Rainbow Death, Floods and Volcanoes!

Hello!

So we left the hotel early to get to the beach! Getting there was not really that fun. LA traffic lives up to its reputation, and as the highway was like a larger version of our Decarie trench, we decided to take the side roads (Google maps said it would be about the same time). This time was about an hour, so we settled in for a longish drive, one that I was not looking forward to. We were headed to Santa Monica beach; the GPS gets confused some times (as I have mentioned before) and this time was no exception.

 The roads are good in LA, and they seem to have enough sense to build a network that moves people quickly, but, for some reason, outside of the downtown core, they have not developed an advanced green light. So at one traffic light we sat for 30 mins, this wasn't a turn I was not supposed to be making either, there were two city buses on their normal routes waiting as well. At each light, one, maybe two cars got through. The rest of the drive was really not that bad, like I said, the roads are good. We stopped at a 7-11 to pick up a quick breakfast, but I stayed in the car. The reason? NPR was on the radio, and the program was featuring an anti-nuclear whistle blower, a Marxist economist, and I did not catch the last segment. Now I like NPR (National Public Radio), and think for the most part they try to be balanced...but when you have a line up like that it's hard to disagree with the idea that it is leftist! Anyway the radio was a lot of fun as we arrived at Santa Monica!

The beach was beautiful! It was also not crowded (one of the benefits of October!). We changed in the public washrooms/changing rooms provided, and went for a swim. The water was not that cold, and the waves were a lot of fun, we spent 1 1/2 hours there and went on our way!

So in Santa Monica they have advanced greens...why LA not you??

The next several hours were spent driving to Death Valley, and the drive there was spectacular! We stopped on the way for lunch at Chili's, and then the desert. We did not really have a valid viewpoint of the desert, as it was raining when we got there! At this point it was only light showers (foreshadowing people woooo) so the driving was not really problematic. 

To get to Death Valley, we had to go up first, to around 4000ft, then we had to drive down again. Once again our view point is a little skewed, there was a rainbow at the first look out! 

The drive down was breathtaking, and fun. We did not stop until we got to what I assume is the middle, at the ranger station to pay and get a pamphlet (the other parks had the station at the gates). We found out many things; the temperature on average at that time of year was 30º (it was 16º when we were there), it costs 1200$ to tow your car out of the valley, and to watch out for rattle snakes, scorpions, and black widow spiders! The sun was starting to set, so we went on our way!

The way up was more twisty than the way down, and the rain started to get thicker. I was driving, and had the glorious opportunity, to avid fallen rocks in the road. But at last we made it out, and were on our way to Rhyolite! 

This town had a population of 10,000 in 1909, but now there is no one left OOHHHHOooooo! In fact the history is pretty great, so I will let you read it for yourself! When we got there, the sun had already set and the town was extra creepy. We stayed for only a short while, and then went on our way toward Las Vegas!

The rain was coming down properly when we got back to the highway (US-95), so the driving was slower. We stopped for gas around 8pm (Pacific time) and found out that we were right next to Area 51! This was an unexpected surprise, and we had good laugh about it! The the rain started coming down hard, I slowed down as much as the rest of traffic, and drove on. Then, the cars in front of me (I kept a long distance in front of me for safety) slammed on their breaks. I did the same, while keeping an eye out for people behind me, then I hit the water. I have had limited experience with driving through water before, and it is not so different from ice & snow. There was a lot of it and it was moving across the highway with massive speed! As soon as I was out of it, I, like the others on the road, pulled over to the shoulder where it was dry. One of the cars in front of me seemed to have spun out, and then started to move backwards, then Tak, Alexei and I came to the realization at the same time, he was being washed away! I jumped out of the car saying only "watch the car" and ran after it! This was immensely stupid. For one, I have just abandoned my friends on a highway, in the desert, in the rain, for two, what the hell was I going to do when I caught up with a car, getting washed away in a flash flood, by myself, with out any tools? In any case I was running after the car.

Other people were doing the same thing, speaking much to the communal bond/stupidity of humanity I suppose. To the driver's credit, he was trying to save himself, he kept trying to drive up on the bank, but to no avail. As his car hit the far bank (the one opposite to the highway) the bank would crumble and his car would be sent back into the flood. I will now attempt to describe the flood. At this point it had run off the highway and into the ditch, but the ditch could not hold it, so the flood was creating a larger channel for itself. The river that had formed was about 12 feet. The car was at the other side. So there was nothing to do but follow it. More people started to join us (I looked behind me and saw that we were running downhill slightly, which relived my fears about the car((stupidly))). THE CAR HAD STOPPED! It wedged firmly against the far bank. At this point more people started to show up, first a couple of other drivers, then one guy in an army(?) outfit, then two more, and then I was surrounded by these fellows and ladies. Tak also showed up, informing me that the car was fine where it was. As I am writing this down I know I am leaving out a million details, but as this is a blog post, and not a short story, and Tak has already wrote what happened at this point, I will end it here.

Spooky Car WwwOOoooOOoo!!

"WAIT!" you exclaim, what of our intrepid Alexei, what was his happenstance at this point?? Well reader, I will allow him to explain that in a follow up post!

After the army (I think it was the army) officer (he had lots of things on his sleeves) told everyone to move their cars, I did as requested, and restarted our drive to Las Vegas. 

This was slow, as we were driving downhill, the water became fiercer on our side, overlapping the right lane entirely. Almost no one was driving, or trying to drive fast and the ones that did pass us most likely had missed the fun. Twice more was the highway overlapped by water on our way, but never as fierce as before, and then finally, we got onto the major highway to Vegas, and then we arrived on at our hotel, The Mirage.

The valet looked at us, and our car (mud, mud, mud, missing hub caps, etc) with surprise. Also It was hard talking to her, not because of any language barrier, but because a volcano was erupting! Yes, I know, sounds fake, and that is because it was! The Mirage has a fake volcano in front, that erupts in the evening to a beat set by the drummer from the grateful dead!

That is all for now!