January 7th: some pictures from our hike to Death Valley Natural Bridge. The bridge is 1/2 mile hike with entire distance an incline. Definitely easier to return. The hike included Joe and Ardis Schenk and guests, Dale and Pat Pflanzer from Imlay City MI.
On January 10th we stopped at the Goldwell Open Air Museum. Unfortunately it was closed but they had a brochure that explained most of the oddities, I mean artwork! The museum began in 1984 and was created by a Belgium Sculptor Albert Szukalski who died in 2000!
Then, we headed out to see the Rhyolite ghost town. Between 1905-1911 the town posted a population of 10,000. There were 2 churches, 50 saloons, 18 stores, 2 undertakers, 19 lodging houses, 8 docs, 2 dentists, a stock exchange and an opera and a partridge in a pear tree! Remaining buildings include the jail, train depot, 3 story bank building, school and the bottle house! It was quite cold up there at 4300′.
We drove into Beatty for lunch at the KC Outpost. We had a good lunch. Next stop was the candy/ice cream shop! From there half of us returned to the campground while half went on to the Ash Meadows Refuge and then on to a great tour of the opera house painted by the creator and ballerina, Marta Becket age 92. Marta from NY who performed in Radio City Music hall lands in Amargosa with a flat tire in 1967 and never left. A great story.
On January 11th Tina and Jim Hoover headed for home while the rest of the 14 went to lunch at the Furnace Creek Inn. After a great lunch we had a tour of the elegant and old historic hotel! The Inn opened after 3 months of construction in February of 1927 with 12 rooms. After several more additions over the years, there are now 66 rooms and in May they will be adding 30 more rooms! There is a spring that feeds the swimming pool keeping the water temperature at a steady 82 degrees. The water continues flowing to the garden area and then travels to the golf course. Any water not used is then diverted underground to the Badwater Basin. It is quite an eco system!
This concludes the 2016/2017 New Years Rally and tomorrow the remaining seven rigs will head out to other RV adventures! Ted and I want to thank all who attended and participated in our adventure and hope they all enjoyed themselves!
Ted and Susan Kercher
Traveling Supremes 