Day 14: Family Visit and Death Valley Update

Today we drove to Ridgecrest to visit Cliff's family. The desert town is set against the backdrop of the tail end of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and is home to China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station. Cliff was able to see how much Ridgecrest has changed since he last saw it. We drove by the high school he attended and the house he lived in, which was fun for the boys to see. We all enjoyed visiting with his family and everyone had a great time.
We also heard on the news that Death Valley flooded again today. Per CBS News: "Flash flooding at Death Valley National Park triggered by heavy rainfall on Friday buried cars, forced officials to close all roads in and out the park and stranded about 1,000 people". That could have been us had we visited the park today instead of yesterday. I had an eerie feeling yesterday driving to the park and did not trust the weather. The road we drove yesterday flooded today. Our original plan had been to visit Cliff's family on Thursday and go to Death Valley today, Friday. However, we ended up changing our plans and switched the days. I had been disappointed that the weather at Death Valley was hazy and windy, not the best conditions for photography, but today I am just glad we were able to visit the park without ending up in a flash flood.
Tonight is our last night here in Barstow. It is a beautiful warm night without the high humidity that we typically endure in the South. I find the desert truly beautiful and wish we had a few more days here. Tomorrow we are heading back to Flagstaff, Arizona.