Desert Tour: Countdown thoughts

Steel grey, 45 deg. F., cutting breeze, snow on the high country, this is no summer cycling tour.  We'll push through, of course, but it makes me want to shrink into the couch with a book, fire blazing, and wait for the spring--almost.  In truth, I love this season.  Rain, snow, wind, it doesn't matter, we get out every day, the lone freaks of the 'hood who hike and walk with Django no matter what.  The People's Republic of Tehachistan is easy to negotiate in the winter, unlike Buffalo, NY, with SEVEN FEET of snow in one storm this season. A really big storm for us would be seven inches.  Suit up, get out, nothing to lose but your sloth.   And that's the attitude we're bring to this tour, although I think we only have a couple of dour days we need to endure before conditions improve substantially.  Here's the forecast for Death Valley, which we'll be camping in and crossing from Thurs. through Monday, when we cycle out via Salsbury Pass:

Not bad, eh?  Here's the UHaul (a ten footer) loaded with the Greenspeed tandem and doggie trailer:

I contemplate often on how lucky we are to be healthy, to have the resources for such adventures.  This is an awesome life!  I'm excited to share a little of it with a handful of readers.  I've been inspired by many stories I've found online, and I like to do my part for others.  It's easy to get sucked into the parade of bad news that washes red across the Net, the TV, our own minds.  We can do virtually nothing about most of it, yet still we get pulled into the Dark Vortex.  To what benefit?  Better to read, plan, scheme about that next adventure.  Tomorrow at this time we'll be deep in it, slogging up the southern Inyo Mountains, or, if we're lucky, pitching camp, perhaps blessed by a glimpse or two of the mighty Sierras, weighted down at last by a mantel of heavy snow.  Eat well, hoist a flagon to the gods, for tomorrow, we ride!