This morning Martin had a wonderful idea! Since we missed out on the Drive-In Movie Theatre experience on Route 66 he suggested to go to a 50s Drive-In Theatre on our way back home in London, Ontario. Therefore, the driving day home was not all desolate but had a great ending at the drive-in with hot dogs, fries, coke, popcorn and two movies. A lot of fun and early Saturday morning we will be home.
It was supposed to be a pure driving day again today, but as usual it didn’t turn out this way. Despite the fact that the highway driving was a bit labour intense due to high winds and lots of trucks we made good progress – 848kms. One good thing about the mid-west states is that there are no mountains and everything goes a bit faster.
Iowa, as we found out, has great ribs. In Des Moines at Famous Dave’s we were looked after really well by wonderful future globetrotter Chelsie (aka Brittany if the service is bad) who explained the different kinds of ribs and sauce options to us in detail. We tried quite a number of them and they were all really good. We let Kevin, the manager, who came by our table know that Famous Dave’s is now our favourite rib place.
After chatting inside and outside for two hours we were back on route to try and still make it to the Polk-A-Dot Drive-In for another of the great strawberry milkshakes we had had at the beginning of our Route 66 adventure. We made it there at 8PM, the posted closing time, but the restaurant was still in full swing and the large milkshake dinner was at least as good as it had been 3 weeks ago.
No RV park was open by the time were were done, so Walmart parking lot is was, yet again.
We left at 6:45 in the morning after a quick coffee to make it as far as possible towards home today since we received already a couple of mails that expressed concerns that we would not make it home in time. We did 967km today despite the fact that we had to climb Colorado mountains with our 4 ton truck, had quite a few construction sites, and a so-so lunch in Nebraksa. We did not take one single photo for lack of time and after leaving Colorado really lack of opportunity. We found a very nice RV Park in Lincoln, Nebraska where we got the very last auxiliary spot on the ground. After a Pizza dinner, a nice swim in the outdoor pool made the evening quite nice.
After a nice farewell breakfast at Zion we left to start our fast track home. We covered 851km and had a breathtaking drive through beautiful rock formations in Utah and Colorado. A few quick stops were allowed to take a few pictures which really don’t do the landscape justice at all.
We slept with the big boys at a truck rest area with a “no overnight camping sign” but nobody accused us of camping at the rest area. We were just “resting overnight”.
The alarm clock rang at 4:45am without any mercy. We got up, dog Pepsi was at first confused and then mad! We left right away for our sunrise shoot at Zabriskie Point. It was worth the loss of beauty rest for sure.
Then we rushed to Badwater area, the lowest point in Death Valley, 282 feet below sea level. It is a huge area of salt crusts. Water dissolves old mineral and salt deposits from the sandy soil, then the water evaporates and a beautiful field of salt crusts is the result. The salt is a sure sign that this area was covered by ocean water at one time.
Artist Palette was still on our wish list but the morning light was simply not good for this area.
Back at Furnace Creek Ranch, Restaurants, Hotel and RV Park we had a great breakfast and another swim. Despite the fact that we would miss out on an evening shoot again we left to make it further east to Zion National Park and escape the heat which didn’t even let up during the night.
We made it to beautiful Utah and the Zion National Park. We took a shuttle bus through beautiful sections of the Zion section of the park and decided, New Mexico and Utah are our favourite states so far which we will visit again, hopefully soon.
We were able to get a spot at a public RV Park for the night, the RV Parks within the park were all booked up.
We left the Malibu RV Park at 11:55 since check out time was noon, otherwise it would have taken us much longer to say good-bye to the Pacific Ocean.
I didn’t even get a chance to put finger and/or toe into the beautiful blue water. But the drive through the mountains and sweet fresh local strawberries were a good alternative. We made it all the way to Death Valley, the colours in the rocks that evening were magnificent. We had a chance to photograph the white Sand Dunes at 42 degrees celsius. We were too late for a big shoot.
We checked in at the Furnace Creek Ranch RV Park, had a great dinner at one of the ranch restaurants and then a moonlight swim at the huge pool, filled with natural spring water right in the hottest desert in the US!
Evening late in the evening it was so hot that the restaurant sprayed waiting guests at the veranda with water mist which dried in seconds. Thanks to air conditioning in the RV we slept well.
It was indeed the last day on Route 66 and we are still not sure whether this is a good or a sad thing. On the one hand we are free to choose our paths now, on the other hand we do not necessarily meet people all over the place with the same interest to share. But today was a great finale, meeting great people, seeing familiar sites and finally getting into lush scenery and at the end the grand Pacific Ocean in beautiful early evening sunlight.
We started the day by visiting the first McDonald’s Restaurant, founded by the McDonald’s Brothers and opened as the McDonald’s Barbeque Restaurant at 14th and E St. in San Bernardino in 1940.
1954 Ray Kroc received the permission to franchise McDonald’s and eventually bought the rights to McDonald’s in 1961. The original place remained in the hands of the McDonald’s brothers up to their retirement in 1968. Today the location houses the unofficial McDonald’s Museum, a section on Route 66 and one of the offices of Juan Pollo owner Albert Okura, who is the owner of the town of Amboy with its Roy’s Motel and Gas Station.
We had a chance to enjoy a great tour of the place with curator and artist Rory Murray and got a lot of inside information from Route 66 CA Board Member, collector, owner of Route 66 museum San Bernardino and star in many movies and documentations on Route 66, Danny Castro.
