Joy were complaining yesterday about their heat rashes and now, just half an hour into the walk, Patrick is already moving a bit slower. Joy's feet are hot and her shoulders are aching from holding the umbrella in the wind. We had almost no wind yesterday but it is certainly making up for it today. I estimate some gusts at over 40 mph. Surprisingly, there is no dust blowing. I guess everything that can be blown away has been taken care of by these incessant winds.

We are again walking north today but we only have about a 1,500-foot climb. We have not been able to buy any ice since Sunday and our water is now warm. In spite of the stiff wind we are still able to cover five miles in two hours.

We see a lot of creosote bush and much of it looks quite healthy. El Niño dumped almost twice as much rain here as usual (the usual is about an inch) and that seems to have done the trick. These creosote bushes are real survivors and some of the specimens have been found to be over 10,000 years old. The oldest living trees, the bristlecone pines, don't live even half as long as these desert wonders.

We are camping tonight at Mesquite Campground. It has water and restrooms but no shade. By now, we have become pros at using the cars' shadows and nature's wide open restrooms, but unlimited water is a real treat. We also buy ice from the store at nearby Scotty's Castle. Well, what more can one ask for? I believe that one draw of a trip like this is the fact that your daily life becomes very simple. When you are just trying to survive, a lot of things don't really matter.

There are a few misguided souls at this campground. They all look like foreigners. A young woman seems to be walking around in a daze. Many are sitting in their cars with the engine and the air-conditioning running. I don't think they believed their guidebooks about how uncomfortably hot it can get in Death Valley.

Dinesh's caption:
A tough stretch of road where some motorists lose their crankshafts!

Car Talk's caption:
"If I can just crush Dinesh's skull with this one rock, we can bury his corpse behind the sagebrush and be in Reno in time for dinner."