Death Valley: The Road Home
Editorial note: This short post wraps up our Death Valley trip. It covers our drive home and our stop in the historic town of San Juan Bautista, so fair warning: the actual Death Valley and offroad coverage ended with the previous post.
There will be one more post after this one to conclude this series. That post will include a post-trip debrief, including notes, mileages and coordinates.
…..
We awoke early at the hotel in Ridgecrest. Not by choice, of course. We had a long drive ahead of us and had arranged to meet my sister’s family in San Juan Bautista early that afternoon. After a nice hot breakfast at the hotel – and checking my jury-rigged fix of the aux fuel pump leak yet again – we packed up and hit the road.
The drive north was (happily) uneventful. Now down to just one 24-gallon fuel tank instead of two, we made a single gas stop in Lost Hills again. We stretched our legs and made use of the restrooms at the uber-tourist trap of Casa de Fruta just north of Hollister before arriving at San Juan Bautista. We decided to grab a quick lunch before my sister’s family arrived to meet us.
No sooner had we parked and crossed the street when I heard a “Hey! What are you guys doing here?” It was my good friend Andy’s son, as well as his sister-in-law’s family. Small world again! There were big smiles all around and we laughed about the chance meeting in this small town.
We had a nice lunch at Jardines de San Juan. They were desperately understaffed so our order was taken and processed at glacial speeds, and my sister’s family arrived before we’d gotten our bill. They sat down with us and ordered some lunch for their kids while we all caught up on things in general. We wrapped up lunch and took a walking tour of the old mission and the small downtown area. Check the gallery for captioned photos of the scenic and historic old town.
It was a really nice visit. San Juan Bautista is a tiny town that has maintained a very genuine feel, and they haven’t (yet?) been overrun with the dreaded “upscale shopping opportunities” and chain stores. We don’t visit here very often but have always enjoyed it when we do. It was good to get the families together again too and watch the “cuz’s” just naturally fall into playing with each other again, despite not having seen each other for a few years. It was a great way to wrap up our long road trip.
After saying our goodbyes, we hit the road for the last time and within an hour were back home once more. We unloaded our luggage and such from the Land Cruiser and settled in at home, happy to be sleeping in our own beds again that night. It had been a great trip, and an adventure, and the buzz from the trip stayed with me for the next week. It wasn’t long before I had started planning the next quick getaway, taking an old dirt road route into Yosemite…
Death Valley Part Five Gallery