......Following on with our exploits in Death Valley, we passed the smallest town, population 50 and we accidently found ourselves driving to Beatty to get lodgings for the evening. Not a planned stop and the reason I've continued on another journal entry is because in order to reach Beatty we crossed a state line into Nevada. A couple of days early than we planned to leave California but it just meant we would have to head back over in the morning. At least we had a place to fill the tank ( the car and ours) and rest, as we hit our 2nd 1000 miles today ( 1000 in 5 days) Easy to see we had left California, as the only decent place to dine was part of a casino and the only clientel seemed to be gap toothed old men playing on the slot machines. Our residence for the evening was the Amargosa River Inn, very cheap,verrrrry cheap with lovely wood panelling in the room and a TV that didn't want to work if you put the light on, or vice versa, but the owners were lovely. We were accosted by them when we enquired about laundry facilities and they just wanted to keep us talking forever about our travels and the Royal Family.

Next morning we spent the first hour of the morning doing laundry ( we get to do all the fun things, sorry if I'm making anyone jealous) then drove for an hour and a half to Scotty's Castle. Back over the state line we went, with a full tank and plenty of water, we headed for the mansion in the middle of Death Valley. At one point I did think someone was pulling our leg and it didn't really exsist, because all we could see was miles and miles of road and desert. But then out of nowhere it emerged. We took the tour which was set 'in the day' so it was a bit odd and it did seem to be a bit fake but the mansion/ranch was nice, I guess. Next stop, our lodgings for the evening in Tecopa. We were to meet Cynthia who we had spoken to last night, she owned the B&B we were staying in, which we had rung thinking it was a hostel. When we arrived she told us we could stay in her other B&B for the night which would normally cost over $100 per night for $50, no complaints from us......to be continued.......

........We followed Cynthia to the B&B, the Ranch House Inn through what looked like a giant quarry. It was almost sunset, so the sun was strong in my eyes and it seemed like all the dust in the quarry was being kicked up from the mammouth wheels of Cynthia's truck in front of us, not the most pleasant of driving experiences, but we made it to our lodgings safely. On arrival, we were greeted by Blue the dog and shown to our boudoir. Lovely cottage like building painted on the outside and inside in vibrant colours which gave it a lovely feel. Apparantly Cynthia was an interior designer and this was quite obvious with the lovely decor. As we had no way of getting out safely in one piece that evening ( didn't fancy another quarry experience), we settled in for the night and paid the extra to have food there. There was one other couple staying there that evening, an English couple, believe it or not, so as they hadn't arrived yet, dinner would be awhile so we went exploring. The B&B was on a date farm, so there were rows and rows of date trees with cloths hanging over the fruit. As the cloths were all old t-shirts and shirts, it was a very colourful view, but it also looked like there were a lot of people in the fields, from a distance. We wandered as far as we could until we got fed up of the swarm of little flies following us, so made our way back to the room to freshen up for dinner, ( we felt like we needed to make an effort). The couple from Devon arrived, nice middle aged couple who live in Devon most of the time but spend alot of vacation time in Canada, as that was where the wife came from. Dinner was absolutely delicious, it was pork with a chinese sauce, salad and bread, yum! Followed by tapioka pudding, washed down with a couple of glasses of blush, lovely! The company was also, very pleasant and we stayed up chatting until about 10:30pm before hitting the sack.