Route 66! Part VI: The Road from Barstow

Route 66 in Barstow is still the main drag there.  All up and down the road are restaurants and motels.  I don't think Main Street in Barstow has changed very much in the days before it was the meeting point between Interstates 15 and 40.  Interstate 15 replaced Route 91 to Las Vegas and Route 66 back to Victorville.  Interstate 40 replaced Route 66 all the way to Needles.

Barstow is the western terminus of I-40, and once you enter the interstate you see a sign telling you how far away Wilmington NC is.  I-40 is a nice drive if you're into desert landscapes, and beginning in 2006 I would take that back to Arizona from San Jose since this bypassed the traffic of Southern California.  On a stop in Ludlow in December 2009, I realized I was looking at Route 66, and perhaps that's when the seed was planted that led me into an interest in the Mother Road.  I had intended to take this road in 2010 on the way back from San Jose, before I was stuck in Lake Havasu City instead.

As I said in my previous post, I should have taken some pictures of Main Street along Barstow.  I didn't aside from Barstow Station.  After a stop there, we continued eastward, until forced onto I-40 since Route 66 isn't a through street any more at the Marine Corps base.  Like the last time, we exited the interstate at Nebo Road, and then proceeded back to getting our kicks.

In my very first post describing my adventures on this road, I mentioned what I thought then was a truck stop.  I learned from subsequent research that it was a California state agricultural inspection station that has been defunct for many years.  California still stops you at some point when you're entering on the pretense of making sure you're not bringing bad fruit into the state.  The real reason for doing that was to turn back Okies in the Great Depression who were looking for a better life.

Here are some photos of that old station; all taken on 11/30/11.

Since I saw all these bays, I figured it was a truck stop.

Where the old office was.  I'm guessing that this was in commission until about 1972.

A view of the inside of the office.

Something was here but I 'm not sure what it was.  When I first saw this I thought it might have been the foundation of an old cafe, which is another reason why I thought it was a truck stop.

Another view of the inspection station.

Looking east ,along the road.  At this point I'm itching to play the Bachman & Turner CD, with the lead song "Rolling Along" which would fit this moment!

Looking back towards Barstow.  Just think.....millions of people once went down this road.  Why were they on the road?  What stories would they tell me?

At several places along the way, you'll see this in the road.  This photo taken 7/16/13.

The Spirit gas station, as it appeared on 11/30/11.  When we saw this again, it was open, and operating as Valero.

Up ahead, the Main Street of America meets Interstate 40.

It was at this point where I fished out that Bachman & Turner CD, as that I was itching to hear "Rolling Along".

The journey continues............

Route 66! Part V: The Road to Barstow

Continuing on from that abandoned gas station which may or may not have dispensed Gulf gasoline, one sees yet another abandoned gas station as well as some ruins as the highway bends into a northeasterly direction.  This next gas station is another one of those relics that are all up and down the Mother Road.  This one below is one that I missed on the 11/30/11 trip (that's two of them that I have to admit missing) but on 7/16, we didn't miss it.

This is at 27075 National Trails Highway.  I've researched this and learned it was Burden's Store and Post Office.

Another shot.  The restrooms are at the left as one faces the building.

When I was researching this, an older image of this showed graffiti which has since been painted over in white.

Across the roadway, a BNSF locomotive.

A view from across the highway.  Sheila is visible, taking some photos.

In San Bernardino County, the road is signed as a county road, with the 66 designation.  We saw this a few times along the road to Barstow.  We also saw it again from I-40 where 66 is a frontage road in a state of disrepair.  I didn't remember seeing this sign where it's a frontage road during my 2011 trip.

Further along the road, we saw this set of ruins.  This photograph and those that follow are from 11/30/11.  I have no idea what this used to be.  At a minimum, a residence.

Dang if I know what this used to be.........

I can't say that this is the most interesting stop along the old road.  I stopped again when Sheila was with me, but we didn't stay long.  On to Barstow.

