We had a stay at home day today, got caught up on things and planned our next few days.
We had our normal morning routine. Bia got up and got going, got all her work done quick, read her book and was all done with school before lunch. Bella got going as well as soon as she was up, the teacher had changed the time for her ELA class, which is the only class she logs in for, so she ended up having to do that class on her own. She did that, without complaining. She logged in for math instead, and just kept doing her work. Bella had quite a bit of work, so it took her a while. She also had some stuff to catch up on from yesterday, and she wanted to get some art and PhyEd items done as well, she picked a good day for that. She did whichever she wanted, and when she thought she was all done I helped her find what was missing, which she tackled head on and got done. She was all done early afternoon. Then, Bia and Bella went outside to play for some time, while the wind was not bad and it was not raining yet.
Carol went shopping a couple of times today, got groceries, then as we talked about how remote we will be at Death Valley for the rest of the week, she decided to go again and stock up on a few more things. She also went to Home Depot to get epoxy glue as the hinge on the toilet seat cover broke. We have those slow closing ones, so it is a special hinge, and they don’t sell just the hinge, so we will try to fix with epoxy glue.
I had a work call, got some work stuff done, wrote a post, and worked on some website stuff. I spent a good amount of time planning what to see at Death Valley, and later in the day looking up the weather and possible routes for tomorrow. It is very windy today, and they were showing wind speeds for the day in the news, with winds hitting up to 80mph. The news was also showing a flipped semi somewhere not too far from here, so I was concerned. Nearby in Banning, the wind speeds were up to 54mph, and that’s way too high to try. Scary stuff! There’s also flash flood warning as we are in the desert area. I certainly spent some hours trying to find information on driving a trailer on high wind, what’s a definite NO and what is safe, etc. Also found a GPS app that overlays weather on the route, and includes wind speed, so that helped a lot. I found a route where we avoid the really bad areas, and really will only have a bit of the wind for maybe 10 minutes as we turn north, and away from the direction of San Diego (West). We are feeling good now about leaving tomorrow and just taking this alternate route, which only adds 15 minutes and the wind speed is not more than what we already handled before.
As I was planning for our Death Valley trip, I had not realized how big that park is, and how much variety of stuff they have there. From what I read, aside from Denali National Park in Alaska, Death Valley is the next biggest park. I also had thought we’d only need a day there maybe, but there’s so much stuff to see that I filled up our entire time there with stuff to do. And the other thing is about how remote it is, and how little infrastructure is around there, very few gas stations, very few places to buy supplies, etc. We we will need to plan the days well, and bring plenty of supplies to be sure, which is why Carol had to go on a second grocery run. I think I got an itinerary down in a way that allows us to visit the park, make gas stops, and not have to worry too much. Pretty much all things are within a 90 minute drive, and we can make some gas stops in between. There’s a camp right in the middle of the park, that supposedly has gas, so if it is open, it will be great and convenient. If not, I may need to fill up at the campground we are staying, which I read is very expensive. Or, we will drive to another town nearby, which may be another hour drive, just to fill up. I’ll have to do the math and see what’s worth it. But, knowing there’s fuel where we are staying helps a lot already.
That was our day, catching up on school, work, planning, etc. Good day, and we need these here and there.