9th August 2016 - Panamint Springs, CA - Kms to date 10,296

Kms today 380

We shared our brekkie with Barnaby as Peter was occupied with the builders. The nanny arrived and she and Sunna discussed Barnaby's sleeping patterns; it reminded me of things I had forgotten about our own children.

We made our farewells and set off into LA's labyrinthine freeway system heading for Death Valley. Mabel the GPS wanted to send us out on I-5, but I over-rode her and headed down the I-50 west towards I-15. Mabel pleaded with us to turn around for over half an hour but eventually gave in to my superior navigation skills and we headed out of LA and into the mountains and the Mojave Desert. I was looking for a large solar power station of over 350 MW. We stopped in Adelanto for a break but couldn't find it. It was one of those American towns that don't seem to have a centre and spread over a large area. We gave up and went back to the highway and found a gas station. This gas station was on the edge of the Edwards Air Base of space shuttle fame. The solar power station was just north of here and was of the solar collector steam generator type and it certainly was a big one. We passed through two industrial towns called Westend and Trona that had big processing plants based on salt and were in severe decline, but they did have a cycle track!

Cycle Track in the Desert.

I had noticed a ghost town marked on the map called Ballarat of all places. We drove down a 3km dirt road, past a heavily secured radar station and into Ballarat. It was built in 1898 to service nearby gold mines and named after the Victorian town, probably in the hope it would be as successful. Unfortunately it closed up after the mines failed and the post office closed in 1917.

Alan tries to post a letter, but the Post Office closed in 1917.

It was the only original building left in the town that was recognisable.

And this probably last moved in 1917.

We headed on up the road to Panamint, which Rafe had described as "funky".  It had a restaurant/bar, a gas station, an RV park and a motel and was in the middle of nowhere. I got up in the middle of the night to see the stars. The Orion constellation was clearly visible on the eastern horizon and I saw two meteors burn across the sky. The Milky Way was only just visible.

Two white 'Stangs in the car park at Panamint Springs - very confusing.