Wow, what a difference a day makes, it was just beautiful today:

In homeschool, B graphed the results from a poll she did:

Wheat free cookies were baked:

And quilt squares were made from worn out clothing:

After homeschool, I rode my first hors categorie climb – 4,700 feet of vertical over 12 miles to reach the top of Whitney Portal. The climb is #5 in California’s 10 toughest climbs and is said to be more difficult than the Tour De France’s Col du Toumalet.  The last 500 feet of vertical were really tough, and despite being on the edge of multiple muscle cramps I managed to ride non-stop to the top:

I took a couple photos on the way down:

Meanwhile, back at the RV, Trish and the kids worked on some art.  B’s painting is on the left, the other two are Tricia’s:

I think I’ll go to bed early tonight, hopefully I can walk tomorrow.

Today was gloomy and cold, so we stayed inside after homeschool:

Tomorrow should be sunny and warm.

This morning we stopped at Lowes for some last minute hardware. If you ever go shopping with kids, ditch ’em at the lighting display, they won’t notice for some time :

Our grocery bill at Smith’s was so large today that it tripped anti-fraud protections on both of our credit cards. Grrr!

We drove through Death Valley where we dumped tanks next to the visitor center. It was 105 degrees in the shade.

We continued out of Death Valley over Townes pass, our first real test of the new truck and RV. We climbed the 5000 feet of vertical at about 50 miles an hour, not bad I thought. We then continued down into the Panamint Sink and up another dicey climb to the Darrin Plateau, where we stopped on BLM land near the turnoff for Darwin. We’re at 5200 feet here, so it should be quite a bit cooler here than it was in Las Vegas.

Good Shabbos from the foothills of the Eastern Sierra! See the trip map for today’s route.