It was pitch black at 4:30 AM Wednesday morning when I rolled out of bed. It was still just as dark at 5:15 AM when Holiday & I hit the road. I set my iPod to shuffle and it read my mood as usual, starting my morning off with Grizzly Bear, Andrew Bird, & The Walkmen. I was tired but empowered at the thought of marking “take a road trip” off my 2010 to-do list.

Three days earlier, I didn’t think the trip was going to happen. Turned out, the rain that had been hovering over SF for the past week was pretty much hovering over the entire state. There were flash flood watches & warnings for Death Valley. So much for being the driest place in North America. But, I wanted this trip, maybe even needed it, so even though the rain was still coming down, I hit the road anyway.

It’s an unnerving experience driving across the lower deck of Bay Bridge in the rain. It was as if a bucket of rain were being tossed at my windshield each time I passed under a gap in the upper deck above. It was loud & way too surprising for that early in the morning. I had 560 miles to travel before sundown, though, so I would not be deterred. As I rounded a bend on 580-E, I saw a peace sign that seemed to be floating in the hills. As I neared, I saw it was attached to a pole next to a huge flashing sign for “Cowboy Rodeo” that sat atop a giant slide. It was a bizarre sight. Eventually, I couldn’t see anything along the road as the fog took over. It was <1/4 mi visibility and stayed that way for several miles. Watching the car in front of me completely disappear was scary, mainly because I feared being run over by a semi who couldn’t see me. It was disorienting with the scenery blanketed, all I saw was highway and a part of my brain kept thinking I was on I-74 doing my daily commute from West Lafayette to Indy.

As the sun came up (allegedly, I never actually saw it), a serene scene was created as the fog wrapped around the hills that were starting to come into view. I made it down I-5 and took my detour on CA-33 to my first roadside attraction stop. I pulled up to the Texaco which claimed to be the last place James Dean stopped for gas. It was marked by a large sign out front. The parking lot was flooded, but I parked Holiday in front of the sign and puddle-hopped my way out of the car to take my super touristy photo. I verbally remarked at how ridiculous I felt standing in the rain taking that photo, but it was kind of awesome. Gas was a pretty penny higher, but luckily, I didn’t need that much. As I walked into the station, the first words I heard from the man behind the counter were, “Do you happen to know how much your car weighs?” It took a second before I even realized he was talking to me. He was a friendly, smalltown guy. He said it was a nice looking car and would be fun to turn into an electric car. We talked cars for a bit before I went along on my way.

As I continued down the road, I saw some oil pumps and then I saw a few more and soon, they were all I could see in either direction. I noticed a sign that said “Petroleum Rd” and soon signs of all the big oil companies. I’d never seen so many rigs and seeing it with the overcast skies, it felt a bit apocalyptic. It was like some scene out of terminator when the machines take over. It was weird, since I’d first seen wind turbines in the exact same weather condition and something about them was magnificent & beautiful to me, but this scene just made me sad. I did sort of laugh when the Smash Mouth song, “Walkin’ on the Sun” came on as I drove by, though.

Eventually I was surrounded by flooded orchards and drove by a huge pistachio operation. I’d never seen a processing plant for anything like that, and a part of me wished I had time to stop for a tour.  I eventually made my way to CA-58 and passed through Buttonwillow, the self-proclaimed “Home of California Cotton Country”. It looked to me like an abandoned town. Everything was closed except for a Frosty King. I saw stacks of covered cotton and the gin, something else that would have been interesting to tour. A freight train was passing through and I noticed the water was just shy of the tracks in sections. I was sort of amazed at the variety of scenes I’d seen in such a short journey.

My next stop was in Bakersfield where there was a building shaped like a shoe. It wasn’t that impressive, but these little stops really broke the drive up. That section of Bakersfield was kind of sketch, as evaluated by the number of bail bond locations I could see from where I stood. I tried leaving Bakersfield but before I even got out of town, there was a flashing sign that read “Road Closed. Rock slide”. Awesome, so I pulled over to find another way to go. I was going to have to drop south to Mojave, which was definitely the long way. As I traveled down CA-58, I saw gigantic clouds sitting on the horizon but luckily, I never encountered crazy weather, just more fun time with <1/4 mi visibility.