Continuing on the Barstow, Route 66 passes through Lenwood, and becomes Main Street.  As I am writing this, I am regretting that I didn't take any pictures.  There were motels that are still in commission with their noticeably older architecture but clean.  It's like stepping back in time.  We drove along Main Street, stopping off at Barstow Station.

At Barstow Station, I did take a couple of photos.  Here's one of an old railroad car.

And another photo.  We went inside to check out the various souvenirs that were on sale.  I dropped a few bucks here, picking up a few mementos.

And another view of Barstow Station.

Barstow Station at one time for me was not a pleasant memory.  In late July of 1986 my then housemate and I took a long road trip from San Jose, to Las Vegas, then Phoenix, Nogales, El Paso, Albuquerque, Kingman, and Barstow.  He really wanted to stop off at Barstow Station to eat there and me, not knowing what I was in for, was OK with it.

When we got there, it was 1:30 PMish and the "restaurant" that was there was McDonald's.  The lines were very long and the place was crowded.  We ate our meals in an old railroad car and there wasn't very much open seating in it.  I was doing the slow burn inside; failing to understand what was so great about eating a stupid Big Mac combo meal inside of an old railroad car.  After that, I swore I would never go back there again.

Years later, doing some online research about Route 66, I learned that it was more than a McDonald's and railroad cars to eat their meals in.  It was an assortment of shops, and a chance to pick up some souvenirs.  I picked up a replica of the US Route 66 sign (the Arizona version) and a sticker.  Sheila, I think, got some fridge magnets.

After that stop we were on our way again, for the next leg of the journey.

To be continued.................

Route 66! Part IV: Another Abandoned Gas Station

In my first post about Route 66, I mentioned coming across my "first" abandoned gas station.  You might think that was the Mohawk station detailed in this post, but it wasn't.  My recollection was also faulty as that I saw this gas station mentioned after I saw the Bottle Tree Ranch and not before.

I don't know what this gas station brand name was.  The colors are suggesting Gulf but I'm not sure if Gulf ever did business in California.  Regardless, this structure made for some interesting photographs.

From 11/30/11.  What brand was sold here?  Anyone know?  Also, note that the windows are intact, and reflecting perfectly the images from across the road.  This structure was behind a chain link fence and was posted for "no trespassing'.

Comfort stations, for both men and ladies.  I'm glad my camera had a zoom feature.  Photo taken 11/30/11.

On the 7/16/13 trip, I took a photo of the mailbox, mainly to establish just where on National Trails Highway that I was.  My guess is that this belongs to the house you see behind the restrooms, and that they also own the structure.

Here we have Sheila taking a photograph of what's across the street.  Yes, she gave me permission to post her photo!  I was delighted to learn on the day that I first met her that she was interested in journeys down old historic highways.  Yes.....she's a keeper!

On this one I was trying to capture my reflection in the glass.  So I sighted in my camera, and saw the upper half of my body.  Then I dropped the camera down some, took the picture, and later on realized that all I got was my noggin.  From 7/16/13.

This is what the road ahead looks like from here.  This photo taken 11/30/11.

What lies ahead?  At this point, on the 2011 trip, I knew that an adventure was in store for me; that there was more to come.  Onward to Barstow!

Route 66! Part III: Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch and More...

Route 66 in its heyday was known for some interesting attractions.  There's the Cadillac Ranch in Texas where several Caddies are half buried at an angle.  A small motel chain with teepees to stay in.  A roadside restaurant where you can get burgers, tacos and "dead chicken".  And as I was to find out on my first journey on this old road to Barstow, this interesting collection of sculptures.

I didn't know what it was at the time.  On the 11/30/11 trip, I took some photos of it from across the road, and when I repeated this on 7/16/13 with Sheila, we got closer to it.  This time I knew what it was:  Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch.  I think this time it was open but we didn't go in.  Maybe next time.  Now on to the pictures.  As a reminder, if you click on any of them, a larger view will appear, with all photos of this posting as thumbnails below.

