Anyone who reads this knows I like deserts. I like the rocks, the mountains, the tough plants, the hardy animals. I like the history, the settlements, the mines. However I think I can say the desert doesn’t like me! As we left Death Valley I wasn’t feeling great. I thought I had a bit of a cold, but that was all. Nope, another full case of sinusitis. I couldn’t breath through my nose, sounded like I was coughing my lungs out, super sore throat, felt like a truck hit me – all the good stuff. I had the same thing happen to me last year, and I let it get too far along before I treated it correctly. This time I started with the decongestant, generic Mucinex, and cough medicine right away. I did some Dr. Google work and discovered dry environments contribute to sinusitis. I convinced sweet Kevin to drive the hour and a half to Ridgecrest, CA because they had a solution – basically a personal humidifier. It is actually called a “Personal Steam Inhaler”, and I have one at home too. I started using it on the drive home since it is a very low draw electrical item. I then used it every couple of hours, and the nastiness is much better! I used it once in the middle of the night, and as soon as I got up this morning. I may survive! Here is an advertising picture.
Silly looking thing, but I am going to start using it 3 – 4 times a day on our desert trips.
I was able to see a few things before retreating to a recliner. We took the Mt. Whitney Portal Road on Monday after we got here. I had never seen the Sierra Nevadas east side, and it was stunning!
Yesterday we went to Bishop and took the Movie Road in the Alabama Hills. The rocks were amazing! The photos aren’t very good since it was late in the day.
It is a seriously tortured landscape. The signs said the torturing had been chemical rather than weather. The rocks pop up in a wide, multi-mile long stretch. Seriously cool.
Today we went to the Museum of Western Film History in Lone Pine. I didn’t have very high expectations for a museum in such a small town, but it was outstanding. This is a serious, world class place. It turns out literally hundreds of movies, mostly westerns, have been filmed in the area. An interesting thing I learned: the jawas in some Star Wars shots were first graders from Death Valley Elementary School, and the scenes were shot in the area. How did I learn this? One of the women tending the register was the first grade teacher who set things up when she hear of the need for a cast of extras that were 42 inches tall. They had some cute pictures of the kids.
As we drove home from the museum I took this nice shot of the Sierras just touched with snow. Lovely.
