The Death Valley Experience

So there we were, sitting on the side of the road in 110 degree heat with a dashboard that was blinking like we just won the jackpot on a slot machine. The car wasn't running, our phones weren't working, and the sun was going down in the desert. Tobi and I sat silently in the car for minutes that seemed like really long minutes. Just moments earlier we were racing the sunset in Death Valley, pushing a rental car to its extremes, and loving life. Now we were stranded, uncertain about how we were going to get the car back to Vegas on time, where we were going to sleep tonight, who was going to help us, why had this happened to us, we thought we were untouchable. We tried to turn the car over once every fifteen minutes, but there was nothing. We were stuck, and we didn't know what to do.

When it looked like we would have to wait for the next mornings tourists, and camp overnight on the concrete, one last car came from Badwater returning towards the middle of town. We decided they were our only chance of salvation and we flagged them down. It was a nice retired couple and they were extremely friendly. They cleared out their back seat and Tobi and I filled our backpacks with food and hopped in. They were kind enough to drive us down to the center of town. Now when I say "town" I mean a hotel, a tourist information building and a gas station. The gas station would have been the most likely place for us to go since we needed a mechanic but it was closed. Second would be the tourist information building because we were tourists and we needed a lot of information on what to do at this moment. But it was closed too. So instead we found ourselves talking to the midnight shift bell boy at the Death Valley hotel.

First things first, we needed to call the rental car company and figure things out. Easy enough, right? Nope, we left the rental car phone number back in the car. Nice move on our part. The nice retired couple drove Tobi back to get it, and then they left us to deal for ourselves after we showered them with thanks (Thanks again if you're out there, thank you so much!). So now that we had the rental car phone number calling should be easy right? Wrong... We had to use a payphone. A payphone. Did you know these things were even still around? Luckily Tobi and I had a decent amount of change but if the phone ate a few quarters we might be totally out of luck. But I made the call and it actually worked, thank you AT&T. As soon as I got through to the rental car company I was sure that our worries were over.

Boy was I wrong about thinking our worries were over. The night shift at the rental car company was even more clueless than the bell boy. Here is an almost word for word account of our conversation:
Me - Hey, our car broke down in Death Valley. What should we do?
The rental car guy -You shouldn't be driving in Death Valley. It's hot our there. Probably like 105 degrees.
Me - Thanks it is actually 110, but we're out here and our car has died. We bought insurance and we want to know how we can figure things out.
The rental car guy - Insurance don't cover that. Were you running the AC?
Me - Did I mention how hot is was today?
The rental car guy - Aww damn, you can't run AC in a car in that heat. That's crazy.
Me - Interesting, they didn't mention not using the AC when we rented the car in 100 degree heat in Vegas. Thanks for you information, now how are we getting out of here?
The Rental car guy - You gotta get back to Vegas.
Me - Did I mention the car was broken down?
The Rental car guy - Just get that thing back here.
Me - Tow it?
The Rental car guy - I don't care.
Me - Will you pay for towing?
The Rental car guy - We don't pay for that.
Me - Will you come get us?
The Rental car guy - Out there in Death Valley? We don't do that.
Me - What do you do?
The Rental car guy - Hold on. (He then proceeded to put the phone down and tell our story to a friend while I can hear him. They were laughing and making jokes and I honestly was laughing my ass off while describing it to Tobi.) Hey man, it's late we can't do anything for ya. Good luck getting it back here.
Me - Thanks for all of your help, you've been a life saver. Enjoy the rest of your night.

As I told Tobi about this phone call we realized that we might have been better off spending a little bit more money for a rental car company that we had actually heard of before. That being said, we could not stop laughing. Even the bell boy got a kick out of over hearing my phone conversation with the rental car company. The sun might have been down but our spirits were still up. We tried to swing a deal with the hotel for a free overnight stay, but they weren't having it. We were now without a place to sleep.

We had our tent, but the ground in Death Valley is about as comfortable as sleeping on a barbed wire fence. But we remembered that the Tourist Information building had a nice green lawn, if we could only get there, we might be able to actually sleep tonight. We asked a French man who was driving a convertible if he would give us a ride. Talk about a strange situation (An American man who is traveling with a Swiss man asked a French man for a ride in his convertible in Death Valley). After explaining our situation to him he said he would want someone to do the same for him, so he took us a mile down the road and dropped us off at the Tourist Information building.