From across the roadway, 11/30/11.  I was thinking, what is this?

Another view from across the road, 11/30/11.

And one more shot from that day.

From the 7/16/13 trip with Sheila. We walked across the highway for a better look.

Now that I'm looking at this photo again, I'm thinking we should have gone in and looked around some.

Yes, we should have gone in.  Well, I'd drive this road again in a minute, and I'm sure Sheila's up for it too!

Another closeup of the Ranch.

North of the Ranch, heading eastbound 66, one sees this abandoned structure.  I had seen it and photographed it on my first drive down this road.  This photo is from 7/16/13.

Here's another one.  I missed this on 11/30/11, but not on 7/16/13.

Looking again at these photos is having the effect of making me more fascinated with this old highway.  Even though I've now seen this twice, I'm finding myself wanting to do this again next year.  I think though that the next stretch of 66 is going to be that segment between Kingman and Flagstaff, which is now signed as Arizona State Route 66.

More Route 66 Pictures! Part II: Leaving Victorville

Upon leaving Victorville, the highway that used to be known as US 66 (and still is known by that in our hearts) is National Old Trails Highway.  This next series of pictures is what you encounter upon leaving Victorville, heading north into Barstow.

Upon leaving Victorville on 11/30/11, I stopped off at the side of the road to take this shot looking back.

And here's what it looks like looking north, which is Route 66 East.  From this point it looks like I'm in for a beautiful day.  Photo taken 11/30/11.

OK, now let's fast forward to 7/16/13.  Same road, different day.  It turns that this is the first abandoned gas station one sees on the road to Barstow, and not the one that I mentioned on my first posting.  We'll get to that one in a later post.  This is an abandoned Mohawk station, at the intersection of 66 and Mill Street.

Here's another view of the Mohawk station.  This photo, and all photos of the Mohawk station that follow this were taken on 7/16/13.

A closeup of the gas pumps themselves.  With the price accommodating $1+ per gallon pricing, this station had to have been in commission in the second half of 1979.  If you look closely at the sign in the background, you'll see that we are in Oro Grande.

While we were there, Burlington Northern Santa Fe made their presence known.

One more shot of the gas pumps.  I have no idea when this one closed, but you can judge from the brush growth that it wasn't recent.  At one time this had to have been a solid business, but when I-15 opened between Victorville and Barstow there wasn't any reason for anyone to use this road any more.  Thus, we have one of several casualties of progress.

Here we have a closeup of the Mohawk Mini-Mart, which is next to the gas pumps.  I'll have to do some research on the Mohawk gasoline brand to learn more about this.  I'm not sure, but I think it was a chain.

This is going to be it for this evening.  Stay tuned.......more photos are on the way.

Some Route 66 Pictures! Part I, Victorville CA

OK, I'm going to start posting Route 66 pictures.  I can't do this all in one post so what I'm going to do is start off with a Part I, which will be photos taken in Victorville CA.  The photos you see here were all taken on 11/30/11.  Also, the captions are below the pictures.

If you wish to see "larger" pictures, there's a way to do that.  You'll have to single click on them, whereupon you'll see a larger picture with this neat black background.  You'll have to click on the X in the upper right in order to get back to this blog.

This is 7th Street once signed as US 66, looking west.

The same street, but looking east, in my direction of travel towards Needles.

This shot is in the historic district, looking back (east).

Here I'm not too far from the left turn, which will place me on National Trails Highway, with the next major town being Barstow.  At this point I'm really excited about what lies ahead!

One last look back.  This is what you would see upon entering Victorville, if you were taking 66 from Barstow.


More pictures are coming, which will include those taken on 7/16/13.

I Really Should Post More Often.....

Greetings to all homo and hetero sapiens out there.  One thing I really wanted to do here this year was to post more often.  I started this "money" series that I need to write more often on, I need to post some Route 66 pictures from my two trips there, I need to comment more often on the headlines, and it probably wouldn't hurt to write some personal reflections on some other things. 

