Stovepipe Wells, This Time with Pictures

Okay, well, hello again. Now I'm writing to you from the Sunset Campground at Furnace Creek. It took us about an hour to put everything away, hitch up, pull ourselves over, and then set up again. I've had some time to check our cell phone signal. It's still a weak signal, sadly. It means I'll need to be judicious with my picture posting. Since our last visit to Death Valley, we've changed cell phone service providers, from AT&T to Verizon. We though about it for years, especially when we'd heard Verizon coverage was better. Then, AT&T decided to raise the price of our service, which made it an easy decision to change coverage at the time. I can't say I've noticed any improvement in coverage, and the coverage here in Death Valley is worse, but oh well. There are far more important things to get hot under the collar about.

So, I do have a few pictures from yesterday. I had to load them one at a time to the computer, then one at a time to the blog, then one at a time to the post, and so you can see it is a painful process. But anything for you, my bloggy friends. This first one was taken from the steps of the RV just before we pulled away from Trona Pinnacles. I'd mentioned that a film crew showed up the night before. Trucks and cars were in and out all night long, and they were up and at 'em at 4:00 a.m. that day, no doubt to catch the best light of the day.

So let's just be peeping Toms and zoom in on them a little closer. Not much more to see here. One of my Facebook friends suggested Smitty's "ear impression" could get him a job in Hollywood. If I'd been thinking, I might have taken him over there to introduce him to their talent scouts. Oh well. Another time, another place, perhaps.

As we drove away, we could see the little town of Trona, California, off in the distance. Also, there is a train running from the pinnacles to the town. 

As it turns out, you've just seen a picture of the "shortest regulated railroad in the country."

It was an easy drive once we got past the five miles of dirt road leading out to the Trona Pinnacles. It wasn't very long before we passed the park boundary into Death Valley National Park.

Very soon afterward, we began seeing the characteristic striations of color Death Valley is known for. But we also had to get up and over the Panamint Range. This is quite a hill, going from below sea level, and summiting at about 5,000 feet.

There was snow on the ground at the top, but the roads were clear. Crossing over the summit, it was a down, down, down stretch to the valley floor and Stovepipe Wells Village.

I had more pictures to show you, but those will have to wait for another day. 

Instead, I'll tell you about a simple and delicious new recipe I tried. You can find the recipe for Roasted Acorn Squash with Maple Butter right here. If you click on that link, you'll see prettier pictures of this tasty side. For now, you're stuck with my rather boring one. This turned out to be a great camping dish. I brought the acorn squash from home. It doesn't need refrigeration, and the California agricultural inspectors didn't care about it. Also, it was very simple to make up. 

The recipe is for using three acorn squashes, and so mine was cut down to 1/3. I used two tablespoons unsalted butter, two tablespoons maple syrup, and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt. I left out the coriander since I had none with me, but I'd like to try that sometime. Anyway...yummy...and 'tis the season for acorn squash. We're still working away at the ham from New Year's Day, but we finished the last of that at breakfast this morning.

The only other picture to make the cut today is this one of little Sadie. The kitties are always tired after a driving day. Sadie was snuggled up on her window perch most of the evening.

It's hard to tell the front half of the cat from the back half.

So, with pictures being such an issue with this weak signal, I may not blog as much, and any posts I write will be necessarily picture-deprived. We'll catch up when I have better internet access, but I'll probably still check in each day.