The Twelve Days of Christmas

Day Seven: Arrival!
After scoring an assist (helping a Harley rider without cell phone service arrange for AAA towing) it was time for yet another meal.  Our usual method of dining while motorcycle camping involves one enormous (usually inexpensive) meal out, coupled with scrounging through our sack of groceries for any other dietary needs.  Since we didn’t have any casino buffet meals while in Vegas (many of which are purported to be quite good) we thought a casino buffet at the “Pahrump Nugget” was in order.  This was, err…, quite a different dining experience from our meal the night before.


Gone were the dainty perfectly presented portions of exquisite luxury ingredients.  Rather we piled our plates sloppily high with fried chicken, omelets, salads, fruit, bacon (I’ve never seen more bacon in my life, and I found myself wondering exactly how many pounds they served up per day, or even, per hour.)  All for something along the lines of seven dollars.  It was, most definitely, a quantity over quality sort of meal, which, although is not something I’d typically do at home, I’m open to when I’m only having one meal a day.  Sometimes.  A study in Americana.  Fill ‘er up!

Our entry into Death Valley National Park Sunset Campground, (once again, running on fumes, oy) was greeted with a lovely sunset (I guess they named the campground well), what seemed like fiery busses crashing through the sky (more astronomy) and… and… a SHOWER!  Sunset Campground is hardly an idyllic communing with nature – an RV parking lot gives you a better idea of where we were staying, but at that point the shower was a definite plus.  As was the warm saloon across the street.  Not our usual scene, but we can occasionally enjoy the perks of camping in less than pristine wilderness.

Sunset Campground provides.

Strategizing at the Corkscrew Saloon in Furnace Creek, Death Valley.  It was toasty enough here that I could actually enjoy a cold beer.  This practically never happens since drinking anything cold pretty much makes me hypothermic (as I’ve described before), despite living in the desert.  Oddly, I don’t get the equal and opposite reaction when I drink something hot.  Bummer.