So, after I bought some suspenders for my ski pants (that I even wear when I sleep, so the my mattress doesn't make my pants wet), we left Fresno, and headed toward Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. I love the way my suspenders make all my clothes feel as if they are one, but using the facilities has a little bit of a learning curve. The roads in the mountains can get pretty rough. I guess I should buy some snow chains, but they are like 50$. The road was snowy, and I slid around a little bit to show Lauren how much fun it can be. We checked out one of the few groves that was open this time of year. We are definitely headed back sometime soon. Riley ran around like a nut in the snow again, and walked around, and through, some enormous sequoias. We headed back out the west side of the park, and camped in a Walmart, in Visalia.
In the morning, we drove through miles of produce groves until the road went up a mountain. We reached an elevation of about 6000 feet, before descending around Lake Isabella and back up into Death Valley (100 feet below sea level). We started to camp near some dunes, but a ranger wasn't having that. He referred us to a free campsite, but it was in the wrong direction, and gas costs 4.25$ in the park. We went to a nice lodge and stayed in their parking lot. We watched Nashville the movies, and it was awful. Its the first movie I've actually deleted. We also recently watched Kurt Russell's Escape from L.A. and 8 1/2. Neither are fantastic.
I woke up early (because I slept through most of the last movie) and played games on my laptop till Lauren woke up. She saw a roadrunner, and I heard a horse go by. I would have seen it if I had bothered to sit up, but I've seen horses before. We backtracked to the dunes and walked barefoot long enough for Lauren to pick up some sand spurs. We had ham sandwiches and drove to the lowest point in America. Its covered in some sort of salt that tastes like baking soda (I'm not going to drive all the way there and not taste it). Shotly after we left, we saw a coyote by the side of the road. I stopped to take a few pictures, and some Asians came up to do the same. Only, they threw bread at it. They waved to me and I yelled at them. I don't think they could understand me, because they just laughed. Even the park pass has a picture of a coyote eating out of someone's hand with a "no" circle over it. We continued out of the park and I put another 2 gallons in the truck to get us to civilization where gas is 2.79$ per gallon. We rolled through a sliver of Nevada and into Las Vegas. We cruised the strip long enough for Lauren to be disappointed. We are going to find someplace to stay tonight, and try to hustle a high school for a free Thanksgiving dinner in the morning. I tried to find a fabled cheap buffet, but I couldn't find anything for less that 10$, though some were buy-one-get-one. I had a spicy version of the McChicken and a beer in a McCoffee cup. Well, I had better go and figure out what the next leg of the journey holds for us.
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