All Done Cold, Dada...All Done

Carrie: A few months ago Chuck asked me if I wanted to go camping in the desert in February with his students. We had talked about camping in the desert since moving to California and February seemed like a safe time to go: not too hot, but probably warmer than where we live. Right? So I said yes.

Chuck: Just so you know, this is THE camping trip of the year for our Outdoor Adventures team. It's "car camping", and doesn't require a lot of hiking/backpacking/pooping in the woods- perfect for certain people in our family. And Mihret.

Carrie: A couple days before we were to leave Chuck said that the weather might be a little bit chilly at night - possibly even getting down to freezing. There was also a chance that it could rain. He asked, "Do we still want to go?" We had been planning to go for the whole President's Day weekend, but he suggested that at most we go for just one night since we were taking Mihret. So the decision was mine: did I still want to go? "It's the desert," I thought. "How cold could it be? And isn't the desert, by definition, a place where it doesn't often rain?" We had been talking about it with Mihret for weeks and we were all looking forward to it, so I said, "We should go! It's just for one night, after all." And then I spent the next couple days trying to figure out what clothes to bring for Mihret in case it was really cold at night and in case it rained. I finally settled on bringing her snow suit since it was the only thing we had for her that was really warm. I honestly didn't expect to use it, though.

Chuck: Let the record show that I gave Carrie every opportunity to back out of this.

Carrie: When we got to the campsite (after a 5 hour drive), it was SNOWING. Snowing in the desert? Can that happen? Did I totally miss the social studies lessons on the desert? Did I delete the information from my brain assuming I would never need it?

Chuck: Absolutely no comment. However, it was great (I like snow), and our students were having fun in a "Well, this is going to be epic" kind of way, so I rolled with it. Did we mention that this was also Valentine's Day weekend? Yup, that's me. Captain Romance.

Carrie: After setting up the tents, we all decided to drive a few miles away to visit a kiln or something like that. Actually, I can't remember what we were going to visit, but the road to get there was closed. Probably because it was SNOWING and who would be crazy enough to go to the desert when it was snowing, anyway? We were gone for maybe five minutes and when we pulled back into the campsite the tents were literally flying away. We got there just in time for some students to jump out of the vans and catch them. At that point I started wondering how many hours it would take to drive to a motel... But instead of that, the group just moved the tents to another area of the campground and created a wind block with the two vans and our RAV-4.

Chuck: One of the highlights was our students running across the valley diving on the runaway tents as if they were wild stallions. High Larry Us.

Carrie: Later in the afternoon, the group decided to drive to another area of Death Valley to watch the sunset. We decided that Mihret had been in the car long enough and that we would stay back at the camp site. Mihret stayed warm by running with her Dada.

Chuck: Actually, she was so cold that she couldn't get her bearings and ran around and around.

"Oklahoma! Oklahoma! Oklahoma!"

Chuck: It was, in my defense, really pretty in spite of the cold and clouds.

Chuck: Lest you think otherwise, two of us were having fun.

The 80's called and they want the colors for the snow suit back.

Carrie: While the group was gone, the clouds cleared and I thought, "Oh good! It won't snow anymore and we'll be able to see the stars tonight." Anyone know what clear winter nights in the desert are like? You guessed it...cold. Really, really, really cold. That said, the stars were amazing! I don't think I've ever seen that many stars. But did I mention, I was really, really cold?

Chuck: You'd think that someone who lived her entire life in the Pacific NorthWet (Oregon and Washington) would remember that "Clouds" = "Blanket for warmth"

Carrie: The saving grace of the trip is that Chuck decided we should sleep in back of the RAV-4 instead of a tent. He was worried that it might rain. The RAV protected us from the wind and probably kept some of our body heat in, but it was still no match to the 20 degree temperatures outside. I was wearing long underwear, fleece pants, a fleece jacket and a hat and was still shivering. Mihret was wearing flannel footie pajamas, but her face and fingers were like ice cubes. She's not fond of covers, though, and kept trying to kick off the sleeping bags. All night long I tried to keep her icicle fingers under the blankets (and off my face); it was a long night. I wanted so badly to leave in the middle of the night and drive somewhere warm, but the RAV was wedged between one of the vans and the side of a hill to provide a wind break for the tents. Besides, leaving would have required getting OUT of the sleeping bags and that didn't seem like a good idea. So we shivered, dozed off and on, and waited for sunlight.

Chuck: "I wanted so badly" really means "I told Chuck that we were leaving ASAP". If it weren't for the fact that it would have taken an hour for us to get ready to go, we'd have been vapor trails.

Carrie: Morning finally came and with it, the SUN! It still wasn't warm, but it was managable. We got some hot oatmeal and hot chocolate, and that made life much better.

Chuck: The sun came up at 5:30, and we were able to sleep for about four hours. Oh boy, sleep!

Huddling together for warmth

Great crested desert idiot

Carrie: After breakfast, we broke camp and drove to some sand dunes. The drive was gorgeous and the sand dunes were actually warm (65 - 70 degrees!). We played in the sand for a little while and basked in the sun, and then headed home while the students went on to their next campsite.

Look! We're below sea level!

Worlds biggest sandbox. So thankful that she's not a cat.

Don't let the smile fool you- she's still really cold.

Carrie: They say that whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. I'm not sure if I buy that, but Mihret's first camping trip definitely taught me a few things: 1) Don't go camping in the desert in the winter; 2) If the name of the place is "Death Valley," there are probably good reasons not to go there; and 3) If you're planning to go camping and your husband says, "It might rain and the temperatures might drop to freezing at night. Do you still want to go?" the reasonable answer is a sweet and simple, "No, let's go another time."

Chuck: Needless to say, I don't get to plan any future Valentine's excursions.
In other words, successful.