The past day had been one of travel through some dark swamp of issues, frustrations, and just personal problems.
It started with a slipping clutch in the mountains (we were on a dirt road), progressed into a non-stop all day drive (forget breakfast,. . . or any other meal), and finely ended, . . . parked off the side of the pavement, outside of an almost total ghost-town.

Today started better.
We urged the "She Beast" into town, parked off the side of a dirt road, and started our walk-around.
Couple hours later we had, with the help of charm & charisma, feasted on low-grade burritos and gotten some info on the backway into Death Valley.
Our plan was to follow some dirt tracks and wash-roads into the north end of the valley. Working our way south we would pick up larger roads until we were back on pavement.
The first part of that . . . to find our way through the maze of tracks that spiderweb the outlaying land that surrounds small mining towns like this.