A PHer's guide to Route 66 part 9 CALIFORNIA
Discussion
From Needles on the AZ border, old 66 snakes across the Mojave desert and into LA, passing through some of the most prestigious and less prestigious neighbourhoods until it ends in Santa Monica. In reality it did not end on Santa Monica pier of course, but a few blocks earlier. Still, there is so much mythology, and the road had so many changes of direction and rerouting in its life, so many changes of appearance, that it seems oddly fitting that even its ending is an invention…..in an amusement park.
THE BRIDGE ON THE BORDER
Now used to carry pipelines, this used to be the border with California, where migrants were turned back in the Depression and the Dust Bowl if they did not have $10. This is where The Joads went to the waters of the Colorado river below as they reached the land of Milk and Honey in the Grapes of Wrath.
NEEDLES
The first big town in CA and the last for miles. It is a good idea to gas up here. I have not explored it in depth and there are some very recent Route 66 attractions, so this will be updated. However, it did have the worlds greatest waitress in the Howard Johnsons diner, who insisted that McG Jr. have a Bloody Mary for breakfast.
Once a thriving railway town where passengers alighted from the frequent passenger trains to stay at the beautiful El Garces Hotel, the town today has an air of abandonment, slightly shabby with a feeling of emptiness. There are no people on the streets. Today, the El Garces still stands pristine ,but is now used as offices for the BNSF railroad.
If you want something really authentic ,try Valanzeula’s Cafe, with its 70 year-old cook-owner. Only open from 4pm to 7pm and serving no alcohol, this is nevertheless impeccable true Mexican food without the glop, light and perfect Its also very cheap.
Accommodation is basic. The Best Western Colorado Inn is the bast of the bunch and has an attached diner for breakfast. Opposite the motel the Wagon Wheel does a credible breakfast also. Tried to identify this , which looked like a VW Kubelwagen..surely not?
Good to have a full tank of gas and water when you leave the town and head West.
Leaving Needles in the morning we the schoolhouse at Goffs, now a museum, The road quickly becomes empty and lonely desert with long sightlines into the scrub, and vast skies. Hard to believe that this two-laner was once the main artery from Chicago to LA. There are abandoned buildings and shuttered restaurants. Along the righthand side there is an embankment, and for miles people have left messages made from pebbles.
CADIZ summit
Once a gas station, only the walls remain. It has an apocalyptic air, something out of Mad Max,with graffiti covering every wall surface, some abandoned car seats sitting there. Beyond here 66 stretches out into emptiness. When I stopped to explore the place not a single car came by, Route 66 utterly silent and stretching out forever.
AMBOY: In the distance Roy’s Cafe looks pristine, and only as you get closer so you see the boarded up ( but complete) individual motel cabins. It is a striking place, very much a product of the fifties. Only the small shop and gas station open. The Cafe is long shuttered . The original reception area is locked up, the furniture all there and from a time when this was a bustling establishment. Under the empty desert sky, it is quiet here, and there is no traffic.
It takes no imagination to think of the full parking lot, the Chevies and Fords, and the Packards, Pontiacs, Plymouths and Oldsmobiles and others that are now as much of the past as Roy’s.
Its been here since 1927,long before 66 was built. Bought by restaurant magnate Albert Okura, a lot has been done to restore the place, but lack of running water has prevented full development. Endless commercials have been filmed at Roy’s. One of my favourite places on all of 66.
On the left hand side the remains of the Roadrunner’s Retreat cafe still stand ..this was also used in the pat for commercials, but little is left now.
LUDLOW has accommodation and an old gas station. From here 66 is closed so it is necessary to detour.
BAGDAD CAFE in Newberry Springs
The cult movie Bagdad Cafe (released 1988) was filmed here . (Jack Palance won an Oscar for best supporting actor as I recall), and the cafe is a must visit for the many Route 66 tourists. Inside every inch of wall and ceiling is covered with stickers, posters, and memorabilia.Next door, nothing is left of the motel but the sign, and a couple of friendly black dogs play in the sunshine
DAGGETT is a small town with an intersting strip of many closed buildings including the old hotel, but the Desert Market still operates and looks like it has not changed in decades.
BARSTOW is a bigger town that is very much a product of the railroad. Another of the beautiful Harvey House hotels, the Casa del Desierto is now used as offices, though there is a Route 66 museum and a railroad museum at the hotel site. Check for opening hours as the 66 museum is only open weekends.
