Wednesday, April 6, 2011

After being so high, I've never been lower in all my life



This morning at 7:30 Steve and I crammed all our mountaineering into the rental car and headed over to the Lone Star Bistro for some much needed coffee. We checked out all the "I Climbed Mt. Whitney" t-shirts and took a pass. We had more extremes to reach.

Cruising southeast across the gorgeous desert scenery, we were stopped by the Highway Patrol at Father Crowley Lookout! But in a good way. The road was blocked off ahead because Dodge was making a commercial. We were directed into the scenic lookout parking lot for a 25 minute wait. Suddenly a couple of F-18's screamed low overhead that I assume was part of commercial action. Then a few minutes later two jet black Dodges (a new Charger and an SUV) ripped into the parking area follow by a blacked out Porsche Cayenne chase car complete with a roof mounted remote operated camera crane. Cool! I walked over to snap a few pictures and the CHiPs told us we get on the road because there was only a 10 minute window before they started up the commercial making again. Miles down the road we passed the opposite checkpoint and then the crew setup with big rigs, more Dodge cars and a huge lunch buffet. I wonder if there were any stars?


We continued onto Death Valley stopping for needed gas in Furnace Creek for a mere $5.48 per gallon of regular! And then to our trip's secondary objective: Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at -282 ft. In less than 48 hours I went from the highest point in the lower 48 states (13,508 ft.) to the lowest point in North America. Good thing I didn't implode from all that increased pressure!

From there we called Alaska Airlines in route from the car and moved up our flights to 6:45pm, drove to the Las Vegas rental car return, checked in, hung around the airport for bit and then flew home. Leslie and both boys picked me up from the airport; it was great to see the whole family!!

And just like that, the dream is realized and this adventure is over. Time to plan the next one!!

Follow your dreams to higher places,
Kurt

Sent from RainOn Adventure Tech

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