Road trip, day 2

This was the BEST day I have had in a very long time! First of all, it was the first Thursday in 18 weeks that I didn't have to go in for a chemo treatment. Awesome! The rest of the day just got better. We started with a delicious breakfast and then set off for Great Basin National Park.

We stopped at the Visitor’s Center to get maps and most importantly, Kent’s National Park card - at last! We got the maps, but they didn’t have the cards [sigh]. I got this cool bookmark, though [I’ve been using a Walker’s receipt!]:


These flowers are something like Bee Mustard - I thought they were beautiful - see the big bee? ;)



We drove on to Wheeler Peak Campground and then went on a 4-5 hour walk/hike in the woods. Our destination was the Bristlecone Pine, view area. There are Bristlecone pine trees that are dated back to 1100 B.C.!

Here is my fearless leader leading me up the trail!

Amazing sites along the way:




These were all along the path:

I loved the green middles!


Here are the Bristlecone pines





This is a dead one - the tree not the people! :)


On our return we stopped by this lovely lake:


We also had the most amazing/unexpected/probably never repeated experience as we were walking back to the trail head. We met a couple who were originally from Lebanon - and they are Druze!!! Druze are an offshoot of Islam that began about 1,000 years ago. Kent has been to Lebanon so he & they could talk about familiar places there. Also, when Kent and I lived in Jerusalem, we spent 2 weeks each semester in Galilee. The area has quite a few Druze living there and we’ve visited some of their sites.
All four of us were so excited to meet each other in this out-of-the-way place!

The other amazing thing - I made the entire walk on my own! I am so proud of myself. It was so nice not to feel sick and too tired to enjoy things! On our way out of the park, we stopped at the Visitor’s Center at Lehman Caves and Kent was finally able to get his National Park card - yay!!!

We had lunch in Ely, Nevada at a Subway. According to the cute “kid” who made our sandwiches, provolone cheese is the choice of the elderly! I got it anyway. :)

Our drive for the remainder of the afternoon was through the Nevada desert. It was amazing how many loooooong straight stretches of road there were. We measured one that was 21 miles before it curved! It was much more interesting and beautiful than either of us anticipated.

Here is a picture of some kind of mutated palm tree! Of course, what do you expect from the place where they tested nuclear weapons?




As we began this drive there was a sign that said “Please use headlights, next 89 miles”. This entire area is bordered by a military airbase. We are wondering if the headlights are like saying, “Hey, we’re friendly, please don’t shoot us!” ??? :)

We spent the night in Beatty, Nevada. It is just outside of Death Valley.