There is a lot of Route 66 nostalgia here including some period motels.
The Route 66 Motel is basic and inexpensive and has some interesting old cars in the courtyard
El Rancho is built on a hillside and was constructed from railroad ties of a defunct railroad.
Like many 66 towns, Barstow has commissioned murals. This one depicts the Beale camel caravan when the US army experimented with them in the area in the 19th century.
ORO GRANDE has an excellent road food place. Emma Jane’s Holland Burger has really good hamburgers and is the kind of place where the mainly male customers all wear baseball caps.Incredibly friendly place. If you are looking for tofu and salad this is not the place to look. Scene from Kill Bill was filmed here.
As the road gets more crowded and we are approaching civilization, 66 took several directions at different times, and I decided not to follow it in detail through LA. However, in the town of Rialto there is one of the few remaining Wigwam motels, inexpensive and clean, and you can stay in your own concrete Teepee.
MONROVIA CA
Here on 66 Sits the Aztec Motel, a great example of what is called Mayan Revival. At ht time of visiting it was under renovation. These kinds of unique, historic , non-chain places are an essential part of the lore of Route 66.
PASADENA
The old section of Pasadena is a beautiful place with lots of evocative architecture of the California of Raymond Chandler..very LA Noir. It is a good place for a stopover with lots of hotel accommodation. In parts the older buildings mix uncomfortably with indifferent modest structures, but it is a very nice walking, shopping and eating town, and of course 66 ran right through it.
Gold Bug is a very idiosyncratic store, a place straight out of Harry Potter. There is no cheap tat here, but a huge variety of strange objects…giant scarab beetles under glass display domes, china that looks normal till you look more closely, long stretches of old display cases. Its the kind of place where Professor Snape and Lord Voldemort would have done their Christmas shopping. The father and daughter team who own the place are great fun, but photography is strictly forbidden. I did manage to take a photograph after asking permission and buying some of their wares, but I would strongly advise against any sort of covert attempts at pictures. It is a hugely entertaining store and their gift wrapping is just perfect. A unique experience.
..and they have wonderful gift wrapping:
FOOD PASADENA
(1)Union
( on Union Street, nsturallly) is an Italiian-Californian place place , very informal, with a local clientele. There is a well chosen wine list and a comprehensive menu as well as nightly specials. The chef owner is present and very much in charge, a friendly and informal guy. Service is outstanding in a classically friendly Californian way. Book in advance.
http://unionpasadena.com
(2)Lost at Sea
This is probably the best seafood in the area The oysters were outstanding while there was a good choice of very fresh fish available, and very good selection of wines suited to seafood.
LA and the Art Scene:
Time to go into LA proper. I will not bore you with pictures of the Hollywood sign, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre or the homes of the stars. There are much better and more entertaining descriptions widely available,
LA ia a big sprawling place and it is fashionable to knowingly frown and hate it..the traffic, the smog, the lack of public transport. For me however, it’s a vital place with some outstanding art galleries, good food, and some of the best car stuff anywhere.
Accommodation in centre city is eyewateringly expensive for a good place; a better bet is to get somewhere near the airport as you’ll need a car anyway to explore. The Hilton Garden Inn is newly renovated, nicely decorated and a lot less expensive
Art Galleries are superb here.
The Broad has an incredible collection of modern art and its restaurant is outstanding, open kitchen, very light food , freshest ingredients, great service.
http://www.thebroad.org
Nearby,, the Gehry-designed Walt Disney concert hall is worth a stroll, blinding in the sunlight
If you like video art, the Geffen seems to specialize in it.
The Huntington Library near LA in San Marino has a a spectacular book collection, and on display in a single room were a Gutenberg Bible, the earliest Shakespeare folios, a copy of the Declaration of Independence, the huge Audobon book of bird illustrations and numerous original hand drafts of famous novels. Its art collection includes Gaisnbourough’s Blue Boy, plus some wonderful John Singer Sargents and a good Edward Hopper.
The 120 acre garden has a beautiful Japanese section and this band new Chinese addition what looks as authentic as the equivalents I saw in Beijing.
Home - The Huntington Library, Art Collection, and Botanical Gardens
OKOK enough of the art nonsense, lets get to the good stuff. -
Cars:
…..., and the Petersen.