My rock slide detour worked out, though, as I got to see some great views. There were Joshua Trees all around and as I traveled up CA-14, I passed through Red Rock Canyon, which was so pretty. For a few minutes, the sun peaked out from behind the clouds (first sight of it at ~3PM!) but went away almost immediately. As I climbed a hill, I saw clouds stretching for miles and then blue skies in the great distance. I had a star of Bethlehem moment as I looked out on a town in a valley which seemed to have the sun glowing down on it while the rest of us were left in the dark & gray. There was also the slightest hint of a rainbow. Beautiful.

Just after this sight, I finally hit the 10,000-mile mark on my car. That rollover was a secondary goal for 2010, relating to taking a road trip. Glad I hit the milestone somewhere out & about and not just driving about the city. After a quick stop in Pearsonville, all of the sudden this huge hill emerged on the horizon. It didn’t even look real. Once I got closer, I saw it was a deep red color (and now know it’s called “Red Hill”). The color was pretty great and I got a bit of light for the photo which was nice. In a few more miles, I turned on to CA-190 which would take me to the heart of Death Valley. Within a few miles on the road, I realized I was completely alone. It was just open country all around me. Gorgeous & intimidating all at once. I did meet a UPS truck on the road and we exchanged a friendly “hi, only other person on the road” wave.

As I looked out over the open road, my brain couldn’t help but wonder back to some memory of a movie where these kids were driving in the desert and some huge truck kept trying to run them off the road. I was honestly listening for that truck.

I had beautiful blue skies for about 50 miles before I saw some dense fog up ahead. I rounded a bend and there sat the Death Valley National Park sign and behind it, the dense wall of fog. So, I entered DV but couldn’t see anything beyond the 5 ft on each side of me. With the winding road and what seemed to be steep drop-offs, it felt more like I was tracing the CA-1 around the coast than cutting through a desert. A sheriff’s truck came up behind me and followed me through. The escort was slightly reassuring.

As soon as we hit a clearing in the fog, I pulled over to let him by and took in my first glimpse of Death Valley. With the fog out of the way, an incredible view opened up. The low-lying areas had become makeshift ponds from all the rain, creating these brilliant reflections. I wondered how many visitors to DV had ever gotten such a sight.

The mountains in the distance were glowing in the sunlight with clouds hovering in front. Soon, I noticed the huge rainbow that had formed in front. It felt like the first time I’d ever seen where a rainbow hit the ground. It was literally as if a postcard had been hung up in the sky. So perfect.

I pulled over to briefly check out the Mesquite Dunes. The sun was well on its way down and I still had 50 miles or so to cover. Just down the way I saw rainbow #3 for the day. DV really pulled out all the stops for my visit. It made driving in the rain for the previous 500 miles completely worthwhile. The clouds made for a spectacular sunset, which I stopped to photograph about every 2 miles. It was a perfect moment. Some Jagged Little Pill era Alanis came up on shuffle and I was surrounded by these intense colors and landscapes. It felt like someone had hit reset on my brain. I felt brand new.

Once the sun was down, the mountains morphed to vague silhouettes which felt ominous in the night. I had this feeling that I could be zapped out of existence, which was as freeing as it was frightening.

I finally arrived to my hotel at the intersection of CA-127. There was an emergency vehicle flashing their lights in the intersection, and as I approached, I saw why. The entire intersection was under water. I slowed, watching for any sign from this person that I couldn’t cross, and then went for it. I rounded the corner and was greeted by the dark & flooded parking lot of my hotel.

