Greetings, my sweaty little minions, and welcome to Baker, California, the official Southern gateway to Death Valley! Yes, Death Valley - the name alone should tip you off that this isn't a good place to go jogging at 4:00 P.M., shouldn't it? The average daily temp in Death Valley during July is 115, where you can not only fry an egg in the sun, you can dang near boil it, too... Anyway, Baker is located on Interstate 15, in the middle of California's Mojave Desert, 90 miles southwest of Las Vegas and 60 miles northeast of Barstow. It also happens to be the home to the World's Tallest Thermometer, which at 135 feet high, gets my vote. The thermometer is located on the grounds of the Bun Boy restaurant, which we all sincerely hope is air conditioned...

So, if you decide to spend your vacation in Death Valley, the National Park Service recommends that you drink at least a gallon of water a day, stay out of the canyons when it rains (flash floods), and above all else, watch out for rattlesnakes, scorpions, and black widow spiders. Hmmm - scorching temps, plus possible heat stroke and/or dehydration, a risk of drowning, and poisonous animals? Sounds like fun. The beans wish you good luck - they'll be waiting for you in the cocktail lounge back at the Holiday Inn... As you can tell, it was hotter than blazes when the beans dropped by on July 3rd, 2002. 108 degrees and rising, but that's nowhere near the record of 138 degrees. Yikes! The beans were glad to visit Baker during the relatively cool low-100's, and if your favorite canned vegetable ever does happen to end up somewhere where the temp is 138 degrees, they promise to start looking around for a bunch of pointy-tailed guys with pitchforks...