Arrived In Death Valley

We had a great time doing the Full-Time Freedom Week live interview on Monday night and following it up with an hour and a half Facebook "live" afterwards. Remember, you only have until Friday, Nov. 23 to get the ALL ACCESS PASS that gives you unlimited access to all the videos AND the digital coupons. After Friday, you can still get the ALL ACCESS PASS, but it will only then give access to the videos.

 

Now, just a quick note to let everyone know we are in Death Valley National Park for a few days. Verizon data service is really bad here, so we may be offline for a little while. AT&T seems to work better here and we have an AT&T GoPhone, but I don't think we're going to activate for just these few days.

We made the drive from Lone Pine to Furnace Creek in Death Valley taking U.S. 190 most of the way. It's a twisty, somewhat narrow road as it drops down in Panamint Springs. Linda drove the motorhome while I followed in the Jeep as that was recommended by a few folks. That was slow going through the 20 - 30 mph curves, but it wasn't too bad and it was quite scenic.

 

  

 

  

However, I definitely would not have liked to have been in the truck and fifth wheel.

Fortunately, we only passed one big diesel pusher with a tag axle towing a Jeep coming the other direction. All the other RVs we saw on this stretch were small rentals.

Then we climbed out of the Panamint Valley which also wasn't too bad, but we were glad we didn't have the Jeep attached.

 

 

There were three turnouts going up the mountain, so we were able to let other pass. Linda kept the motorhome at 3,000 RPMs and less and climbed at about 35 mph.

 

 

At the top of the pass began a 17-mile descent into Death Valley including a five-mile stretch of 8.5% grade. The twisty roads on grades are actually easier than long, straight downgrades, as you have to keep your speed down anyway and there is much less need to "arrest" your speed. With our gas motorhome, we don't have an exhaust brake, so while Linda shifted into lower gear, she had to use the mountain driving techniques we talk about in our seminars to keep her speed in check and keep the brakes from overheating.

She did a fantastic job, and once again I would have wanted nothing to do with that in our fifth wheel and truck, although the PacBrake after-market exhaust brake we installed on the truck would have made it less traumatic.

Once at Stovepipe Wells, the rest of the drive was easy. The road was wider and there were no more significant grade changes.

We eventually pulled into the Sunset Campground at Furnace Creek. It's a big parking lot with chalked spaces and no "it" factor whatsoever. But it's only $14 a night for dry camping and it has a dump station, flush toilets, and a place to take on water. Well, it's supposed to. When we arrived, they were working on repairing the water system, so there was no water in the campground at all.

We had dumped tanks at Boulder Creek RV Resort in Lone Pine, but we didn't want a full tank of water going over the passed to Death Valley, so we drove with just the little we had remaining in our tank. Hopefully the water will be back on soon.

We just chose a spot and parked.

 

 

There's not a whole lot of difference in any of the sites unless you pick an end site so you want have a neighbor on one side. This campground has generator hours where as the other no hook-up, no reservation campground up the hill, Texas Springs Campground, doesn't allow generators at all. It's a bit more scenic and costs $16 a night.

We tried everything to get a Verizon signal and our devices showed a good 3G signal, but we could not get connected for some reason. That was disappointing as we thought we should be able to use some data with our booster and antenna.

Oh, well, we'll be doing a lot of driving in this huge park of 3.4 million acres, so we'll be plenty busy. Still, we wanted to know where we could get a good signal, and I had to drive almost 40 miles to find a 4G signal where I could upload the photos and do the Journal entry for the day. But I certainly won't be doing that every day. 

Well, that's it for now. We'll check in at the next opportunity.

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Comments

[Clarke Hockwald]

We stayed at Sunset two winters ago, and were able to get broadband from the resort across the street by signing in and paying. The cost was not too bad, but we were not able to use our phones, just like you, and needed a limited amount of broadband. Worked out pretty well.

[Jodee Gravel]

Love Death Valley!! So much variety and beauty to enjoy. Hope your holiday weather is perfect. Happy Thanksgiving to you and Linda!

[greg]

Used to be you could get a functional data signal overnight - say between midnight and 5 a.m.

[Cinn]

That's Verizon, lots of bars and no data! - and good marketing, convincing everyone their coverage is the best. Not so! My AT&T Mobely device works everywhere - I've only had to pull out the dreaded Verizon Jetpack twice in the past year & half working from the road.

Data access with AT&T somehow feels "smoother," less chunky, by comparison, if that makes any sense. I work full-time online, and I can "feel" the difference in how the data performs. So glad I got in on that now-grandfathered unlimited plan.

Nice photos, Howard!