The hotel was pretty much the only sign of civilization for miles. I had one of those “What have I signed up for?” moments as I parked in the dark and made my way to the front door, noting only about 5 other cars in the lot. I entered the door and saw an old school check-in desk to my right where a large 50-ish year-old man stood with a carhart coat. Behind him was a sketchy looking man in a trench coat kicked back in a wooden chair, two woman wearing decorated sweatshirts & high-waisted jeans, and an oil painting of the woman who owned the hotel, Marta Becket (I recognized her from the website). And, they were all listening to some government broadcast on the *RADIO*. I tried not to stare but my mind was too busy racing to say hello: “Once you check-in, you can never check out muwahaha” and “Where the hell am I?!”

The man behind the counter was perfectly friendly. However, when he said the phone line was down & handed me a key with the room number on the keychain, and I thought of the flooded roads and complete lack of cell service, I couldn’t help but note the quantity of overlapping characteristics my current situation shared with the plot of so many psychological thrillers. I mean the place even had a huge porch with little lights that could flicker on and off, and some crazy murals of people painted in the hallways. I came to peace with the fact that I might not live through the night.

I unlocked the door to my room. It was surprisingly large with completely white walls save for the paintings of acrobats & circus performers. I tried not to let those freak me out, but I will say once I turned off the lights, I never let myself open my eyes and look at the wall. The furniture was all antique and it felt like a room I might stay in at a grandma’s house. There was a little message on the wall noting the significance of the circus performers. Red Skelton (a comedian from Indiana) had stayed in this room on several occasions. It was yet another Indiana tie-in for the day following my James Dean stop.

They had closed the hotel cafe at 3PM because there were so few people, so I was directed to head 7 miles up the road. This 7-mile stretch was the most treacherous I’d encountered the entire day. There were several 10-12’ sections of rushing water going across the road. I eventually crossed about 100 feet over into Nevada and entered the Longstreet Casino & Grill which had flashing lights and an over-sized cow & windmill as outdoor decor. I had some level of cell service there so I was finally able to check-in with Tim & Emily so someone knew I’d arrived safely.

When I got back to my room, I checked out my view which consisted of the back of the building, a scraggly tree, and mountains in the distance, all illuminated by a nearly full moon which made everything glow like a true desert scene. I filtered through pictures on my cameras for a bit and then called it a night. With no phone, TV, or internet, there wasn’t much else to do, which was fine. I’d been awake for 16 hours and driving for about 12 of them.

I let myself sleep in since I saw the mountains covered in clouds, killing my plan to capture a Death Valley sunrise. My bathroom was awesome with a big skylight. I wish I had that kind of lighting in my place. I laughed at a little sign above the sink which read: “In the summer, let the water run. It will eventually become cold.” Waiting on cold water has never been an issue in my life. I packed up the car and grabbed some toast at the little cafe. It was a total road side diner. I grabbed a stool at the counter and eavesdropped on the men at the table behind me who were talking about putting skylights in their trailers. One of the guys questioned my request for water for breakfast and said he’d been hospitalized for drinking too much water (read about that here). Oops. My toast was awesome. Total flashback to my days loafing at Vi’s with my dad. It was nice to feel so far away from the city.

I backtracked to Death Valley and prayed for a little break in the clouds. First stop, Zabriskie Point. It was a steep climb up to the view point and I soon regretted my excursions off the path as I acquired a 2” slab of mud on each of my shoes. Having my car detailed before the trip was a bad call. This point was allegedly a favorite for sunset/sunrise but at 8 AM, the light was giving me no love. It was a spectacular view, though.

The further west I traveled, the more the skies cleared up, so I backtracked to the Mesquite Dunes. I may not be a photographer by trade, but I feel like I get just as excited by good light. With the sky no longer blockaded by clouds, the valley appeared to expand. I encountered a red Mini along the way. I gave a little flash of my headlamps and received a huge wave back. Anyone who has been with me when this happens knows how excited I get.

The skies were pristine by the time I got to the dunes. The sand was completely compacted from the rain. I was feeling a bit lazy so I didn’t walk around too far. I did see a snake trail and thought about my disappointment that I hadn’t seen a single sign of life, not even birds. As I walked back toward the car, though, I looked down and noticed a huge red ant of some kind lugging a piece of food. I didn’t have the proper lens but I did my best to capture evidence of the little guy.

