3000+ miles in 3 weeks, Route 66 & all that. Episode 18

[Sue]

Wednesday 7th April

Hello again 66'ers. Apologies for the delay, time to get this road trip wrapped up.
We left Needles around 10am - the town is apparently one of the hottest places in the USA with temperatures between 100 and 120F for months on end in the summer, but then it is in a desert!
Destination today was Barstow, then San Bernadino and wondering where to spend the last night before Venice Beach.
The road went on forever:



And the Mojave desert was all around us - amazing to consider that people once walked through this place to get to Calfornia from the dust bowl mid-West. (Grapes of Wrath and all that)



With the road sometimes telling you where you were:



Thanks to the orderly planners of the Santa Fe railroad, the towns in this part of California are named in alphabetical order from the east coast - Amboy, Bristol, Cadiz, Danby, Essex, Fenner, Goffs, Home, Ibis, Java and Klinefelter (!) - we approached them from the west though so it wasn't so obvious.
We crossed the railway line on several occasions:



And the road just went on ... and on...



We arrived at Amboy and were greeted with Roy's Motel and Cafe - this place has been here since 1938 and was once the prime stop between Barstow and Needles, employing 90 staff - the cafe, motel and garage working around the clock to cater for all the passing trade. There really is nothing else for miles around, so it must have been a proper little community.
The cafe and gas station are still open today, but the motel is not and the school long fallen into ruins









We stopped to use the rather antiquated (but clean and functional) restrooms and then went on ahead to Amboy Crater, an old lava flow





Around here is the largest Marine Corps base in the USA and often the last stop for those heading overseas. We saw evidence of them on exercise and definitely saw circling helicopters:



Just in case you haven't seen enough of the Mojave, here is some more:

[Sue]

Continued:

We headed out from Amboy



And found ourselves in Ludlow where we needed to refuel and decided to stop for lunch at the Ludlow Cafe - another Route 66 original:





We all thought that the food was ok but nothing more than that -and it was noticeably more expensive here in California than any other state we had visited.
Next stop along the way was Barstow - originally a railroad town and this very much in evidence today.





We stopped for a coffee at the Starbucks, opposite the McDonalds which makes use of old railway carriages:



Then from here, we arrived at Victorville - sorry we missed the beginning of the sign!



This town it turned out had a HUGE airplane boneyard, next to a disused air force base. We had a little detour to check it out:



It also had some old motels and a California Route 66 museum:





And then we were heading into San Bernadino - the scenery initially samey:



Before giving way to this as we headed into Los Angeles' outer suburbs, which sadly was all we were to see for the next day and a half, goodbye open road, farewell all that space and fabulous scenery:



My - how big are the LA suburbs? They go on for miles and hour upon hour due to all the traffic. We were undecided where to stay for the night and passed through many suburbs looking for somewhere that appealed. We really should have done some research for this last bit as we ended up settling for a Motel 6 in the suburb of Fontana. This was ok, but right next to a freeway and shopping mall. With hindsight and later advice - we should have progressed to Rancho Cucamonga but we were tired and so stopped ahead of there.

At $56 per room, it seemed a bargain for expensive California, here is our room:



In theory and according to Gary Garmin - we were only 20-25 minutes from Venice Beach. Hahahahahahahahaha - it took us at least 5 hours the next day!

We walked out to eat at a restaurant in the shopping mall called Millies -it was very similar in menu and style to a Dennys but was a lot better in all our opinions. The menu made us laugh though as it was overly complicated with nutritional advice, fat-free, sugar-free, additive-free options lol
Back to the motel via the K-Mart to buy a cheap holdall for the flight home and the extras we planned to buy in LA. We were rather shocked to find some police action in the motel car park as we got back - some dodgy drug dealing going on we think!
J told me in the morning that when he went to the office to ask for extra pillows, a man approached him asking for drugs. J then walked past our room so this man did not know where we were, circling back after checking this man had gone. He did not tell me at the time as he knew I would have demanded to leave!

Time for bed - tomorrow, the last leg of our road trip. Santa Monica here we come...

Mileage today = 263

Total so far = 3844

[Cyclospora]

Great photos Sue! We are planning to drive from Vegas to San Diego via Barstow. Looks like we're in for a long straight drive!

[Sue]

Originally Posted by Cyclospora

Great photos Sue! We are planning to drive from Vegas to San Diego via Barstow. Looks like we're in for a long straight drive!

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Oh yes Annie - straight will cover most of it lol

[Guest]

Great pics thanks again

[purple myra]

Oh you are alive!

We had a short visit to Rancho Cucamonga when Jake wanted to visit Outdoor World. We had never even heard of it before, but I notice when I was ironing the t shirt jake bought that it has a "route 66" motif on it!
Now it is becoming very popular on the Dibb... AndyJ is there now, I've been and you just missed it lol

[Sue]

Originally Posted by purple myra

Oh you are alive!

We had a short visit to Rancho Cucamonga when Jake wanted to visit Outdoor World. We had never even heard of it before, but I notice when I was ironing the t shirt jake bought that it has a "route 66" motif on it!
Now it is becoming very popular on the Dibb... AndyJ is there now, I've been and you just missed it lol

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Well we drove through it the next day lol

[Nicksgirl]

Good lord, what have you been doing...

'bout time at last !

Love Love Love Santa Monica... cant wait. x

[Rigstig]

Wayhay...bout time too Sue...haha.

Great report and pics as usual.

Suzie wants to know if you drank the water in Barstow...


Stuart

[Sue]

Originally Posted by Rigstig

Wayhay...bout time too Sue...haha.

Great report and pics as usual.

Suzie wants to know if you drank the water in Barstow...


Stuart

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Sorry Stuart been away and busy.

Erm - no, we didn't drink the water, is this something we should (or should not lol) have done?

Just done a mini-Cornish trippie - if you are interested