Patrick is a basket case. He can hardly walk around this morning. He is a big, strong guy, but in his own words, a little too fat in the thighs. The heat rash around his thighs and groin area causes excruciating pain as he tries to walk. We all agree that he should take a day off and see how things progress. We lay out the cars for the day's walk, his being the car from where we start. The three of us begin walking and he drives off to get a new tire from a town about 70 miles away.

We are now below 1,500 feet, and even at 10 AM the heat is quite oppressive. Soon, we hit the paved road. Until now, we had seen a car only occasionally but now, there are a few more cars. Almost all are tourists visiting Scotty's Castle. Until about 15 years ago, almost no one visited Death Valley in summer. Then the foreign tourists, who came to California mostly in summer, started going through Death Valley on their way to Las Vegas. Now, even the Park Service encourages a visit in summer to experience the heat. It is my observation that most Americans are still not buying the Park Service line.

As we are walking, a car approaches us and slows down. They look at us in disbelief and ask us in their halting English if they can take our picture. In a true capitalistic manner, I tell them that it will cost them five dollars. Before they can dig into their wallets, Joy tells them that I am only joking. "Even though you were born in this country, you just don't understand the American economic system like we foreigners do", I tell Joy. This scene was to be repeated many times in the coming days. We felt good that we were providing people with an unforgettable moment during their times in Death Valley.

Dinesh's caption:
Joy looks like she is waiting for someone to give her a ride. And it wasn't that hot either--just 110 or so!

Car Talk's caption:
"My mother was right about my marrying this bozo. What was I thinking?"