The richness of the display here is incredible. Peter Mullin , the Chair has his own wonderful museum in Oxnard, but at the time of visit had moved some of his cars to a wonderful Bugatti exhibit. How often is there a chance to see a Royale and an Atlantic next to one another?
A display of silver cars is like a jewel box
The sports car group has one of the most evocative Alfas- the T33
Modern cars are not neglected…a McLaren P1 sits close to the new RSR mid-engined Porsche.
All sorts of film cars reside here:
The famous Steve McQueen XKSS makes its home at the Petersen:
Want to do a Lego build?…
I the lobby is a beautiful evocation of what might have been for Bugatti. Jean Bugatti died after his gorgeous Atlantic was built, but the type 64 was in the works, and nobody knows what he would have conceived next. Peter Mullin wondered about that too, and as he owned a complete type 64 chassis and running gear he asked some design students to imagine what would have followed the Atlantic…
The result is stunning..the bare metal body suspended over the original chassis, a tribute to the might have been. It will never be built.
The museum offers a basement tour where they have as many cars again, tightly packed. Not all of the basement is available as there is a large working section for maintenance and restoration. Photography is strictly forbidden. The variety of cars ( three Presidential limousines, a Porsche 901,endless famous hot rods, racing cars are all parked in lines. There was another section all covered up. i looked over at the workshops, empty that day, and saw an unmistakable shape,completely stripped to the shell.
I wonder who owned that Ferrari 250 GTO but the docent did not know.
At the other end of the scale, the Automobile Driving museum is en enthusiast-run place on a quiet street in Sepulpa, a suburb. At weekend they give rides in some of the cars. outside stood an magnificent 1937 Packard Darren convertible, beautifully restored which was offering rides as well as a couple of other cars. This is an attempt by the mainly older enthusiasts to rekindle interest in old cars, as they can see the impact of the internet ,social media, regulation on the whole car culture. Strangely, virtual mobility and hyper connectivity have made people less physically mobile. The car as an essential for teenagers to go cruising and meet girls is over and done with.
There is a collection of about 130 cars here which is representative of the more approachable cars than the Petersen and the guides are lots of fun.
.
Not in the guide books is a trip to the:
LA Coroner's Office which has normally about 500 cadavers on hand, and has a daily intake 35 bodies. It is a busy place indeed. Why on earth would it be worth a visit?
On arrival I notice an interesting sign.
Customer Parking
Although self driving cars are just starting, my sense is that the customers may arrive horizontally.
Just inside the main entrance on the right hand side there is a door marked “Skeletons in the closet”. Brilliantly, the LA Coroner has a gift shop.
T shirts, Beach towels, crime scene tapes, barbecue aprons, scrubs and all sort of other things are for sale here. If you want a cute fur dog, it is a model of their mascot, a cadaver dog. I nice young lady who works in the autopsy rooms smiles as she stands beside the toy dogs. I wonder what the real dog brings back when you say “fetch”.
There are some great places to eat in Los Angeles.
For breakfast, Sqirl offers inventive cuisine ranging from huge to very delicate, with many options for Vegetarian and Vegan customers. Get there early ( 07:30) and grab an excellent coffee until they start taking order at about 07:50. Ten minutes later the lineup will be out the door.
At the other end of the scale Maud’s in Beverly Hills is rated the No.1 place in LA. Hard to book and has only a tasting menu based on a specific ingredient.Its very small and informally decorated. The theme on this particular week was black truffle.Overall I though it was disappointing given the very high price. Nothing was bad, but some of the other meal mentions previously were much, much better. Still, some of the presentations were nice.
There is a large mall in Glendale which is good for a quick lunch; it was also the only place I saw a 991 RS ( an interest of mine). I thought the wheels were unfortunate...
SANTA MONICA
The end of the line. Here, you can buy the T-shirt, eat an ice-cream, have a beer or just wander the souvenir stands. In front of you ,the Pacific Ocean. Of course the pier is kitschy..aren’t they all?
The 66 sign is mobbed by tourists, some just here for the day, others completing the 2448 miles of their journey. I run into a group of Japanese bikers who are here with their Harleys, happy to have completed the run from Chicago. Its a daily occurrence. How far it is from the desperation of the Depression, the casual optimism of the fifties, the Model Ts and Oaklands, the pickups and the huge fins of the fifties to now, when many of the people doing the trek are foreign visitors. Yet, 66 continues to attract, to make new stories, and to allow people a journey through multiple climates, regional cultures and history, and to feel something of the open road.
