Leslie and David's Wanderings: 2 November 2019 Lemon Grove to Stovepipe Wells, CA

We hit the road early since it is a long drive around the southern end of the Sierra Mountains and back up the eastern side to Death Valley. Working our way along CA 58 through Tehachapi, we stopped at Cesar Chavez National Monument. The monument is the former headquarters of the Migrant Workers Union that was created by Chavez in the mid 1960s. He led the new union into a five year Migrant Worker strike, which included another union formed by the Filipino Migrant workers, to obtain better pay and working conditions for agricultural migrant workers. The road into the monument was narrow and rough, but we managed to pull the Wanderer into the small parking lot only to discover another large fiver was already there. We pulled into a separate section of the U shaped parking lot and went in. David met the owners of the other fiver in the visitor center and coordinated how we would maneuver our two rigs so we both could get out. We collected our 58th Passport Stamp. There is not much to the visitor center. A small store, a few exhibits, mostly in Spanish, and the gardens where Cesar and his wife are buried. The monument was created by President Obama in 2012. David helped guide the other fiver out of the parking lot, then we ate a quick picnic lunch. Working our way out of the parking lot, we got back on the road to Death Valley. We came into the national park from the Northwest on CA190. The road descended a steep 6-8% grade through narrow tight turns with oncoming traffic and guardrails right up against the edge of the road. There was no room for error. The road bottomed out in Panamint Valley and then began a steep climb for 10 miles over the Panamint Mountains. The climbs varied between 6 to 12% grades. We pull off the road about halfway up to give the transmission oil a chance to cool down as we were hitting oil temperatures in the 250 degree range. After things cooled off, we completed the climb at speeds of only 30MPH. Topping out at 4710 feet above sea level, we began a 14 mile decent to Stovepipe Wells. The road was only 4-6% grades, but it is really long. By the time we pulled into Stovepipe Wells, the brakes were getting pretty hot, even with the excellent engine braking ability of the Behemoth. We checked in at Stovepipe Wells Resort ($40 with no discount) and found our site. This is the first time we have actually stayed in a NP with the Wanderer. The RV park only has 15 sites, but all are pull through. The site is fairly level, gravel surface. There are no trees, so the Sat TV works great. Water pressure was good (40lbs). The WiFi is very weak and incredibly slow. Cell service is only 3G. But the views of the valley and mountains are gorgeous!