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Racetrack Playa - Death Valley National Park
Pla-ya: An area of flat, dried-up land, esp. a desert basin from which water evaporates quickly.
The Racetrack Playa gets its name from the rocks that appear be "Racing" around the Playa. In some cases, these rocks are literally side by side and really do seem to be racing each other to get to some unmarked finish line! ;-)
This is a long story but bare with me. There is a lot to tell about this day's journey to one really mysterious and really awesome place! :-)
This was Saturday, the 5th of May! The day of the full moon! The day of the Super Moon! John and I got up very early that morning so that I could get him to McCarran International Airport for his early flight back to Denver. After dropping him off, I made my way back to the Hotel, got everything loaded into the truck, checked out and started making the 5 and a half hour trip back towards Death Valley. This time towards the northern end of this gigantor National Park! My plans were fairly simple, get there, find the Racetrack Playa, make sure my vehicle could navigate the road, check things out, then meet Darren (Darius Twin) later that evening to hit the Playa for some nighttime LP!
The drive through Nevada was somewhat boring really. Desert, mountains, and lots of Joshua Trees and more desert. Occasionally I would roll into a small town but most of them were little more than wide areas in the road. I had planned on making a stop in Beatty, Nevada for some additional supplies such as more water (something you can't really have enough of out here!) and some more snacks and food for the evening. But as it turns out, Beatty really isn't that big either so I just filled up with fuel and water since that was basically my last chance for a while! Fuel stations can be so scattered in this area that it is a good idea to carry extra fuel just in case as well.
I first made way to a little oasis in the desert that is now part of the National Park called Scotty's Castle. This is not a place you expect to see pop up in the middle of nowhere! A very large elaborate place that is definitely out of place in this unforgiving land! After a few more miles, I reached Ubehebe Crater, pronounced YOU-bee-HEE-bee and is a Timbisha Shoshone Native American term meaning "Big Basket in the rock". This which is a large Volcanic crater that is estimated to be 2 to 7 thousand years old and is where the off roading fun begins to make the journey to Racetrack Playa!
Now... I had looked at a map earlier in the day and talked to Darren about when and where we would meet that evening. It was about 2:00 in the afternoon at this point and I still had yet to reach the place that we had planned to meet which was called TeaKettle Junction. Darren was driving a small compact car and the warnings that he and I both had read about the road to Racetrack Playa were that it is recommended 4-Wheel Drive and passenger class tires were also not a good idea due to the sharp rocks that made up the road. Everything I had read about it had me concerned that even my 2-Wheel Drive 4-Runner might have a hard time making the journey. But that is the reason I was there early. To give this road a go on my own and see if my 4-Runner, along with pulling a trailer where going to make this trip without any major issues.
So... TeaKettle Junction was just a dot on the map with the name beside it but it looked like a good place for Darren and I to meet so that we could then both make the final journey to the Racetrack in my truck. I had made the assumption that Teakettle Junction was a small town that Darren would have no problems getting to. But I had a surprise in store for me! 8-O
Okay... Imagine an extreme washboard jagged rock road, one lane, with only a few places wide enough for two cars to pass side by side, twisting and turning in a narrow mountain valley, and fine dust was EVERYWHERE!!! The washboard is deep enough to make you want to try to keep up speed of about 30 to 40 mph just to make it as smooth as possible but no matter what speed you are going, this road will shake the dental work in your jaw loose! That is almost a guarantee!!!! You are in for about 30 miles of this and that is just ONE WAY! So at best you are in for an hour of bone rattling fun and that is just getting there! You will still have the one hour journey to look forward to on the way back as well!! This is where the additional clearance that the new axle added to my trailer came in handy! I am sure I would have been bottoming out quite a bit if the trailer still had the old axle on it! :-)
As I made my way down this winding rattling road, I was met by a few oncoming motorcycles and vehicles that were making their way back down. There was really not much to see out there other than the Tans and blacks of the desert sand, rocks and the little vegetation that was scattered everywhere. Just about any living thing in this area had a bite to it, including the vegetation! But I did spot a two cactus along the way that had blooms on them. A little vibrant color was easy to catch the eye when everything else is so drab!
