**So where the hell has SHE been?!**

Jeeze, life you know!

In spite of rumors, I'm not dead... yet.

Here is the trip report. Not that I have any idea what a trip report is (Something that my niece and her friends always "file.")

So in response to the "update your blog" borderline harassment... I will respond to the various scenarios posed to explain my lack of "blogging."

In spite of a good faith effort, I did not find God in Death Valley.

And NO,I did not "fade into oblivion" smoking seed pods or inhaling or shooting up the chemical derivatives of rare wildflowers that blanketed some of the remote canyons.

Ummmm, can anyone identify this particular flower (and let me know if I should seek medical attention:))?



Nor did I succumb to the effects of poppies. But there were A LOT of poppie-like flowers.



I did contempt existential questions... such as why is it that my offspring are so darned beautiful? More evidence, I guess, for the skipping-a-generation argument.


This is our obligatory Sound of Music shot (I would load the highly embarassing video, but I don't know how):


But her feet are bigger than mine:)


I did find one cosmic looking flower, all by itself along the road. The only one I saw the entire time. Took a "Sarah" picture:


Then there was the Death Valley version of the Burning Bush:
(Not to raise references to the religious right, but it is a parasitic little creature that sucks the life out of freestanding, never-did-anything-to hurt-another-living-thing plants)


We did the obligatory hikes for the views, exercise and to get away from the mobs who had the same brilliant idea to come to Death Valley for the wildflowers.


Way off in the distance is the low point in Death Valley. A couple hundred feet below sea level and an old dry saltwater lake.
Normally a desert gets 6-10 inches of rain a year. Death Valley averages 2 inches of rain. As of mid March the park had received 6+ inches (more than has ever been recorded). And the "rainy" season was not over as of that point.

Below is a close up view of the "dry" salt lake called, "Badwater Lake."


I told her not to wash her face! They never listen to their mother!

We decided to return to Oregon the way we came because every exit just beckoned to us.	God, I-5 rocks!

Yes, it was tempting, but we did not stop here... at least for very long:)


We made it back, and dog gone it if my job wasn't still here.

More later. Those pesky taxes are calling.