'splorin the valley

Some rain fell overnight, but we awoke to fairly clear skies with a near-full moon palely hanging over the mountains, that were lightly dusted with snow. We left for Bad Water at 9 AM, circling out of Stovepipe around the Mesquite Sand Dunes and on into the desert waste, passing the old Harmony Borax Works and into the next settlement of any size, Furnace Creek, before heading on to Badwater, our ultimate destination.
By then, we were nearly 200 feet below sea level.
We walked out on the salt flat...some went farther than others.  Then we walked back, and drove to Natural Bridge, which was a subtle way for the Meneelys to test just how much washboard dirt road we could stand...seemed like forty miles of the worst dirt I ever drove.  Around this time, the Wildman car started to act funny, and we attempted to diagnose the problem, and decided it might be a headgasket.  We thought we could limp the car back to Furnace Creek, and we were nearly there, when the sedan coughed, staggered, and gave up the ghost. Nicholson towed the car the last mile into Furnace Creek, and Christensen took Glenn back to Stovepipe to pick up the trailer.  By 4PM we were doing major surgery on the Wildman car, and after taking the head off, discovered a stuck valve on #4.  Many innovations later, we sewed her up and started the engine around 9 PM.
It was a long day, but the rain skirted around us while we worked on the car, so we were lucky...the last hour or so, we worked by flashlight to get it done.  I bet we have a better day tomorrow, I really do.
from a couple of tired puppies in Death Valley...