After about an hour of driving this road, and I am sure there is a logical explanation for this somehow, but as I was getting closer to TeaKettle Junction, I came to an area on the road where I received a cell phone signal and started getting notifications of received emails! I thought it was just because the little town was right around the next bend in the mountains and that explained it. I figured it would just get stronger as I got closer. Well, around the next bend I DID run into Teakettle Junction alright! It was literally just a junction in two dirt roads with a sign that said "Teakettle Junction"! And the cell phone signal was now GONE!! No buildings, no paved road, NOTHING! Nothing but a sign that several people had hung teakettles on and a sign that said that Racetrack Playa was 6 miles further down the same road! Meeting Darren at TeaKettle Junction was a bad call on my part! Big Time!!!
This was definitely not going to work for a place to meet Darren. His car would definitely not make it to this point! So I had to get ahold of him and pick a different place to meet! I was able to get the truck turned around at this junction and make it back to the area where I got the cell signal and I did get it back once again. So I called Darren and was able to get in touch with him and we then made plans to meet at Scotty's Castle instead. Whew!
So with that emergency taken care of, I turned around once again and finished my journey to Racetrack Playa!
When I arrived, even seeing it in person it was hard to get a good idea of the real scale of this place! Yes, it looked huge, but it was even larger than it looked! I stopped a the northern end first and took a few photos but then made my way to the southern end a few miles further down the road to where most of the rocks are that mysteriously move across this playa. As started walking out onto the playa and making my way across the mile wide area to where the rocks were, I could not help but think about how quiet and peaceful this place is. This place is possibly one of the most serene places I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. Of course that could have a LOT to do with the journey that it took to reach this jewel hidden deep in the southern California mountains! I guess that any place would seem that way after going through so much Shake, Rattle and Roll for over an hour!!
After checking the place out for a while, I made my way back down this terrible road to Scotty's Castle and was only there a few minutes before Darren showed up! We found a campsite and then started the journey back up to Racetrack Playa once again! By this time I was loosing steam rapidly after getting up so early on just a few hours sleep. I started getting chilled about midnight and went to my truck to warm up. Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep and was off to "La La land" while Darren was painting up a storm in the middle of the Playa! Oh well.. I guess my body was screaming "Uncle" at this point since John and I had kept up that pace for a week already! I did manage to get a few descent shots in that night but now I really want to go back and do it again! ;-)
Anyway, Welcome to Racetrack Playa! I have my own theories about why the rocks move in this place but I won't go into that here. It is just really cool that they do move and leave trails behind them showing where they have been! And it is really odd how they seem to move in different directions from each other!
I have heard about this place all my life! But I never expected the chance to be standing there in the middle of this place seeing these rocks with my own two eyes! Something I will not forget!
If you ever get the opportunity to visit Death Valley, I recommend taking a good thorough look at a website called "The Death Valley Journal". It is FILLED with tons of incredible data about this area and will help you to make sure you see some of the little known hidden treasures here as well! :-)
Light Painting - Single Exposure
By the way, I don't think that I could have lifted this rock! :-)
Part of the Deathwish Collab on insta!
Blaster bolts firing, shouts and grunts, all normal traits of the battlefield. But this was a different fight, sure I had fought on many ships except I never was attacking one of our own. Yet then again this wasn’t. The Confederate Remnant had taken this glorious ship from us, and I intended to take it back. Shot after shot the enemy fell, we fell, but we still took corridor after corridor. Some were adorned with Remnant colors and imagery attempting to claim this as their ship, but it wasn’t. At least not for long.
Follow me on Instagram.
They are here to guard the gates!
The REDgiment is an elite order of soldiers, guarding the gates to our dimension. You might have seen them, you might not, but they are here to protect you and do so since many millennia.
I finished my first collab MOC; both proud and also happy I have this build behind me 🙏. This is my entry for the @akimbo_lug collab!