Once we were there we felt like we had struck a gold mine because they didn't lock the bathrooms at night. So we were able to have running water, light, and we were able to brush our teeth. That stuff alone already makes it better than some of the other places we camped. We set our tent up near the side of the building and climbed inside. Then it REALLY hit us. We were not lucky. We were planning on camping in the "coolest" part of Death Valley, and not on the lawn of the Tourist Information building for a reason...it's unbearably hot.

We laid there in our tent together recounting the days events. I still remember this conversation as one of the funniest conversations I've ever had. In retrospect we were both a little delirious. We thought everything bad that happened would just be a great story someday. Until we tried to get some sleep and we had to silently think to ourselves about all that could still go wrong. This is when Tobi sat up and asked me, "Do you think, if you were to die in your sleep, would you wake up first? Or just die?" I laughed out loud until my stomach hurt when he said this in his German accent. I told him I don't know, but I hope we don't die. But in this dry heat, death was definitely a possibility.

Then when you didn't think things could get any worse and we were dieing of heat when the unthinkable happened. The sprinkler system came on. It as if we were in the middle of a bad sitcom and no one told us. We ran out of the tent in our boxers and got a freezing cold shower at around 2 in the morning in 110 degree heat. This sign that someone was watching out for us from above was all we needed to get some rest. We didn't even move when the sprinklers came on for their second session at 4.

We woke up and had the car towed out of Death valley to a town about an hour away. A town that we later learned is famous for its prostitution (just a side note), but when we got there we talked with the owner of a car dealership that told us we should be fine. We called the rental car company again and this time the morning crew was much more helpful. They sent us a beautiful car to bring us back to Vegas, payed us for the towing and in the end they only charged us for 3 days because of all the hassle they caused. Tobi and I walked out of "Giddy UP Car Rental" with the biggest smiles on our faces. We really were invincible...and I think it really did make a great story.

Near Death (Valley) Experience

It's been a while but recently I've been trying to find a job here in Tennessee and I've gotten away from my blog, but one of the reasons I wanted to spend time her in the dirty south was to have more time writing, so I'm focused on getting back on it. This chapter of my trip picks up after visiting Joshua Tree National Park, and after seeing much of the west coast of the United States. The Climax was the Grand Canyon, but little did I know then, that after the finale there would be a crazy twist ending...

We left Joshua tree really pumped. It was exciting because we didn't have to return the rental car yet. While we had planned on getting a rental car for only 5 days, the friendly, fast talking, teenager behind the counter at the airport rental car dealer told us that 5 days is the same price as a week so we'd get two additional days if we wanted them for no additional charge. So instead of rushing back to Vegas in a hurry we had 2 more days to leisurely head to the pleasantly named "Death Valley" and take in all the sights there as if it was an unexpected cherry on top of the Grand Canyon cake that already had Joshua Tree icing on it. Looking back it should have seemed obvious that getting "extra time" to see a place called "Death Valley" is not so much of a cherry on top, but more like a death sentence. But in the moment we took our worry free traveling smiles to the road and put the petal down in the direction of the hottest place in the United States.

Driving to Death Valley was an experience in itself. Growing up in New Jersey it's not uncommon to share the road (and I use the term "share" lightly) with about 10,000 other cars all going in the same direction. Yet here, on these open roads in the west it was the norm to be the only car in sight. Heck, we were the only man made object in sight for hours on end. It was just road, dirt, cactus's and us. Without too much to look at our attention become fixed upon the car dashboard. Why you might ask? Well in the high heat even the littlest things can become entertaining. Our entertainment was watching the temperature gauge go up degree by degree, each time getting a little cheer out of us. Again, our ignorance in hind sight seems obvious, but in a new rental car with the AC going full blast we weren't feeling the ill effects of the rising temperature, well, not yet.