I circled back and ventured down to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at 282 ft below sea level. It didn’t seem that low until I turned and saw that they had which noted sea level on the surrounding cliff side. It provided a nice context. The basin was truly beautiful. It was the one place in DV that really made me feel small in comparison to its vastness.

I pulled off on my first dirt road to visit the Natural Bridge. It was the longest 1.5 miles I’ve ever driven. The road had been gutted by water so my car quite literally hobbled its way up at 5 mph. I had to really grip the wheel as the ruts were trying to spin it one way and then the other. Everyone I passed on the road seemed to look down on me from their SUV, marveling at the spectacle of this Mini crawling up the road. It made me laugh. I almost took a video because I knew it was the closest I’d ever come to off-roading. I had another mile hike on foot before getting to the bridge. An uphill climb in pea gravel is pretty grueling. The sun was out with enough intensity that even the 60-some degree weather felt hot. I had to stop for a rest in the shade. It was lovely, though, sitting in a canyon in complete silence. The canyon floor was a rock collector’s paradise and it was hard for me to resist temptation. I picked one up and dropped it to hear the echo. It was way more than I expected. Pretty cool. That rest spot was more interesting than the actual natural bridge. It was eh, so I took my picture and turned back. I climbed up off the trail for a great view back to where I was parked. Holiday & I hobbled back down the dirt road, happy to be back on pavement.

The Artist’s Drive road was closed, so I stopped at Golden Canyon instead. Based on the packed lot, it seemed to be a popular stop. The color was nice…and golden but again, “eh”. The highlight for me was when I happened to look up and notice what looked like a face on the corner of a cliff.

Twenty Mule Canyon road was also closed, which left me with only one DV stop left, Dante’s View. I was exhausted, the clouds were moving back in, and I was getting low on gas ($4.28/g to fill up in DV and the nearest station would be another 30+ miles). It would be a 30-mile roundtrip to get to the view, so I debated skipping it since the view would probably be cloudy like Zabriskie Point that morning. Well, I love myself so much for not skipping it. The road there was curvy and lined by gorgeous hills & mountains. It was a completely different driving experience from what I’d done all day. I curved through a carved out road and saw a little pull-out. I misread a sign and thought it said this was as far as I could go, so I stopped and looked around in complete disappointment. I’d been going up a 5% grade so I expected some kind of view but there wasn’t much of one. As I was about to head back, I saw a car continue to drive up which made me re-read the sign. It had said no cars with trailers beyond this point. Ah ha! The road evolved to a 15% grade of hairpin turns. I was amazed that the vehicle length restriction stretched all the way up to 25-feet, as I couldn’t imagine maneuvering anything bigger than my Mini. My little engine growled a bit with the grade. This grade was double anything I’d ever done in the Rockies. My gas mileage took a major hit from that stretch of road. I dropped from 135 mi left on the tank to 60. Oops.

Before I’d left on this trip, I’d watched a PBS special about a National Geographic photographer and when I reached the top of this road, I thought of something one of the photo editors said. She mentioned National Geographic allows their photographers a rare 6-8 weeks in the field because their goal is to get the most unique/special photos possible. And, as she looks through a photographer’s slides, she’ll see a lot of great photos but then, in that last batch of film, there will be something even more amazing, captured in that last week. So here I was at my last stop of the day, the side trip that seemed extraneous, and I knew I was about to get my “amazing” trip photo.

I was standing in the scene where I had always imagined Zeus lived when we studied Greek mythology. I was only at an elevation of 5400 ft and yet, I was certain I was standing on top of the world. For a place named Dante’s View, this seemed as close to heaven as one could come. The hills we stood on were like islands in a glowing sea of clouds. The wind was gusting and the temperature was a good 20-degrees cooler than where I’d come from. All that was missing from the scene was a volcano erupting in the distance. Though I had decided my photo *of* the view point was going to be better than my photos *from* the view point, I climbed down the hill and up the other until I was standing on a small peak, completely alone. I wish I’d had my iPod to play some anthemic soundtrack music to complete the feeling that I currently existed in the closing scene of a movie. Absolutely incredible. If you only have time to visit one spot in Death Valley, Dante’s View is the one.

