109 in the shade

Well okay, they said it was hot here in Death Valley, but let me tell you: IT'S HOT. At 9:00 pm, it's still 109 degrees. There's a slight breeze, so walking outside is like standing in a convection oven. I feel like my contact lenses are drying out and curling up right in my eyes. I changed from sandals to sneakers because I'm afraid my foot will touch the ground and burn.

Had to knock a bus load of tourists out of the way for this shot, June 2012

We had dinner tonight in the Wrangler Steakhouse & Buffet, operated under franchise from the National Park Service by Xanterra. Xanterra is the same crowd that runs the concessions in most of the other Parks, including Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Yosemite. Also Zion and Bryce, but we actually stayed outside the parks there (you remember Ruby at Bryce Canyon). I'm able to report that they actually exceeded their reputation here, at least their reputation with us.

After dinner there were two events worth noting. The first is that I complained at the desk that the A/C in the room might not be working as efficiently as one might like. It was lowering the temperature by perhaps 30 degrees from ambient, but that put it in around 80F this evening.

It is not 64 in the shade, June 2012

I ran out to take some sunset shots, and left the wife to deal with engineering when they showed up to check the unit. Here's the conversation, as reported to me, paraphrased but keeping the essence:

She: It doesn't seem to be getting cool in here.

He: (Puts hand over unit): It's blowing cool air. You could lower the temperature some and see if it helps. You can make it a lot cooler, the numbers go a lot lower (NB: it's set on 72, and the compressor hasn't stopped running since we arrived).

She: Ok, I'll try it.

So I come back 45 minutes later after shooting sunset at Zabriskie Point. It's a natural platform, maybe 50' above the surrounding terrain which gives you a good view of the mountains in each direction.

Pretty colors all in a row, and the Moon, June 2012

While not the most spectacular sunset I ever saw, the thirty or so people there mostly seemed to enjoy watching it.

I return to the room, and it's still hot, so we stroll over to the General Store to see what there is to see. We look around, avoiding going back to the warm room, but eventually get bored. So I buy a beer and we go back.

As I'm sitting enjoying the beer and starting to think about what I'm going to write to entertain you all (and me), there's a knock on the door. It's Engineering. It's the same guy. It's like he was never here.

He: You called about the A/C?

Me: Yes, it's blowing cool air but the room isn't cooling down.

He (walks over and puts hand over unit): It's blowing cool. And you can make it a lot cooler. See the blue arrow? (adjusts unit to 64). You can also turn on the ceiling fan (which we do).

It's a half hour later, the compressor is still grinding away, and the room is bearable. But no one would ever call it cool. But it might be okay. The outside temp is supposed to drop to the 80s by 4:00 am, so the room might cool down even more.

It seems ironic. About a week ago we were in Grand Teton and the snow was getting in the way of our enjoying the park. A couple of days later I was wearing all of my clothing, trying to stay warm at Bryce Canyon while taking sunrise pictures. Two days ago I was hiking at 10,000', unable to continue up because of too little oxygen. Right now we're about 200' below sea level and out A/C can't keep up with the workload.