As it is, I seem to spend a lot of time "taking care of life", for lack of a better term, and my job has me putting in overtime from time to time, and I've seen some of that.  My employer does pay me straight time for the OT, which is a plus since I'm salaried, but to be honest I think I would rather have a normal schedule.  But the problem there is that I happen to enjoy my current assignment very much and I have no desire at this time to pursue other opportunities.  That's a good thing.

In case anyone was wondering, I am spending a lot of time with Sheila and less time on the hobbies I was enjoying before I met her.  I tell myself that I need to pick up the guitar and finish some songwriting projects that I started a year ago.  I need to catch up on some reading (I'm currently working on the LBJ biography series by Robert Caro.....I highly recommend it!), and there's season number five of the classic Hawaii Five-O DVDs (I often watch these episodes with Sheila).  And of course, I spend time with my two devoted cats, and due to this thing I call "cattus interruptus", I sometimes don't get much done in my leisure time.   That too is a good thing; it's their job to slow me down and make me pet them whenever they want my lap, which is very often.

One thing I've been doing is trying to get the house caught up to where I want it.  It's something that I resolved to do two years ago and it still isn't where I want it to be.  The good news is that there's a new spa heater, the back door to the patio has been fixed, a new patio carpet was put in earlier this year, I've built some shelving, and a contractor is coming over on Friday to replace some aging shower doors.  After that I want to get a new stove and a new dishwasher, and I'm also thinking about a deep freeze unit and stocking that up with meat from Costco (I'm really going to need that freezer if I ever get off my sitting end and bag a deer).  And in addition to that, I'm thinking about becoming active in ham radio again, and getting that dipole antenna up on the roof. 

Oh, did I say that I want to get my coin collection better organized?  I work on that from time to time.  Over the years I have collected lots of foreign coins, and although I am working on filling vinyl pages with them.  There are also lots of US coins in the collection, and I'm working on searching a box of pennies that I picked up the last time I was on the east coast (there is a rare die variety on the "P" cents, and coins from Philly are hard to come by in the Grand Canyon State). 

When I think of all the things I want to do, I sometimes suffer from this dread of retirement.  I mean, if I have my way, I'm going to be in the workforce for several more years, but when I retire I'm thinking that I just might be as busy then as I am now.  That's a good thing too, as that there are lots of horror stories about aerospace engineers kicking the bucket not long after retiring, and I sometimes think it's because they have nothing to do with themselves once they stop working, and somehow that kills them.  I have no way of knowing if I'm right on that.  Me, I'll have plenty to do, though I see myself as spending a year on the highways of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Nevada before getting a part time job.  I'm not sure if I'll bag groceries at Safeway or if I'll return to my present employer as a part time consultant.  I'm also not sure if I'll stay in Tucson when I retire.

Arizona does have a lot of retirees, and from what I know a great many of them are escapees from California.  A good friend of mine from San Jose is right now in Prescott Valley and I think he picked a damn good place to retire.  I was originally thinking I would end up in the White Mountains somewhere, as that I want to be somewhere where there's plenty of hiking, hunting and fishing.  The White Mountains strike me as such a place, but so does Prescott.  And, I'll admit that I'm intrigued about the prospect of retiring in Ely, Nevada.  I've never been there but I'm thinking of making a scouting run up there, but if I want Nevada then maybe I should consider Pahrump.  Las Vegas is out....don't get me wrong, Vegas has plenty to offer in terms of entertainment and I could spend lots of time people watching on Fremont Street, but Clark County is northeast Southern California and the real estate market there has been dicey.  I won't make a lot of equity living in Ely but Ely doesn't have the big city problems that I seem to be reading more and more about here in Tucson.

Well Sheila has just arrived, and so I'm going to sign.  Moe and Larry are in the process of welcoming her (and of course they'll get plenty of pets from her) but I need to take over from them when they're done.

Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat.