I think if I lived in Furnace Creek, Death Valley I'd tire of waking up at 8am to 90 degree heat & heading straight for the pool.. fortunately I don't live here & this was about the most perfect start to a long day..

Furnace Creek is a resort type place in the middle of Death Valley, it prides itself on its golf course & Steakhouse.. I'm more impressed with the location & the swimming pool fed with natural spring water, it's hardly the outdoor life, & we're definitely not roughing it, but it's as close to camping as this spoon fed idle rich wannabe wants to get.   Last time we visited Death Valley we managed to see most things, but were put off going to the Racetrack because we didn't have a vehicle capable of the off road portion of the trip. This time we're armed with ... The Canyonero ("2 lanes wide, 40 feet of American pride..") so off to the Racetrack we set.
 
 

 You may have seen the famous photos of 2 rocks "racing" each other across a dried up muddy surface with their dried up trails behind them, well, those pictures were taken at the Racetrack. The Death Valley map showed The Racetrack as being about 40 miles off a main road.. we drove to where we thought the track started, there was no sign to the Racetrack at all, but based on evidence provided by the map we set of up the track anyway. After about 20 miles the track became a rut... 10 miles later the rut became a vague clearing filled with soft sand.. the compass thoughtfully installed by the Canyoneros manufacturers told us we were headed in the wrong direction.. we needed to be turning south,we were about to give up but  a south turn appeared and we took it. 20 miles later this rut dead ended.. so picture the scene.. 1:30pm.. 110 degrees, half a tank of gas (We'd filled up before we left Furnace Creek) and we're at the end of a sandy track, we don't know where we are, and we gave no clue were we're going.. there are no people for miles, & the only signs of life we've seen are a very skanky cow hiding under a weed, & some tiny chipmunk thingies.. we decided to go back to the original trail & try going further on past the current track, this we did.

30 minutes later & the track & scenery are looking so unlike anything on the map we decided to give up the quest for the race track & just get the hell out of Dodge.. this is no place to run out of gas.. we were headed North West & the map showed that no matter what track we were on in 50 miles we'd hit civilisation... 10 miles later we got to a "T" junction with a signpost, "The Racetrack - 6 miles" it proclaimed,.. Damn maps!!
 

Teakettle junction..

So, armed with a definite fix on our position we calculated that we could get to the Racetrack & then had enough fuel to exit Death valley on the north side close to civilisation & a petrol station.. The "roads" if you can call them that in this part of the valley alternated between very rough gravel with boulders strewn everywhere & very fine sand with scrub growing all over the place, top speed was between 15 & 30 mph, & the Canyonero was 4 wheel sliding around all the corners even in 4 wheel drive mode.. this was as close to the Phil Stephens (a pal, a lunatic) style of driving as I ever want to get.. Sure enough in 6 miles we arrived at the Racetrack, there was a large expanse of dried mud with a rocky outcrop in the centre.. we wandered into the centre and around the rocks, there were 2 other people here, hiding amongst the rocks.. we couldn't find any racing rocks except for a couple of crude fakes..

Crude fake

Becca photographs crude fake..

Also available in white..

We wandered back to the Canyonero after about 30 minutes of fruitless searching & bothered to read the tourist sign that described the place.. it said that the racing rocks were to be found at the south edge of the flats.. so pausing only to write "Also available in white" in the dirt on the rear of  the other couples white SUV we headed to the south edge. The sign at the South edge said that the racing rocks were half a mile out.. oh well, we've come this far so we might as well soldier on.. we could see no rocks.. after about 20  minutes of walking we came across the rocks.. oh, I should mention that the sign also warned people not to walk on the flats when they're wet, as footprints last years & years here.. so naturally there were car tracks right out to the rocks.. people suck.

The rocks had tracks! They weren't as definite as the tracks in the cool photos we'd seen but they were tracks nonetheless.. we wandered about taking arty photos from every angle until the novelty wore off & then started back to the Canyonero.. as we were approaching the van the other peoples SUV started approaching.. "Shit, they're pissed at the graffitti we muttered..." but no, they just pulled up, read the sign, chickened out of the walk in the heat &drove off... phew.. we won't get shot & left in the desert. We left the Racetrack & spent the next hour slipping & sliding along the tracks that took us to a real road.. the return to tarmac couldn't come soon enough.

Wanna race?

So this travel report comes to you from the 15th floor of the Luxor, one of my favorite Strip Hotels, we got a room in the pyramid, the convertible Mustang is parked out back, life is sweet again.. we got into Vegas at about 12 midnight, freshened up & went out onto the strip to examine "Paris" the newest Casino & naturally one we hadn't been in before.

Some of you out there in email land have heard me prattle on about my "system" for Roulette.. well, as luck would have it we stumbled upon a preppy kid in a Yale T shirt applying the same "system" on a table in Paris, ..now my system basically relies upon always betting on red (or black) with no deviation, & always doubling your bet if you lose.. this all well & good if you can keep doubling, we watched this roulette wheel spit out 8 black numbers in a row.. the kid ran out of money after 7 goes when he'd plonked down a total of about 550 dollars.. he was white in the face & was squeezing the life out of his girlfriends hand.. this has made me slightly more skeptical about my system.. I'm back here next Saturday, I will do more research then.. right now.. I'm not confident..

Ok, it's 4am.. I need some sleep, that morning bird RK wants to be in the pool at 8am (It won't happen..)

Until tomorrow when we hit the coast...