I literally coasted about 10 of the 14 miles back. If only all roads somehow sloped slightly downhill. I saw a hawk perched on the side of the cliff above me on the way back. With the heavy back lighting, all I captured was a little hawk silhouette, though. Still, this find was a nice upgrade from my ant sighting.

I decided to take my chances on my low tank of gas and wait until the next town of Pahrump, NV, which seemed about 50 miles away. I had about 80 miles left on the tank after all that coasting so I was golden. Well, as I came back to where my hotel was to continue toward Pahrump, I saw a “road closed” sign. I knew this route wasn’t my only way to Vegas, but I did know it was the most direct and the one I knew where I’d find gas, so I was torn. Then, I watched a car in front of me just swerve around the road closed sign and the RV ahead of me was about to do the same thing. If I ended up having to turn back, I was going to be just as screwed, but I went for it. Everything was fine, only minor flooding across the road, until we came up to a car completely stopped in the road. It was a car about the size of mine and I quickly saw why. There was 12-15 ft stretch of road completely engulfed by rushing water. I thought back to every safety video I’d ever seen and all the times I called people morons when their cars washed away because they tried to drive through rushing water. And yet, I sat and watched as a minivan pulled around the parked car and went for it. I saw the water was about a foot deep based on where it hit the van. The car ahead of me followed in the van’s steps and I followed closely behind that car, thinking it would be breaking a lot of the water pressure for me. The huge RV was right behind me so I knew there was someone to pull me out if this didn’t go well. As I felt the water pounding against the side of my car and saw it splashing over the sides, I just kept repeating, “Oh, Mindy, this is so full of bad ideas.” About the time I was halfway through I considered the fact that this water could get in my engine. Oh well now. But I made it! In the past few hours, I had traveled 3 miles on a rutted dirt road, climbed a 15% grade, and forded a makeshift creek. Who needs an SUV when you’ve got a Mini?

I stopped for gas in Pahrump, a sad little town. It was dark by the time I neared Vegas, which made for a great view of all the lights as I came over the hills. I could see the light from Luxor and all. I drove to the house Emily’s family rented and used the driveway as a place to stop and repack my car and freshen up a bit. It took 5 minutes to brush the tangles out of my hair. I was a mess. I headed to the strip where I met up with them at Bill’s which used to be the San Francisco Barbary coast-themed casino. That would have been cool to see. I gambled my $1 and called it a day on that front. Once Tim wrapped up at the craps table, we went to Memphis Championship Barbeque for dinner. I had some hushpuppies which made me happy! Emily’s younger brother rode with me. I think he’s 6’5 or 6’7 and a very wide football player. It was his first time in a Mini. He fit but his head could stick out the sunroof a bit. We played a game of pool back at the house before calling it a night.

The next morning, Christmas Eve, some of us set out to do some Christmas shopping at Fry’s and Caesar’s Forum Shops. We got lunch at Le Burger Brasserie in Harrah’s. I had the French Burger with brie & smoked bacon. It was pretty awesome. Emily and her mom & brother went together on a 100-oz beer tower of Stella and finished it. I was impressed.

When we got back to the house, Tim, Emily, and her oldest brother (another 6’5-er) piled in my car for a trip to Hoover Dam. It was only 30 miles away. Lake Mead was a beautiful crystal blue but we noticed its level was extremely low, even after all the rain. They say it will dry up by 2020. We stopped at the new Pat Tillman bridge which had just opened in October. Tim had been playing Christmas music on Pandora for the whole trip, and since we had the windows down from passing through the security checkpoint, he decided to crank it up as I stopped to let some pedestrians cross. An old lady in a purple sweatshirt smiled really big & gave us a thumbs up as she passed in front of the car. We all cracked up. She was digging our tunes. Walking out on the bridge. provided a great view of the dam, one that people never really got before this bridge. We read that the bridge was tall enough to fit the Transamerica Pyramid under it, a landmark we all knew quite well in SF. It was crazy high.

