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Today we finally made it to Death Valley National Park after three days of driving. Woohoo! We did it!
This morning I woke up in a hotel in Henderson, Nevada just outside of Las Vegas. It’s wasn’t the best air there but I slept okay. Although I was feeling pretty awful when I woke up. We stopped at Whole Foods to grab some things before heading out. As usual, I rested in the car while Brett shopped. It was pretty hot because we never use the air conditioner in our rental car. Air conditioners can often be contaminated with mold and we did not want to take that risk especially with all our camping gear being in the car.
We arrived at Death Valley National park at around 4:30pm not really knowing what to expect. We stopped at Furnace Creek to buy some lanterns and headed out to find a place to pitch our tent. Not seeing any tents anywhere we decided to return to Furnace Creek to see if we could stay there for tonight.
Unfortunately, the campsite was full. Brett went in to the visitor center to grab a map and we headed to the nearest tent camping area, which took us about an hour to find. This park is huge!!!! A whopping 5,219 square miles! When we arrived to the campsite it was also full but some kind campers offered to share their spot just as we were getting ready to leave.
Brett had to set up our tent in the dark and we were only able to do a mini decontamination for tonight because it’s late and we aren’t in a private place where we can do our water bottle showers. A mini decontamination is where you just rinse your hair, wipe down with a wet washcloth and change into clean clothes.
Decontamination is necessary to keep the sleeping area pristine and completely free from any small amounts of biotoxins and mold spores that our hair, skin and clothing may have picked up in the city today. It only takes a very tiny amount to keep my immune system in a state of inflammation.
We also planned to fill our water jugs today and wash our new sleeping clothes. It’s clear now that this was an unrealistic goal. There were just too many things to do today. We’ll just have to sleep in some of the new clothes I already washed in Taos. They won’t be as comfortable but they should be just as free of contamination.
We’ll see how it goes! The air definitely feels really good here and I’m looking forward to some peaceful sleep! It’s so still and quiet here.
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