Here ,for the very anal is the very specific, historically correct end to Route 66 in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTY26SpkNAc
As Hunter S Thompson once said in his Gonzo days:
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”
THE BRIDGE ON THE BORDER
Now used to carry pipelines, this used to be the border with California, where migrants were turned back in the Depression and the Dust Bowl if they did not have $10. This is where The Joads went to the waters of the Colorado river below as they reached the land of Milk and Honey in the Grapes of Wrath.
NEEDLES
The first big town in CA and the last for miles. It is a good idea to gas up here. I have not explored it in depth and there are some very recent Route 66 attractions, so this will be updated. However, it did have the worlds greatest waitress in the Howard Johnsons diner, who insisted that McG Jr. have a Bloody Mary for breakfast.
Once a thriving railway town where passengers alighted from the frequent passenger trains to stay at the beautiful El Garces Hotel, the town today has an air of abandonment, slightly shabby with a feeling of emptiness. There are no people on the streets. Today, the El Garces still stands pristine ,but is now used as offices for the BNSF railroad.
If you want something really authentic ,try Valanzeula’s Cafe, with its 70 year-old cook-owner. Only open from 4pm to 7pm and serving no alcohol, this is nevertheless impeccable true Mexican food without the glop, light and perfect Its also very cheap.
Accommodation is basic. The Best Western Colorado Inn is the bast of the bunch and has an attached diner for breakfast. Opposite the motel the Wagon Wheel does a credible breakfast also. Tried to identify this , which looked like a VW Kubelwagen..surely not?
Good to have a full tank of gas and water when you leave the town and head West.
Leaving Needles in the morning we the schoolhouse at Goffs, now a museum, The road quickly becomes empty and lonely desert with long sightlines into the scrub, and vast skies. Hard to believe that this two-laner was once the main artery from Chicago to LA. There are abandoned buildings and shuttered restaurants. Along the righthand side there is an embankment, and for miles people have left messages made from pebbles.
CADIZ summit
Once a gas station, only the walls remain. It has an apocalyptic air, something out of Mad Max,with graffiti covering every wall surface, some abandoned car seats sitting there. Beyond here 66 stretches out into emptiness. When I stopped to explore the place not a single car came by, Route 66 utterly silent and stretching out forever.
AMBOY: In the distance Roy’s Cafe looks pristine, and only as you get closer so you see the boarded up ( but complete) individual motel cabins. It is a striking place, very much a product of the fifties. Only the small shop and gas station open. The Cafe is long shuttered . The original reception area is locked up, the furniture all there and from a time when this was a bustling establishment. Under the empty desert sky, it is quiet here, and there is no traffic.
It takes no imagination to think of the full parking lot, the Chevies and Fords, and the Packards, Pontiacs, Plymouths and Oldsmobiles and others that are now as much of the past as Roy’s.
Its been here since 1927,long before 66 was built. Bought by restaurant magnate Albert Okura, a lot has been done to restore the place, but lack of running water has prevented full development. Endless commercials have been filmed at Roy’s. One of my favourite places on all of 66.
On the left hand side the remains of the Roadrunner’s Retreat cafe still stand ..this was also used in the pat for commercials, but little is left now.
LUDLOW has accommodation and an old gas station. From here 66 is closed so it is necessary to detour.
BAGDAD CAFE in Newberry Springs
The cult movie Bagdad Cafe (released 1988) was filmed here . (Jack Palance won an Oscar for best supporting actor as I recall), and the cafe is a must visit for the many Route 66 tourists. Inside every inch of wall and ceiling is covered with stickers, posters, and memorabilia.Next door, nothing is left of the motel but the sign, and a couple of friendly black dogs play in the sunshine
DAGGETT is a small town with an intersting strip of many closed buildings including the old hotel, but the Desert Market still operates and looks like it has not changed in decades.
BARSTOW is a bigger town that is very much a product of the railroad. Another of the beautiful Harvey House hotels, the Casa del Desierto is now used as offices, though there is a Route 66 museum and a railroad museum at the hotel site. Check for opening hours as the 66 museum is only open weekends.
There is a lot of Route 66 nostalgia here including some period motels.
The Route 66 Motel is basic and inexpensive and has some interesting old cars in the courtyard
El Rancho is built on a hillside and was constructed from railroad ties of a defunct railroad.
