With the truck repaired and the test run to Seligman completed successfully, we were hitched up and ready for the next leg of the journey. Across the Mojave Desert …my sister asked if the truck had a name….(🎵 I’ve been through the desert in a truck with no name🎵)
Arizona surprised me by being greener than I expected……vivid colours with red rocks and the painted desert type rock formations……and California surprised me by not being flat…….I don’t know why I expected it to be flat….but let me tell you it most certainly is not…!!!!
I must have blanked on the fact that the Rockie Mountain range extends all the way from Alaska down to Mexico.
The backdrop of the desert was always mountains…. spectacularly beautiful and impossible to photograph, you just can’t encompass the sheer scale and the wrap around nature of the landscape.
California welcomed us with an inspection station (like a border crossing) on the highway to enter the State…and palm trees. The sand turns from red to mostly white /beige….and the plant life switches from impressive cacti to palm trees and yuccas.
Then there is the road. The road has several long slow serious climbing grades. The shoulder lane punctuated by dying and dead transport trucks unable to manage the combination of the grade and the heat, and perhaps the patience to get up those hills without blowing the transmission, the engine or the tires…!!! Given our experience in Kingman…there was a bit of breath holding happening as we hauled up those grades carefully watching the transmission temperature.
The early travelers of the 66 must have despaired when they hit Needles (The eastern edge of California……) They had made it to CA and the promised land… but now there were a whole bunch more mountains and desert to go (and not a lot of water sources) CA is even drier than AZ.
Just before Barstow is Daggett…I hesitate to describe it as a town…but it is part of the original road.
We made it to Barstow in 46-degree heat…. the worst of the heatwave already behind us. We had changed our plans slightly to not linger here in the heat…but to find the sign…take the picture of it, and head north.
We did a bit of a tour through the old town of Barstow to take some pictures of the remaining relics of the road..
It was a daytime version of me slow rolling along the main drag and the guy with the camera screaming ‘PULL OVER’ at the worst traffic moments and leaping in and out of the truck…..🤣
Barstow’s other piece of interesting trivia…..Its military base, Fort Irwin….considered to be one of the top training bases for the US military. It is also the only part of Route 66 not accessible to the public as it runs right through the base itself. (Fort Irwin has its own fascinating history for those interested)
One of Barstow’s legends is the El Rancho Hotel which burned to the ground in 2022 under questionable circumstances.
In these temps…when you get out of the truck it’s hard to tell what’s worse…the crushing heat of the sun from above or the furnace roasting of the tarmac from below. Whichever it is…moving quickly is just not an option. An added bonus as you hit California….the gas prices are as eye watering as the heat….but the wine is incredibly excellent and inexpensive…. unfortunately the truck doesn’t run on Chardonnay.
We made the decision to rise in the early hours and do the last 2 ¼ hour drive in to LA…Hit Santa Monica Pier at sunrise and get the heck back out of the city.
I had had my doubts about finding a campsite a bit closer to the city of angels. It turned out that Barstow was about as close as we wanted to get and was an ideal launching point for the final push.
There was heavy commuter traffic all the way, I was very grateful for the quick reflexes and nerves of steel of my driver guy as the traffic weaves from lane to lane with commuters dodging in and out of the transport trucks while the whole throng of traffic moved down the seemingly endless grade, well in excess of the posted speed limit. This would not be the case just a short time later.
I don’t think I did much breathing the whole way in. There was no real sunrise because of the morning fog of the beach. But we did pass Muscle Beach, several ‘bodies’ on the steps of the pier and on the shoreline.
Much to our delight, arriving in LA at 5am is perfect……because street parking is free until 7am…….we were long gone by then. Luckily for me I had a sweatshirt in the truck (not so much the other guy…LOL)…from the scorching temps in Barstow….it was a balmy 18 degrees C (64F) in Santa Monica…Brrrr…!!! Shivering in cold was a bit of a welcome change….!!!
The sign which we have been seeking was before us, marking the end of the trail..quite an emotional moment in fact. We had the pier to ourselves to soak in the accomplishment.
Did one of our very few selfies….
then jumped in the truck to head back to the trailer.
It was a much easier drive back….well it was for the passenger anyway..!!
The grade was not huge….but it was unrelenting…and the temp was 47 degrees (I am imagining that the tarmac was a bit hotter yet.) we did a quite a bit of finger crossing and some silent praying for smooth driving, which we were granted. On the way home we were very glad that we set off at that ungodly hour…..the commuter traffic was nose to tail into the city all the way back to Barstow, just like you see in the movies…..but plain sailing for us returning east for a big nap.
We got back before 8.30 am and fell back into bed…
Mission accomplished…!!!!
Extra Pix
OsteoPraxis on the road 