DEATH VALLEY continued:

Death Valley can be very crowded on the weekends with visitors who only come for the day and rush around to all the sights to see as much as possible in one day. For that reason, we decided to stay around camp today and relax. While breakfast was being prepared, Richard set up his telescope to view the sun. What an experience! I don't believe many of us had ever seen the sun through a telescope. Richard had the scope set up to track the sun as it was moving across the sky so that anyone could look whenever they had the opportunity. Some of our members went to the visitors center to see a demonstration of arrow making. Some of the ladies went to the Furnace Creek Inn and Debbie, Nita and Rich went to Gold Canyon to attend a desert picture taking talk by a ranger.
Dinner was a fabulous potluck with everyone contributing great food for all to enjoy.

After dinner the guys told lies around the fire pit and the women, minus Linda C, played Pokeno. Our guest Linda Lee lost the most money I have ever seen anyone loose while playing. It just wasn't her night. Of course, we only play for pennies (sorry Lucille).

On Sunday after breakfast of eggs and sausage everyone went off on their own for the morning. In the afternoon everyone except Gerry went to Death Valley Junction for a performance by Marta Beckett at the Amargosa Opera House. Ms. Beckett is now 86 years old and confined to a wheelchair so she does a "sit down" performance wherein she talks about her career and the various productions she staged at the opera house over the years. The interior of the opera house has been painted by Ms. Beckett over the years to look like an audience when she performed to an empty house.

The ceiling of the theater is painted to look like sky with angels and this huge medallion.

Ms. Beckett performing her "sit down" show.

All around her are props from her various shows and she puts on hats or a feather boa to represent another character. In previous shows Ms. Beckett played all the parts.

After the performance, Ms. Beckett goes to the office/lobby of the motel to sign autographs and answer questions.

After leaving the opera house we drove to the Longstreet Casino and had an early dinner/late lunch. Pat and Russ did a little gambling while we were there and I believe they came out ahead.

We then returned to the campground for the evening where some of the women played Pokeno and others sat around the fire telling lies.

On Monday after breakfast we all went back to our coaches to get ready for the move to Stove Pipe Wells campground. After dumping tanks and getting fresh water everyone was on their way. Once we got to the new campground and got set up we mostly hung around the campground for the rest of the day. During the afternoon it became very windy. It lasted about 2-3 hours and then let up again. Otherwise we had picture perfect weather for our entire stay in Death Valley.