Melting in Death Valley

 7.20am. 70 metres below sea level. No wind. 37 degrees in the shade. 40 degrees in the sun.  Very dry heat.  CRAZY hot.  This is Death Valley.  So fascinating, but oh, so intimidating!  This is not the place where you want your car to break down.  Fear not, this didn't happen to us.  Albert the van was well behaved and air conditioned us well :-)
Stayed overnight last night in Shoshone (pop. 100?? and totally away from it all) in a quiet little RV Park.  Went out for dinner at the local 'Crow Bar'...hmmm, a scary sounding name, but was pleasant enough. Finding it hard to get good healthy food though! 

Met this crazy but interesting chap at Shoshone - a German fella called Nico cycle touring from Flagstaff Arizona to San Fran.  And his next stage was Death Valley :-) He left this morning at 4am to try and avoid the heat - and Brent was pretty keen on joining him for the last leg.  So we got up early and drove thru the valley to meet up with Nico.  Brent hops on his bike 7.45 am and I think by 8.15am, he was pretty well melted (and possibly wondering what the heck he was letting himself in for...).  40 deg in the sun, maybe 37 in the rare bit of shade?  Holy smokes. I was happy in my air con van!  Went past Badlands, the lowest point in the US - 79 metres under sea level, and a bright salt flat. Pretty cool terrain.  The boys finished their ride by 10am, at Furnace Creek (trust me, totally an appropriate name).  We left then...but apparently Nico kept going in to the heat to get even further into the park.....seriously hardcore dude!

Death Valley is one heck of a place.  I think this is the America that I came to see! Same for Brent too. So striking and beautiful and vast....the contours and shapes and colours in the mountains were awesome.
Anyway, onwards, and eastwards....in to Nevada!
As soon as we hit the state of Nevada - it was casinos, fireworks, 'gentleman's clubs' everywhere - think this is the 'play' state for the neighbouring inhabitants of California etc.  They're all about fun here!  It's either that  or the sand industry I guess...haha, .there's a crap-load of desert here...
Bypassed Vegas and now staying in Boulder City, about 25 miles SE of Sin City...gonna check out Hoover Dam tomorrow and if we can drag our arses out of bed early enough - will try and avoid the mega-heat and do some local mt bike trails :-) Going to go to Vegas tomorrow night and gamble all our savings away. May see y'all next week if we don't get a winner, and we're penniless!! Haha...