I'd read about keeping your electrolytes topped up in addition to your water levels, hence the Gatorade, pringles and sweet biccies/cookies.
Gatorade is, in my experience, really not very good compared to plain water plus salt. Gatorade makes you temporarily feel better, but it also makes you pee a lot more than you would otherwise, which means you're losing water. I've reached the conclusion that Gatorade is formulated to make you drink more Gatorade, not to keep you properly hydrated and electrolyted (new verb).
Beer is somewhat better at restoring electrolyte balance, but only about 4 ounces of it for best effect.
Am quite jealous of your 122F - that's 50C and is a Death Valley badge of honour for us English types.
Looks like I'll have to go back sometime and resume my mission!
Once the desert gets you, it never lets you go
Seriously, once you become a desert rat, you're always a desert rat, even if you move to Alaska. (Or in my case, back to Montana. I miss the desert.)
A dust storm is definitely not on my bucket list. I've read about them and that's enough for me. Do they cause breathing difficulties in those with lung conditions?
I'd imagine so, tho I never encountered that. I did run into a few people who couldn't handle the lack of humidity. And people who say they've lived where it's not humid... compared to desert dryness, you ain't SEEN dry.
This is spit-and-it-doesn't-hit-the-ground dry. Put your clothes on straight from the washing machine and they're bone-dry in 10 minutes.
I'd been warned about that looooong uphill drag on I-15 north of the Inland Empire heading towards Nevada
People who've never been to California don't realise how lumpy it is. Outside of the Central Valley, there's a mountain pass between Anywhere and Anywhere Else. The same applies to the desert, which has a lot of extremes of elevation both up and down.
Death Valley is so spectacular not because it's below sea level, but because to get there, you come down
several thousand feet in just a few miles. And then you have to climb back up to get out.
When travelling in the desert, a very good rule is "Never drive down into some low spot unless you're SURE you can get back out. Cuz you'd be amazed how often you can go down very easily, but the edge crumbles under you as you try to climb out, and you can't make it back up. (This can happen on foot, too.)
Another good rule is "Never drive anywhere you can't see existing tire tracks". That smooth dry stretch ahead of you, with few rocks and not a track on it? It may be deep dust, in which you WILL sink, and the only way back out is to hope someone comes along with a winch and a long cable (you probably can't walk in it either). And same when it's wet, except then it's sticky as well as bottomless. (Meaning "you can't reach a hard bottom you can drive on", not "there ain't one".)
And another good rule is ... bring extra spare tires. The desert is full of nails. It's our major cash crop.
Another little question (sorry for the tiny hijack): Why is it cooler OUT of the wind in Reno?
I don't know. I played with the effect for a while when I drove through there once, and never figured it out. This was over 30 years ago, and if I vaguely recall correctly, the wind was coming off the desert, which is not usual (the prevailing wind is from the west, which at least in the Mojave, brings marked afternoon cooling).
I've noticed it in Winnemucca too (tho the effect was not nearly as obvious) but not around Walker Lake or Las Vegas (all places I've
been through a lot in the last couple years, mostly during the height of summer).