Day 13: Below Sea Level

What a day! We made it to Death Valley after a somewhat nerve-racking drive. The national park and surrounding area had experienced significant and dangerous flash flooding a few days ago with some flash flood warnings still in place. We checked the park website in the morning and saw that the park and the roads we planned on taking were open. Ready to see another national park, we left the campground and headed north. After an hour we were driving on a two lane desert road with no other cars in sight. Just us and the desert. A lot of desert. We even drove through a dust storm, which was a new experience for me and the boys. Above us, though, storm clouds were brewing and it started raining. We passed areas of road damage caused by the recent flash flood event. I pulled up the weather app and saw a new flash flood warning for the county we were driving through. It had just been issued, stating that rain had started to fall and advising people to immediately get out of the area. We tried to get more detail on the exact location of the warning, but suddenly had no longer cell phone service. I nervously started eating snacks, thinking I would need energy reserves for swimming in flash flood waters that surely were already barreling towards us. The sky got darker and I continued to eat. Cliff entertained us by telling flash flood stories. I ate some more. Coming from congested Atlanta I never thought I would wish for other cars to be on the road. But here I did. Just in case. Miraculously, we momentarily had cell phone service again, just long enough to see that the area of most concern was further west. So we kept driving, determined to make it to Death Valley. 
We entered the national park around noon with extremely strong winds blowing throughout the area. The thermometer at the visitor center read 107 degrees. While Cliff and the boys wore shorts and T-shirts like most other visitors in the park, I wore long pants, a T-shirt, and a jacket due to my skin's allergic reaction to the sun. As if that was not enough clothing in 107 degree weather, I had to put on two face masks to protect my face from the hot, strong winds. Unfortunately, before I thought of wearing face masks, I had already spent about 15 minutes in the wind unprotected, which led to a painful windburn in my face. I had applied sunscreen to my face, but had not anticipated such strong winds. I am starting to believe that I was supposed to live on another planet, one without heat, sun, or wind.
Death Valley was beautiful. We went to the lowest point in the United States and stood at 282 feet below sea level, ran through sand dunes, and stopped for breathtaking views of the valley.  Surely, a day to remember.