Wow! Amazing report and awesome photos!
I was just there in March and your photos reminded me of how awesome DVNP really is! You even stopped at Lunar Crater, which was on my original destination list, but which I ultimately bypassed because of the extreme cold (I hadn't realized how cold that part of Nevada is in late March.)
Did you ever go through Goler Canyon and Mengel Pass? I assume you didn't since I didn't see any photos of the Barker Ranch or Butte Valley.
Steel Pass and the Saline Valley are definitely on my "must see" list for my next DVNP trip.
Weird about the teakettles - it was covered with kettles in March. One even came from Russia or Eastern Europe as it had cyrillic engraving on it.
Maybe the NPS redistributes them to homeless people who like tea.
Cool that you got buzzed by a stealth bomber, I've never seen one. There were F18s dogfighting over Ballarat, though.
Funny how a trip to DVNP only leaves me hungry for more!