As ever, my typical 3 month concentration span has been long reached and especially the free form has been a challenge 😋.
Since I had little experience with rocks, buildings and trees, I took inspiration from MOCs by @louis_of_nutwood, @legomocfan, @littlejohn_brickbuilt, @moc_town and @alex_thelegofan
I am a big fan of Brickstuff, and for this build I have expanded my LED collection with their effect controller and 4-channel RF remote.
We have started posting last week on Instagram, so please also check out and follow @lucas_builds, @magnuzobricks, @medieval_brick, @rogue.builds, @johnwicksbricks, @lja_bricks, @neon_5_lego and @mikaelta_.
I hope you will all follow me again for my next build 🙏.
“To Isengard! Though Isengard be ringed and barred with doors of stone;
Though Isengard be strong and hard, as cold as stone and bare as bone,
We go, we go, we go to war, to hew the stone and break the door;
For bole and bough are burning now, the furnace roars - we go to war!”
I am happy to present my latest MOC for the #thirdagecollab representing the wall of Isengard during the assault of the Ents of Fangorn. I hope you like it!
Go follow norlego to be sure to catch the next episode coming out this Saturday and trust me, you do NOT want to miss this one ;)
I would also like to warmly thank the generous Blaines_world_lego for sponsoring this collaboration.
Port Rogue - a collab of 18 members of the German LUG www.RogueBricks.de displayed on the Bricking Bavaria convention back a few weeks ago.
Proud to have been part of it!
its finally done!!! thanks to everyone who pitched in. mad props. now i just gotta ship it almost 4000 miles to my new place lol
made by me and erik (http://mylifeisneververyinteresting.blogspot.com)
www.facebook.com/pages/Niclas-Boman-Art-Design/1924747307...
Collaborative builds in 8 stud wide Speed Champions style based on iconic cars from the Eastern Block. The Scetch model for the Polski is done by @lamborghiniwafflesauce , I made this updated Tan version based on his build, the LADA is my design.
Instructions at my Rebrickable page:
rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-151074/Gubi_Systems/vaz-lada-210...
rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-145940/Gubi_Systems/east-champio...
Minha participação na collab. =D
para votar www.camiseteria.com/design.aspx?did=33065
O prêmio será doado a uma instituição de caridade.
emotion/color collab!
day 2: teal
my flower is teal, and i got really mad that you can't really see it because of the shadows, so i attempted to make the background kind teal-tinted hahaha
it was an effort (:
UGH FLICKR SHARPENING RUINED THIS ):
i even softened it up in the editor, and it still looks mediocre
So for BFVA 2016 I've been arranging a collab and i was wondering two things,does anyone want to join and would you rather see Monte Cassino or Caen?
hey dose anybody wana do a collab cuz I dunno who to ask to do one so yuno I thought I would ask the people so yah! and it doesn't need to be right now...... So if anybody wants to LET ME KNOW!!!!! XD
This project explains my lack of new aircraft for the time being. As a first, I participated as a Nordic-medieval collaboration with 5 of my LUG-mates. The theme was loosely defined as "Nordic": this includes a Scottish battlefield as well.
Andy, Jake, and I were able to get together last night to do some LP at the Penneybacker Bridge in Austin and start talking about our trip to Texas Stonehenge II and what ideas we would come up with. It is going to be a blast! Here is one of our collab shots from last night.
Light Painting - Single Exposure
Artestenciva X Fellas
stencil de 6 camadas + intervenção do grande amigo
Fellas .
pintado no Mercadão em P.G
resident evil 4 and silent hill???
not sure...
and ninja clan...
i dont like how i did my ninja oder...
Pirate collab terror visual + daniel campbells + fotze + jonatack + osmar intre + mr hipno + secktore + hellosobre + wilson graphic + guturo
MAS DETALLES : click
Spoonful Of Sugar Event 100% Exclusive, benefiting Doctors Without Borders maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SOS%20Shopping%202/86/100/30
Original Mesh in collab with www.flickr.com/photos/139382067@N07
Other colors available 50% donation