Could it be that last night was the last night we spent with the big boys at a gas station? Just in case I ventured out this morning to take a couple of pictures of the scenery.

We then we hit the road for a full day of desert sites in California. In Cadiz area we photographed graffiti on the remaining walls of a former tourist complex.

In Chambless the beautiful huge sign of a former restaurant called The Roadrunner.

In Amboy we visited Roy’s store and gas station and took a look at the small cottages under reconstruction. A man in the chicken business had bought the entire town and is trying now to revive the business.

We missed Bagdad, if it still exists, which gave the name for the German movie from the 80’s “Bagdad Café” or “Out of Rosenheim” but we did see the location where it was filmed after our lunch break. We had lunch in Ludlow at the Café with the former mining company town’s name.

Newberry Springs is the place where the movie “Bagdad Café” was filmed. The restaurant was the former “Sidewinder” but changed its name because of the movie to “Bagdad Café” in the 90s. We had a chance to talk to the very nice owner of the café, Andrea Pruett, who had bought the place together with her husband in the 90s. She is a screenplay writer herself but has little time to pursue this line of work because of her ostrich ranch and the café.

We continued through Barstow where we visited an antique market and stood in front of the already closed Route 66 museum. But we were tired anyway and proceeded to an RV park right in the city of San Bernardino. Since this part of the city is not one of the safest we decided to stay at the gated park, have a home cooked dinner in our RV and go for a walk. Tomorrow the trip from San Bernardino to Santa Monica will be our last day on Route 66. We are not sure whether this will be cause for celebration or whether it will be a sad farewell to a dear friend of 3 weeks.