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  Bakersfield, California
Monday, August 23, 2010

For this blog, I think I will start with the highlight of the day. As everyone knows, the Peffers love food. Somehow this blog is morphing into a culinary theme. We are in Bakersfield, California now, staying there as a waypoint into the Yosemite area. While perusing the AAA guide book today, I noticed that there were three Basque (northern Spain) restaurants in Bakersfield. I found that somewhat odd, not expecting Bakersfield to have a large Basque population. I just thought of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens as the face of Bakersfield, not Basque restaurants. The Birthday Girl said she was also intrigued by the Basque restaurants, so off we went to The Wool Growers. Evidently that restaurant is frequented by Barbara Streisand and Merle Haggard.

Little did we know what faced us. Dining provincial Basque style involves multiple courses family-style, starting with a cabbage soup, pinto beans, and a hot sauce that you individually layer in your bowl to form the ultimate soup. That is followed by pickled beef tongue, pickled tomatoes, and a salad. We had ordered two entrees to split: oxtail stew and grilled lamb chops. The entrees were delivered with bowls of rice pilaf, corn, french fries, and spaghetti with a meat sauce. Needless to say, it was quite a dining experience. The kids tried everything, and everyone decided the oxtail stew was the hit of the night.

Now, back to the actual travel blog. We left Las Vegas this morning and traveled to Death Valley NP. It took us several hours out of the way, but we were glad we made the effort. Death Valley is a desolate place. It is hard to imagine anything can live in that landscape, as it gets less than two inches of rain annually. Surprisingly, it is also the largest park in the National Park system in the continental US.

We visited the Badwater salt flats, where vast salt flats formed in the valley when the surface water evaporated, leaving behind mineral deposits. The valley floor was covered with a sheet of white salt, which shimmered with mirages since the temperature was 116 degrees. The elevation there is -282 ft. below sea level, the lowest point in the western hemisphere. As you may recall, we started this trip at Mount Evans, which featured the highest paved road in North America, so that was quite a contrast.

We also viewed the Mesquite Flat Dunes in the park, which looked like sand dunes we may see at Nags Head. Death Valley NP is a rocky place, not sandy as you may think, so sand dunes are a little unusual. Following Death Valley NP, we hit the road into California, our last state to visit. It was secluded all the way to Bakersfield (apparent home of Basque restaurants). I didn't expect southeastern California to be that way. It's easy to be driving 90 miles per hour on these open highways and not realize it. For the record, Big Red has logged about 2,500 miles now.

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Big Red says it is hot outside!	Lowest point in Western Hemisphere.	Mesquite flats in Death Valley.	More sand dunes.
Salt flats in Death Valley.

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