Our map showed a little town called "Shoshone" a ways outside of the Death Valley entrance but we thought we'd stop anyway because we were hungry. The Famous Crowbar Cafe and Saloon, seemed to be the only restaurant in town. It was next to a museum that looked like an old barn, and across the street from the post office that doubled as the towns reminder that they might actually be connected to other people, even if only by mail. We stopped at the Crowbar. It was Thursday so I went in an asked for 5 beers for 25 cents, but sadly this Crowbar did not have the same "Thirsty Thursdays" drink specials that my Crowbar back at Penn State had. Oh the good old days of drinks for a nickel, I guess it was a bit of wishful thinking, but it was worth a try.

After lunch at the Crowbar we figured we'd hit plenty of tourist places before and after the Death Valley entrance but we could not have been more wrong. While I know I pictured a large overhanging sign across the road, maybe even with large doors like Jurassic Park, the entrance to National Park was much less theatrical. It was a small booth on the side of the road. One that even a one hour Kodak booth might spit on. No people, not Ranger to tell us good information and give us a map, just a slot to take our money, give us a receipt, and we had to begrudgingly take our own map from a stack of maps.

But we were there! Death Valley was real, we were in it, and it was HOT! We stopped all over the place. Trying to take in everything we could. It was interesting seeing the names they gave to the different parts of this deserted area of land. Death Valley is just strange area after strange area, but they are all strange because they are completely deserted and under some of the most extreme temperatures on the planet. One area looks like a desert, one like a dried up ocean, one like a waste land, another like a desert, some like hills of different color sands, but they all had one thing in common...HEAT!

We took plenty of pictures during the day we were there. Please check them out. But one picture we never got to take was one of the sand dunes during the sunset. You see, we were at the lowest point in North America, a spot called "Badwater", one of the furthest spots in Death Valley that you have to drive to. And when did we go there? Of course right before the sunset when the number one thing we wanted to see were the sand dunes during the sunset. As we realized the sun was going down faster than we had expected we jumped in the rental and pealed out of there. Tobi was being a bit aggressive as the car started to reach the fastest speeds that we had seen all week. We both sat silent as the speedometer raised, and the sun fell. The bright yellow ball in the sky was coming closer to the horizon every second and we were racing it to the sand dunes.

It may have been that "invincible" feeling that we had as travelers to think we could beat the sunset, but it was invigorating. As the car hit ninety-five not a word was spoken but we both thought we were going to make it. We were certain that we would be sitting relaxed in the desert as the sun set beautifully on the horizon, there was no doubt. Then, doubt didn't just creep into our thoughts, it smacked us in the face. The cars dashboard began to light up as if we had won a jackpot on a slot machine in Vegas. Only the car didn't spit out money, instead it started coughing and seizing, and we had to pull it over. The five or six cars that we recently flew by all slowly drove by us pulled over on the side of the road with a new appreciation for the childrens book "The Tortoise and the Hair". We were stranded. Not stranded like you think about being stranded today. Today if you pull over on the side of the road hundreds if not thousands of people will see you, you have a cell phone to call help, and if you really needed to you could walk to a gas station. No this was not our definition of stranded, we were in a whole different situation.

We are now on the side of one of the longest roads in Death Valley that only leads to a lookout spot called "Badwater". A lookout stop that is worthless during the night, so during a sunset we are pretty certain that no more cars will be coming this way until the next day. We are miles away from anything, it is 119 degrees out, and our cell phones ceased having service back in Shoshone. The sunset was no longer a race but a ticking clock for our survival.

First Step Towards the Unknown

I had nearly stepped off the edge of no return. Nearly succumb to the powers that be. I had Nearly given in, resided to the outcome that seeing the Grand Canyon by tour bus just like everyone else would somehow be the anticlimax to my partial-world-tour. Until at the last moment I was saved. Saved by the Swiss. Tobi and I hit it off from minute one, and by minute two we had already rented a car for a week together. This was a meeting that was destined. Be it by God or what, I do think that him sitting near me, with his over sized Atlas, as I walked up to the desk to sign away my dream of hiking and camping the Grand Canyon was just too big of a coincidence to see it as one. I went from calling my parents and telling them I'd be home in two days, to the possibility of doing anything my heart desires for the next week. It was an overwhelming swing of emotion.