After so much info it was time for lunch -a big one since we skipped breakfast- and it was only fitting to visit Juan Pollo for the first time, since owner Albert Okura bought the McDonald’s location a couple of years ago to preserve it. Chicken was great and a lot of memorabilia in the restaurant and the connected Museum Route 66.
Off we went to see the California Theater.
Next was the beautifully restored Wigwam Motel, owned by Kumar Patel and his mother. Kumar gave us a tour and next time we definitely will spend a night in one of these Wigwams with its cozy rooms.
Finally we left San Bernardino, saw on our way towards Santa Monica “Bono’s Historic Orange” in Fontana, since we are after all in Citrus and Wine Country. We saw the barrel at Rancho Cucamonga but we didn’t have a chance to stop. Traffic was becoming a bit too busy to make frequent unprepared stops. Therefore, I took the image of the 12th and final Madonna of the Trail (our first though) from the car driving through Upland.
We did make two stops in Monrovia. One was for the famed but not so great gasoline station on Shamrock Ave.
The other for the Aztec Hotel, which seemed closed, but maybe only for the day. The outside is interesting because of its “Mayan Revival” architecture. Inside in the bar the fans in the ceiling are connected via belts.
Unfortunately we only drove through very busy Pasadena, but it is definitely a city we would like to stay in for a couple of days next time! And then, out of nowhere, we were in Los Angeles, Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica.
There was no stop possible and therefore the photographic impressions were made out of the driving or better snailing car. Then we came to the intersection of Lincoln and Olympic and with this to the official end of Route 66.
A couple of minutes later we drove along the beautiful Pacific on Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu, where we were lucky enough to get a spot at their RV Park. Even more lucky, we had a very nice young couple, Samantha and Chad, as neighbours and we spent a great evening with conversation and wine. They own a textile business and we can’t wait to try out their jeans: CRATE of California!
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.
We left the RV park, drove one more time through Williams without stopping and went right on to Seligman with only one short halt to photograph a neat hair salon.
Seligman is as much alive as Williams but without the Grand Canyon action. It’s claim of fame is the fact that it is situated on one end of a 150km stretch of old Route 66 Mother Road from Seligman to Topock. Furthermore it is home to yet another Harvey House -now the Black Cat Bar- and to two iconic brothers, Angel and Juan Delgadillo.
Angel had a barber shop and is well respected for all his efforts to keep Route 66 alive.
Juan, who died a couple of years ago owned the Snow Cap Drive-In, which is still open, now run by his son who has a great talent to make people laugh, just ask for some mustard and you think you will be wearing it … and it was only some string popping out of the mustard bottle.
Well fed and happy with our little purchases we went on, passing through some remnants of villages, laughing foolishly about signs declaring these dusty valleys as flood zones and began climbing into mountain areas. At Cool Springs Camp, a neat store next to a camper with fake palm trees on its roof, we met George who is the distributer for Arizona of our favourite Route 66 Soda. Besides this job he is the man behind the counter of the Cool Springs Store with the pink cap.
The building was rebuilt for a movie set at one point and is now a great place for a chat, some ice cream but -at least when we were there- not for Route 66 Soda.
Off we went to climb the steep and narrow road through beautiful mountains to Sitgreaves Pass. What a beautiful view.
We then saw our first real former Gold Rush town, Oatman, or so we thought. There were buildings like in a Western movie, some for sale, the others open for tourists. Donkeys were walking through the street. The reason for this was, that once the Gold Rush was over, the working donkeys were let go and they took to the desert to live but come to town to be fed. The people who stayed after the gold mine closed tried their luck with catering to tourists. But at 6pm the bustling town became quiet. Donkeys and people left the place to go home and now it really was a movie set after the lights went out.
The gold mine is back in business though. We saw the operation and the warning signs that tresspassing was strictly forbidden when we came down the mountain on the other side.
We couldn’t believe it, we did make it to California, the land of milk and honey after all. But we really can feel for the Okies (refugees from Oklahoma, seeking work in California after the Dust Storms in the 19th century) who found yet another desert, the Mojave desert, after crossing the Colorado River. Their track through heat and desert would continue for a long time.
Needles, the first city we reached, is one of the hottest cities in the United States with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit frequently. When we drove through in the afternoon it was 42 degrees Celsius. Gas, which had been in the $3.59 to $3.89 range throughout our trip, was $4.99 in Needles.
We had enough for today. With no RV park in sight we stayed at the gas station of Fenner -the only thing left of this town- and even this gas station, close to the Interstate 40 but still on Route 66 is fighting for its life, as their signs made very clear to their customers. Gas was over $5.00 here.
Thank God for free coffee at the RV Park! We left in good time and at first it really looked like we would make great progress, California seemed so close but…
Flagstaff went still without mayor delays. We had a nice brunch at The Crown Railroad Café since the neighbouring vintage roadhouse Museum Club was still closed. The railway motif at our restaurant was not bad though and the omelettes delicious.
Off we went to Williams. Wow, what a place, gateway to the Grand Canyon, a hub for the railroad and Route 66 in full swing!
From there we should have gone West, but 60 miles to the Grand Canyon seemed like a short distance. OK, we spent the rest of the day at the Grand Canyon, watched a presentation and a movie at the visitor centre and took the 25 mile route along the south rim.
We’re very happy that this excursion cost us another day! We had dinner at a Steak House and went back to Williams to stay at the privately owned Canyon Motel & RV Park with yet another railroad theme. You can even get a room at a train car.