Like many 66 towns, Barstow has commissioned murals. This one depicts the Beale camel caravan when the US army experimented with them in the area in the 19th century.
ORO GRANDE has an excellent road food place. Emma Jane’s Holland Burger has really good hamburgers and is the kind of place where the mainly male customers all wear baseball caps.Incredibly friendly place. If you are looking for tofu and salad this is not the place to look. Scene from Kill Bill was filmed here.
As the road gets more crowded and we are approaching civilization, 66 took several directions at different times, and I decided not to follow it in detail through LA. However, in the town of Rialto there is one of the few remaining Wigwam motels, inexpensive and clean, and you can stay in your own concrete Teepee.
MONROVIA CA
Here on 66 Sits the Aztec Motel, a great example of what is called Mayan Revival. At ht time of visiting it was under renovation. These kinds of unique, historic , non-chain places are an essential part of the lore of Route 66.
PASADENA
The old section of Pasadena is a beautiful place with lots of evocative architecture of the California of Raymond Chandler..very LA Noir. It is a good place for a stopover with lots of hotel accommodation. In parts the older buildings mix uncomfortably with indifferent modest structures, but it is a very nice walking, shopping and eating town, and of course 66 ran right through it.
Gold Bug is a very idiosyncratic store, a place straight out of Harry Potter. There is no cheap tat here, but a huge variety of strange objects…giant scarab beetles under glass display domes, china that looks normal till you look more closely, long stretches of old display cases. Its the kind of place where Professor Snape and Lord Voldemort would have done their Christmas shopping. The father and daughter team who own the place are great fun, but photography is strictly forbidden. I did manage to take a photograph after asking permission and buying some of their wares, but I would strongly advise against any sort of covert attempts at pictures. It is a hugely entertaining store and their gift wrapping is just perfect. A unique experience.
..and they have wonderful gift wrapping:
FOOD PASADENA
(1)Union
( on Union Street, nsturallly) is an Italiian-Californian place place , very informal, with a local clientele. There is a well chosen wine list and a comprehensive menu as well as nightly specials. The chef owner is present and very much in charge, a friendly and informal guy. Service is outstanding in a classically friendly Californian way. Book in advance.
http://unionpasadena.com
(2)Lost at Sea
This is probably the best seafood in the area The oysters were outstanding while there was a good choice of very fresh fish available, and very good selection of wines suited to seafood.
LA and the Art Scene:
Time to go into LA proper. I will not bore you with pictures of the Hollywood sign, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre or the homes of the stars. There are much better and more entertaining descriptions widely available,
LA ia a big sprawling place and it is fashionable to knowingly frown and hate it..the traffic, the smog, the lack of public transport. For me however, it’s a vital place with some outstanding art galleries, good food, and some of the best car stuff anywhere.
Accommodation in centre city is eyewateringly expensive for a good place; a better bet is to get somewhere near the airport as you’ll need a car anyway to explore. The Hilton Garden Inn is newly renovated, nicely decorated and a lot less expensive
Art Galleries are superb here.
The Broad has an incredible collection of modern art and its restaurant is outstanding, open kitchen, very light food , freshest ingredients, great service.
http://www.thebroad.org
Nearby,, the Gehry-designed Walt Disney concert hall is worth a stroll, blinding in the sunlight
If you like video art, the Geffen seems to specialize in it.
The Huntington Library near LA in San Marino has a a spectacular book collection, and on display in a single room were a Gutenberg Bible, the earliest Shakespeare folios, a copy of the Declaration of Independence, the huge Audobon book of bird illustrations and numerous original hand drafts of famous novels. Its art collection includes Gaisnbourough’s Blue Boy, plus some wonderful John Singer Sargents and a good Edward Hopper.
The 120 acre garden has a beautiful Japanese section and this band new Chinese addition what looks as authentic as the equivalents I saw in Beijing.
Home - The Huntington Library, Art Collection, and Botanical Gardens
OKOK enough of the art nonsense, lets get to the good stuff. -
Cars:
…..., and the Petersen.
The richness of the display here is incredible. Peter Mullin , the Chair has his own wonderful museum in Oxnard, but at the time of visit had moved some of his cars to a wonderful Bugatti exhibit. How often is there a chance to see a Royale and an Atlantic next to one another?
A display of silver cars is like a jewel box
The sports car group has one of the most evocative Alfas- the T33
Modern cars are not neglected…a McLaren P1 sits close to the new RSR mid-engined Porsche.
