Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Death Valley at 140 mph, Part 5/6
Space
Regardless of all the fast driving, I had gone to Death Valley for the desolation.
And I got that. I got isolation and desolation and solitude and space. I got big blue skies, heat, and stillness, quiet.
Every December for many years now, I've undergone this hibernation thing. After experiencing it a bunch of time, it looks like I want to go down, hide out, lie fallow, sleep in a cave for a couple weeks in December. Which isn't all that bad, if I'm prepared for it.
But the obvious parts of the culture insist on gaiety, generosity, parties and festivities, so there's a kind of guilt that goes along with this hibernation urge. And really, I do want to participate in all the holiday stuff, especially now that I have an awesome, fun and sweet girlfriend.
So this trip was in a way an attempt to participate in this urge, not so much to prevent it as to accommodate it. To say, ok, you need this thing, let's go somewhere, somewhere deathly and get on with it, see what happens.
And not much happened. There was a kind of reset there, for me. A little going to ground. Not large. But enough.
Regardless of all the fast driving, I had gone to Death Valley for the desolation.
And I got that. I got isolation and desolation and solitude and space. I got big blue skies, heat, and stillness, quiet.
Every December for many years now, I've undergone this hibernation thing. After experiencing it a bunch of time, it looks like I want to go down, hide out, lie fallow, sleep in a cave for a couple weeks in December. Which isn't all that bad, if I'm prepared for it.
But the obvious parts of the culture insist on gaiety, generosity, parties and festivities, so there's a kind of guilt that goes along with this hibernation urge. And really, I do want to participate in all the holiday stuff, especially now that I have an awesome, fun and sweet girlfriend.
So this trip was in a way an attempt to participate in this urge, not so much to prevent it as to accommodate it. To say, ok, you need this thing, let's go somewhere, somewhere deathly and get on with it, see what happens.And not much happened. There was a kind of reset there, for me. A little going to ground. Not large. But enough.
Death Valley at 140 mph, Part 4/6
Artists Road (and other uses)I spent a lot of time driving around. I ran the same stretch of road several times in one day, trying to get to certain places at certain times. One place I found was Artists Road - a one lane road that winds through multi-colored canyons. There were green rocks and pink rocks amidst all the brown rocks, but frankly, it was all kind of a blur, especially the second time through.
Dantes View
Dantes View is at a peak at the southern end of the valley, and I wanted to be there at sundown. It was further away than I thought, so by the time I started the climb, the sun was quite near the horizon. Unfortunately, there were a Yaris and a Jetta on the road ahead of me, and no turnouts as far as I could see. At a wide turn I roared past them, but now all I could think was that when they got to the top they'd chew me out for passing them.
I got to the top in time for this.
Nobody said anything.
The Jet
On my way out, I had just descended the mountain on the western side of Death Valley, which empties into a second valley. The road through the mountains is pretty fast, and by the time it gets to the valley, turns straight, and continues straight about five miles until the next mountain. I hit about 140 mph on this straightaway, which was...stimulating. The car got very light feeling. I was coming back down to about 80 when I heard a gigantic noise off to my left, and a huge grey F18 fighter jet screamed by at about 100 feet, and maybe 300 mph. There is always somebody faster.
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