Day 7 - Heading East

 

Sorry for the late posts. The internet connection at the hotels was barely strong enough for an email or two. Blogging? Wazzat?

After checking out of the hotel, breakfast at Mel's Drive-in at the corner of Lincoln and Olympic in Santa Monica was an authentic way to kick-start our Route 66 trip. The journey until now was just a warm-up. Eggs, toast and "coffee, hun?" in an American Graffiti atmosphere was, um, thematic. We were ready to start getting our kicks.

On the road, we started off by cheating. Adhering even closely to Route 66 through Santa Monica, LA, etc., would have meant four hours of street traffic. We opted for the freeway to Victorville, which saved us nearly two hours, then we hit the Mother Road at Emma Jean's Holland Burger Stand. We passed up the chance at a burger (it was only 10:30), but the interior was just what you would expect - a parking lot full of pickup trucks, inside a row of low swivel stools at the counter, and the welcoming call of "Sit anywhere - coffee, hun?"

Only a few miles down the road was another quirky spot - Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch in Oro Grande. It's a bit hard to add anything to the photo. I understand there are bottle collectors who go in for stuff like this, but for us it was a cause for raised eyebrows.

The Mojave Desert is tough country for the most part, especially near the Pisgah and Amboy craters, which looked like big piles of smashed basalt. Mining and water for the steam locomotives gave rise to the occasional settlement, most of which have entirely disappeared. 

Amboy nowadays is a little gas-stop, a post office, and a sign for Roy's Motel. We originally thought we must stay there, but it was a little bleak in spite of the vacancies. There was a group of bikers from Illinois parked outside stretching their whatevers. I can imagine they were glad to be one or two days from the end of their trek - 2000 miles straddling a Harley seems like something from an inner circle of hell. Amboy was about as far as we wanted to travel on the first day, but since there is no food or lodging for miles around, we left The Road and rolled south to Twentynine Palms near Joshua Tree Park. 

The 29 Palms Inn is a bit different than the Best Westerns and Motel Sixes. It started in 1928 and, since it was here first, operates like the others should copy it instead of vice versa. Clean, quiet and quirky - exactly what we hoped for. The Oasis of Mara - the reason for the town's existence - is on the property and is a pleasant contrast to the surroundings. It reminded us of Mataranka Spring in Northern Australia.

The hotel dining room was closed and the options seemed to be fast food, Mexican, Mexican, Mexican, Mexican and barbecue. We chose the latter and even the smallest portions were more than we could handle. The other patrons were mostly large folks - the symbiosis became clear.

265.5 miles today, 1552.4 total so far.

License plate count - Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee. Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. And from Oh Canada - British Columbia and Quebec. 

After driving for miles through pretty bleak desert country, a book about the desert seems in order. The Mojave by David Darlington is written by someone who has traveled extensively in the region. He describes desolation, ruggedness as well as the stark beauty of the desert landscape. We can attest to an astonishing landscape.

For our musical interlude, in honor of getting back on the road along with celebrating the King's coronation, we chose Roger Miller's King of the Road. The first song we sang in the car once we got out of L.A. 

Roger Miller - King Of The Road (1964) 4K - Bing video