All sorts of film cars reside here:
The famous Steve McQueen XKSS makes its home at the Petersen:
Want to do a Lego build?…
I the lobby is a beautiful evocation of what might have been for Bugatti. Jean Bugatti died after his gorgeous Atlantic was built, but the type 64 was in the works, and nobody knows what he would have conceived next. Peter Mullin wondered about that too, and as he owned a complete type 64 chassis and running gear he asked some design students to imagine what would have followed the Atlantic…
The result is stunning..the bare metal body suspended over the original chassis, a tribute to the might have been. It will never be built.
The museum offers a basement tour where they have as many cars again, tightly packed. Not all of the basement is available as there is a large working section for maintenance and restoration. Photography is strictly forbidden. The variety of cars ( three Presidential limousines, a Porsche 901,endless famous hot rods, racing cars are all parked in lines. There was another section all covered up. i looked over at the workshops, empty that day, and saw an unmistakable shape,completely stripped to the shell.
I wonder who owned that Ferrari 250 GTO but the docent did not know.
At the other end of the scale, the Automobile Driving museum is en enthusiast-run place on a quiet street in Sepulpa, a suburb. At weekend they give rides in some of the cars. outside stood an magnificent 1937 Packard Darren convertible, beautifully restored which was offering rides as well as a couple of other cars. This is an attempt by the mainly older enthusiasts to rekindle interest in old cars, as they can see the impact of the internet ,social media, regulation on the whole car culture. Strangely, virtual mobility and hyper connectivity have made people less physically mobile. The car as an essential for teenagers to go cruising and meet girls is over and done with.
There is a collection of about 130 cars here which is representative of the more approachable cars than the Petersen and the guides are lots of fun.
.
Not in the guide books is a trip to the:
LA Coroner's Office which has normally about 500 cadavers on hand, and has a daily intake 35 bodies. It is a busy place indeed. Why on earth would it be worth a visit?
On arrival I notice an interesting sign.
Customer Parking
Although self driving cars are just starting, my sense is that the customers may arrive horizontally.
Just inside the main entrance on the right hand side there is a door marked “Skeletons in the closet”. Brilliantly, the LA Coroner has a gift shop.
T shirts, Beach towels, crime scene tapes, barbecue aprons, scrubs and all sort of other things are for sale here. If you want a cute fur dog, it is a model of their mascot, a cadaver dog. I nice young lady who works in the autopsy rooms smiles as she stands beside the toy dogs. I wonder what the real dog brings back when you say “fetch”.
There are some great places to eat in Los Angeles.
For breakfast, Sqirl offers inventive cuisine ranging from huge to very delicate, with many options for Vegetarian and Vegan customers. Get there early ( 07:30) and grab an excellent coffee until they start taking order at about 07:50. Ten minutes later the lineup will be out the door.
At the other end of the scale Maud’s in Beverly Hills is rated the No.1 place in LA. Hard to book and has only a tasting menu based on a specific ingredient.Its very small and informally decorated. The theme on this particular week was black truffle.Overall I though it was disappointing given the very high price. Nothing was bad, but some of the other meal mentions previously were much, much better. Still, some of the presentations were nice.
There is a large mall in Glendale which is good for a quick lunch; it was also the only place I saw a 991 RS ( an interest of mine). I thought the wheels were unfortunate...
SANTA MONICA
The end of the line. Here, you can buy the T-shirt, eat an ice-cream, have a beer or just wander the souvenir stands. In front of you ,the Pacific Ocean. Of course the pier is kitschy..aren’t they all?
The 66 sign is mobbed by tourists, some just here for the day, others completing the 2448 miles of their journey. I run into a group of Japanese bikers who are here with their Harleys, happy to have completed the run from Chicago. Its a daily occurrence. How far it is from the desperation of the Depression, the casual optimism of the fifties, the Model Ts and Oaklands, the pickups and the huge fins of the fifties to now, when many of the people doing the trek are foreign visitors. Yet, 66 continues to attract, to make new stories, and to allow people a journey through multiple climates, regional cultures and history, and to feel something of the open road.
Here ,for the very anal is the very specific, historically correct end to Route 66 in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTY26SpkNAc
As Hunter S Thompson once said in his Gonzo days:
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”
Edited by RDMcG on Sunday 21st May 14:28
Edited by RDMcG on Sunday 21st May 14:29
. Have fun!
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