Wildrose, again.

Like clockwork, at dawn, I woke up and decided to quickly run to take a shower, hoping that I wouldn't have to stand in a long line. There was a full group site, of dozens, nearby, so it was surprisingly quiet. And no others, in the shower...yet. What a treat! Yes, the mornings are plenty chilly and thankfully, there was an outlet for the hair dryer. At this point in time, I didn't care if the hair dryer turns my hair into a frizzy mess, which it does. I normally air dry my hair to keep the frizz away. But not this chilly morning.

I thought about my day and wasn't quite confirmed where I would wind up. There are plenty of times when I am completely spontaneous, and other times I'm planned out to a tee. I keep it loose when I can. There is something so freeing about that. As I headed back towards the central part of Death Valley, near Stovepipe Wells, my former campsite at Wildrose beckoned me to return. It's as if the Sylver Gypsy was on auto pilot. I knew that I would have to spend some time very soon to do some cooking, and laundry, and other things like giving myself a pedicure and manicure. I could do this in the remote, and payment free campsite at Wildrose, Or in the busier village of Stovepipe Wells. I am planning the latter stop anyway, probably tomorrow. So I made the 20 mile trek south into these mountains from Panamint Springs.

I wanted to clean up the RV a, bit and just take a day to relax, and do some reading, and sketching of ideas that were just pounding in my head for my upcoming studio work.

A drove over 100 miles yesterday, and even though that doesn't seem like much, it is a lot in these mountainous curvy roads, hair pin at times, where slow going, and hyper focus, in areas of no guard rails, is a big survivor's challenge.

I managed to get my same campsite on the second tier of the hill. Jo Jo and I didn't take the time to walk into this nearby old encampment, on my last visit, which was the Civilian Conservation Corps. A 1930's project to provide employment for improvement projects and military training, and development of the park. There were still some old barn-like buildings and a few homes that were boarded up. The campsite is just a few hundred feet from this historical sight. It's actually a really nice spot. There are crickets, and singing birds, and the brightest stars. The hills are fairly barren other than creosote, cats claw, and sage bushes, looking like freckles on organic sand or flesh colored mounds. Stark, intimate, and welcoming. I search the grounds constantly for more rocks.

Jo Jo and I took a couple other hikes after I did laundry and cooked. I have just been enjoying the beautiful sunshine and comfortable weather, in a lazy way. Tomorrow, I head into Stovepipe Wells and I'm hoping to do two other hikes first thing in the morning.











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