A Chevy for Six, Please

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Sometimes stopovers become more interesting than the destination. In fact, given the journey is the important bit, stopovers ought always to be of fascinating interest so it's no surprise that Furnace Creek in Death Valley CA has been a delightful interlude.

As we stopped off in 120 degrees blasting burning dry heat and reminded ourselves this was cooler than a sauna, I thought all any sane person could do here would be to head for the nearest air conditioning unit.

But Furnace Creek is a real oasis with a real history of Wild West Coast America, and now I want to stay here. I've even bought a guide on backpacking in the desert. Not because I plan to, but because I'm so intrigued that this barren landscape is indeed a real tourist designation with people hiking around the boiling rocks to visit real sights. I plan to read it and try and imagine this sort of activity holiday.

And the general store is the best shop I've been in all holiday. Native American artifacts, great books (see above), T shirts I quite like and scorpion lollies. Yes. Real Scorpions embedded in sugar.