Rover here... I'm borrowing Denise's computer as I let my thoughts wander before our trip to California, well, really to Death Valley. That's a funny name for a place, isn't it?
I just looked at the Morning Report on the National Park Service's Death Valley page. It shows yesterday's temperatures, plus some interesting climate stuff. Let's see, we (Denise & I, that is!) are going to be staying at Furnace Creek. Monday's high there was 87°F (31°C) and the low was 55°F (13°C). Predictions for the coming days are for temperatures in the low 90s. Hmmm... that's pretty warm, but it's right in the range that Denise expects. But wow - the total precipitation there this year so far is only 0.95 inches. So little water, that's so hard to imagine. I have to admit that planning a trip and not worrying about rain is pretty novel. And oh, look, the page shows the high and low temperatures for the year so far. The high was 129°F (54°C) on July 6th, and the low was 24°F (-04°C) on January 14th. I think it would hurt my paws to walk on sand that hot!
I've been bouncing around the house while Denise is at work, trying to see signs of packing, of getting ready to head to the desert. It didn't look like Denise was paying any attention to our upcoming trip, so I started bugging her about it last night. She says that it won't take long to throw some clothes into a bag, and the cameras are always ready to go. She did tell me that I could shop in our food closet and pick out a stash of energy bars. Oooh! I like having a choice. But she told me that we can't take any chocoloate-covered bars because she expects that they would get all melty. (Melty? Yup, that's kind of an odd word, but I like it!) I suppose I can find some good non-chocolate energy bars for us; after all, I know that's what Denise buys for her summer rides close to home. I just figured that we are getting into the safe chocolate part of the year.
It's really a good thing that I've figured out how to turn Denise's computer on. I put it back in a quiet mode again when I'm done so she doesn't even know I've been exploring.
I wandered over to the Death Valley National Park web page to start to understand why Denise thinks we'll have plenty of places to wander there. There are quite a few (relatively) short trails, a lot of wandering without trails, and some longer hikes too. Oh look, we can bounce across the Badwater Salt Flat. It's 5 miles across, so I'd bet we don't follow a straight line across and back. (You're right, Denise really doesn't bounce, but I do!) And there are sand dunes there. And...
Only five more days to wait!
Here's a shot of me on our last trip. I was training for hiking during our jaunts off of the bike - but I think that traversing the desert will be quite different from wandering on the rocks along the coast in Acadia.
If you've followed Denise's other exploits, then you already know who I am.
But for any new readers out there... My name is Rover, and I travel with Denise. I jumped into her bags shortly after she left home on her cross-country adventure back in 2002, and I've been traveling with her ever since. No, I really can't help her with hiking, although I do jump out of my traveling home and bounce across interesting places. And I can help find sights for photos, and I make Denise smile. That's enough, isn't it?
