Beatty and Rhyolite

We left Badwater Basin and drove by "Artist's Drive" in Death Valley.  It was getting dark, but we wanted to see what all the hype was about so we poked our head around a little bit.

Artist's Drive is quite the road.  If you ever have the opportunity to go on Artists Drive in Death Valley, don't do it at night.  We did, and we regretted it about a mile in.  (It's only a three mile drive.)  There were literally parts of it where you could reach out your window and touch the boulders surrounding your car.  (And by surrounding, I mean that your car is on top of one, you can touch one out each of your side windows, and if you have a sunroof, well..... stay seated.  If you stand too tall, you will hit a boulder.)  We got a little bit apprehensive on the drive, the only reason we regretted it, because if our car were to break down, we would be stuck.  Like, stuck stuck.  Not leaving the car if our life depended on it, stuck.  But we made it out alive, and we have the memory to look back upon.  But seriously, go during the day if you are ever out that way.

We left Death Valley and headed to a town called Beatty.  We weren't expecting it to be so..... run down.  We drove to the cheapest motel we could see, and it was booked up!  At 8pm!  Wow.  We searched and finally found a hotel that wasn't booked... Death Valley Inn.  (Sounds welcoming, right?)

We dropped our stuff off in the hotel and then set out to find a meal.

But first, I peered in the shower to make sure we'd have all the essentials to get scrubbed clean.  No shampoo.  I assumed the housekeeping made a little woopsy so I politely called the front desk and told her we don't have shampoo in our room.  Her response?  "Yeah we don't give out shampoo."

Um...what?  You're a hotel?  No shampoo?  "We have a vending machine up front if you want to get you some."  Determined not to spend an extra penny on that hotel, we hopped over to the gas station and purchased some Suave.  How crazy!

So THEN we set out for our meal.

We like eating at little hole in the wall restaurants, or restaurants that are just not chains when we were out on trips.  You know, get to really experience the town.  Well there were about 5 restaurants in the town, one was also a bar.  We ruled that out and set out for bar-be-que.  When we arrived at the restaurant and realized that restrooms were outdoors, we decided this was too "hole-in-the-wall-esque" and continued on to find another place.  Every other restaurant was closed except for a place called KC's Outpost.  It was decent.  They made their own bread and that was their claim to bringing in customers.  Everything else was average... although Austin loved it.  He misread the board with the "Menu of the Day" and the waitress couldn't help but laugh when he requested, "Option number two please.  The melted cheese in a bread bowl."  (It had actually read something more like "Roast beef on white with a side of potato salad."  (Not sure how that one got lost in translation......)  So she made him a ham and cheese sandwich with the cheese melted.  (Yes, the waitress made it.  It was a two woman show, this restaurant.)

On the door of this restaurant, there was a sign saying that there would be a chili cook off the next day, and the whole town was invited.  How cute!  Then it explained that they are doing this because there would be a movie filmed at the time, and the chili cook off winner got to be in the movie!  The conversation I had with the waitress went something like this.

Me: "Oh a chili cook-off, that sounds fun!"

Waitress: "Yeah, it's for some new movie coming out."

Me: "That's exciting!  I bet you'll be in it!"

Waitress: "Yeah, they film lots of movies here."

Me: "Oh, is there a film school around here?"

Waitress: "Nope."

Sooooooo.... I have no idea what brings directors in to film movies in that town, but we called it a night and headed back to the hotel.  After getting a decent night's sleep, we continued our trip to Rhyolite the next day. This is the town where many a movie were filmed.  It's a pretty famous ghost town. 

   

The buildings are all boarded up, or are flat out falling apart. Concrete pillars stood where a bank or store stood a hundred years ago. It was kind of neat to see.

Of course... it wasn't a complete "Ghost Town." These guys lived there!

It was neat seeing back how people lived a hundred or more years ago. This little town seems to be out in the middle of nowhere. And being in the desert, I'm not sure how they managed to grow their own food, or survive. Then again, maybe that's why it's a ghost town and is no longer flourishing. Oh to hear the stories those walls could tell!