We traveled on down to the visitor’s center. It was $8 just to go in or $11 to get a power plant tour, so we got the tour. We had to sit through a 10-minute movie first, which was so full of propaganda that I wanted to walk out. With all the foreign tourists visiting, I wanted to scream, “This isn’t how all Americans feel!!”. Luckily, the tour stuck to the facts. We stood over one of the 30-foot diameter collection pipes and then walked to the turbine room with all the Nevada side generators. There were 8 plus 2 smaller ones. Each of the large ones took 60 train cars of parts to assemble and weigh in at 560-ton. They were currently working on one so we got to see the main drive shaft extracted. Just one of the small turbines generates enough power for the entire dam & facilities. It was interesting, especially considering it was built in the depression. Had they straight up poured all the concrete used, it would have taken 125 years to completely set and likely would have crumbled under the pressure, so they broke it into smaller blocks and ran cooling pipes which cold water ran through to speed up the cooling, which is how they finished 2 years ahead of schedule.

The sun appeared to be setting as we walked out over the dam, even though it was only around 3 PM. We were just nestled so low in a canyon. It was a great time of day to snap some photos. We drove across the dam and then headed back to Vegas. I had to keep reminding myself it was Christmas Eve. No context. I dropped Emily & her brother off at Albertson’s to help with food shopping and Tim & I set out to find an Asian market to get ingredients for his lumpia. We found that and then hit Von’s (Safeway) for supplies, before ending up at CVS where we picked up stockings and wrapping paper. It was such a different experience for me. We didn’t even end up wrapping the gifts until Christmas morning which I found hilarious. I thought about how many people around the west were unwrapping their gifts as we were hustling to wrap ours. About 4 hours later, we unwrapped ours, too. hehe. I got a nice collection of candy and Vegas themed things in my stocking and Emily’s parents gave me a fun apron I picked out at Anthropologie. It was a really nice Christmas!

That afternoon, we kids headed back to the strip. The boys were going to gamble and Emily & I were going to look around the Wynn. It was my favorite. Unlike others where the flashing lights of the slot machines and all were the focus, the Wynn somehow managed to repress them and focus on the general atmosphere. I really liked it. We also walked through the Venetian and over to Bellagio for the water show. Emily’s mom made ham & au gratin potatoes for dinner, which were awesome. We finally tried decorating some sugar cookies and Tim made his lumpia. It was a lovely little Christmas dinner and we ended the night by watching the Katharine Hepburn & Carey Grant flick, Holiday, which I gave Tim & Emily for Christmas. Both Tim & Emily hadn’t been feeling well so it worked out to have a chill night.

The day after Christmas, we managed to pack all 3 of our bags in the Mini and headed to the strip for breakfast. We wanted to see The Cosmopolitan so we ended up at their buffet, The Wicked Spoon, for brunch. I think it was $23/p or something, but the food was good and drinks were included. I should have taken pictures of the desert booth. They had all kinds of cute little deserts but none of them were particularly delicious. I grabbed 5 different ones because I wanted to know what they were, though! I was most excited about the biscotti ice cream. It was yummm. The Cosmopolitan was really nice. It felt very rich and was obviously a bit more femme than the others. My sister would have been in love. We made one last stop at Aria before finally getting on the road out of Vegas around 1 PM, much later than planned. We cut out any planned roadside stops for the drive home, especially since traffic was insane. We added about 90 min to the drive time from sitting in traffic. At least it wasn’t raining, though. We stopped at Arby’s for dinner just outside of Bakersfield since that’s a rare treat for we San Franciscans and got to SF a little after 11 PM. The drive went by much faster with Tim & Emily to talk to.

All-in-all it was a great adventure and a nice mix-up to my holiday celebrations. It was the first time I’d spent Christmas away from Indiana & my family, but it was really nice. My sis also tried to make sure I had a nice Christmas away from home by sending a huge package with wrapped gifts & a stocking. Pretty awesome.

Check out all the trip photos here.