After renting the car with Tobi we drove it to the Bellagio and watched the worlds largest fountain show. As I stood there, with a new feeling of adventure, watching the fountains burst into the air in amazing unison at astounding heights all to the sounds of "God Bless America" I had a moment of clarity. I moment I realized I was lucky. No matter what happened after that, I felt like I had it all at that moment. Anything was possible, and I was set to take advantage of all the possibilities that laid before me. Thanks to Tobi, this semi-world-tour was destined to have nothing short of the rightful climax it deserved.

Greyhound Graveyard

The next stop was supposed to be LA, but I didn't know how I was going to get there. My new friends were going back to San Francisco because they have normal lives and jobs to return to, but I was hoping to find new friends at Big Sur that were headed further south. However, Sykes Hot Springs had about 10 people at it and all of them were from San Francisco, none even thinking about going to LA. So what to do?

I've always thought the idea of hitchhiking sounded crazy, but in the past few weeks of meeting people randomly or on the internet and driving with them, the idea now seemed almost ordinary. So far what I've done has worked out so well that even if this doesn't work out as well, it could still be a lot worse and not that bad at all. I also started getting the feeling that somehow hitchhiking would connect me more closely with the roots of my travel ancestry. The ones who came before me, before the internet, craigslist, hostels, and the like. Those who only had a bag and a thumb. Somehow if I did it maybe I would understand a little bit more about what they went through, maybe I'd find out a little bit more about myself, and maybe, just maybe I'd be better off for having done it. Well I'm here to tell you that I did learn something about myself and something about the hitchhikers that came before me. They didn't just have a bag and a thumb, they had guts too. I instead used my "brains" and decided that going back to San Francisco and taking the Greayhound would be the safest, and best decision for me to not end up dead on the side of the road.

What I learned is that any choice that isn't Grayhound is a good choice. An hour and a half after leaving San Fran on the "express" bus to LA the bus started to shake. We pulled over in the middle of Nowheresville, CA to realize the 9 of the 10 lug nuts on the bus's front right tire had popped off. Yup, we were one lug nut, or seconds away from losing a tire going 65 miles per hour on highway 5. I appreciated the irony that I chose this mode of transportation for its safety and reliability as I sun tanned on the side of the highway in my Greyhound Graveyard.

After three quick hours in the mild 100 degree heat in the middle of the pleasant wasteland we were pleasantly surprised with a second bus that would drive us the rest of the way to LA only 5 hours later than we were expected. We got into the bus and drove NO FURTHER than 10 minutes down the road and took our regularly scheduled "Burger King" 45 minute lunch break. Greyhound...you are the class of the travel business. The next time I want to be stranded in the middle of no where on a defective machine for hours only to be saved to eat at Burger King, you better believe I'll think once more about putting my damn thumb up on the side of the road.Thank you Greyhound...

Berkeley & San Fran Sandwich

If you would have asked me anytime before this trip if I had relatives living in Berkeley California I would have answered no. But that answer would have been wrong. As it turns out I have two cousins living in Berkeley with their families. Cousins Jon and Billy Witort and they were most accommodating to my travel plans.

It's funny how things turn out really. I planned on traveling alone on this trip and planned to see amazing natural wonders, special things I thought I should stop and take notice of on this planet before it's too late. But one thing I learned in Berkeley is that family is a special thing, and one you can experience in much the same way as many of the worlds natural wonders.

Seeing the beauty that this world has to offer makes you feel like you're doing something right. It makes you feel like you belong in that place for that moment that you discover it. Well my cousins (along with their parents while I was in Portland) made me feel as if I belonged when I came to see them. Even more so it seemed as if there was an instant connection. As if there was no judgment, no predispositions, just a discovery of not something wonderful, but someone wonderful. I feel so blessed to have a family that I love, and who loves me, but I've come to realize that the circle of family that I thought I had is actually much bigger than I first thought.

Berkeley was a great stop though, even more so than just being able to spend sometime with some wonderful people. I was able to visit UC Berkeley and walk around a beautiful college campus which always puts me in a good mood. Anything that can bring memories of 4 years at Penn State to my mind always makes me feel great. I was also in town for another birthday party, Jon's, which was fun, but what I will remember most about it was the group of hippies that we shared the park with. Classic...

Berkeley really seemed like a different place than anywhere I'd ever been before though. On the surface it was just like any other nice, well to do area where people have money, and live what appears to be carefree lives, but if you look a little closer it's has something different about it. My first hint was when I got in Billy's car and he said it ran on vegetable oil, and my second was when Jon's car didn't make a sound. Not only did these people have money, but they were eco-friendly too! There were recycling bins for every type of material you can imagine, solar panels, hybrid cars, community cars, and some people even rode bikes! Honestly, I used to think that America can change with time, that someday in the future we can be more conscious of our effects on the environment, but I was wrong. It doesn't need to happen "someday" it really can happen now. It already is, in Berkeley.

Berkeley was also my jumping off point for San Francisco. Billy lent me his bike and I rode around the busy streets of San Francisco for a whole day like I was Kevin Bacon from "Quicksilver". I usually love walking around big cities but this bike experience was great. I went all over from the Pier 39 to the Golden Gate Bridge, beach front parks to AT&T Park to catch a free baseball game. This was the best city experience I had on my trip.

All that and they had a dog I could play with too. What more could I ask for, right? Well Billy ended up trumping all of that by giving me the best advice for where I should go when I get to the Grand Canyon. I will always be indebted to him for that. "If you wanna just look at the Canyon, yeah, go where everyone else goes, but if you want to hike it, go here." Man was he right. But you'll have to wait to hear about that place later because I wasn't off to the grand canyon yet.
Next stop Santa Cruz!

Road Trippin'

After a fun filled night with some new friends, the next morning I woke up at 7 AM on a SUNDAY to meet up with my friend Stella. I would have put up a huge fuss about the meeting time, if she spoke English, but phone conversations with here are short and to the point. Where and when, then yes or no, not much room for debate. She wanted me to join her on a road trip to some Buddhist temples in Deajong, about a 2 hour car ride away. I didn't totally know what I was agreeing to at the time, but it is much more of an adventure that way. Basically I was meeting with her, and we could have been going to a junk yard, but thank goodness, we weren't. It was a beautiful day, and it made me realize how much I missed being behind the wheel of a car. There is something about listening to music while driving that I find so enjoyable, but sadly I no longer own a car, or even have a Korean drivers liscense for that matter, so it will be some time before I experience that pleasure again. If you could put the peddel to the metal while blaring some Journey for me the next time you get behind the wheel, it would bring a smile to my face. Okay, so Stella and I were enjoying the open road when we finally saw the mountain we were heading too. I still had no idea what was coming, but when we pulled up there was a female monk waiting for us. As a joke Stella told me it was her mother, but jokes from people who know don't speak how good english well, really just mess with your head. Then we walked into an apartment building, or what looked like an apartment building, went up to the second floor, and wham! We were right in the middle of a Buddhist ceremony. We sat down on pads laid on the floor, and there we would stay for what seemed like an eternity. I thought it was too rude to look at my watch, so I can't give you exact times, but I felt like I sat there, Indian style, for 2 months.
For the rest of the time Monks chanted, beat drums, threw rice, people prayed, lit candles, bowed, stood, and bowed again. I didn't know what the heck was going on. The entire time we were just faced towards these walls of paper, until the time of the ceremony where they tear the paper down to expose one huge golden statue of the Buddha, and like a million little golden statues of some other icon. Besides being uncomfortable some of the cool parts of the ceremony were when they brought this string around, having everyone hold a peace. Then they wrapped the end of it around the statue before cutting the string you were holding. Stella told me the string is like an Angel, that's a simple translation, but I'm sure it's something like that. Also, after the ceremony we ate dinner right there on the floor we were just praying on. It was a good meal, and all the food was just blessed, so I think it had to be healthy. After the meal was over everyone helped clean up, and then Stella and I went to the mountain to see some famous temples. Overall it was a really interesting day. I certainly felt out of place at times, but I'm starting to think that isn't such a bad thing. If you don't put yourself in different situations every once in a while, everything you do will seem the same.

That should be the end of the story but sadly I was introduced to another very common occurence in Korea...the car accident. Korean drivers are well, lets just say I don't hear anyone calling them the best in the world. I think Stella seems like a pretty good driver too (despite all the driving stereotypes that work against here: Asain, woman, etc..), but with that being said, we did get into a fender-bender on the ride home. Everyone was okay, but I thought you might all want to rubberneck at the damage.
Their Damage.






Our Damage