Get Your Kicks on Route 66! Needles to Santa Monica

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Average start to the day before hitting Route 66 again, bound for Barstow. We decided to follow the pre-1931 route which took us via Goffs. More small towns with the all too familiar sight of abandoned buildings and gas stations, long forgotten by the fast paced world of the I-40. We passed Cadiz, Amboy (site of a volcanic crater), Ludlow, Newberry Springs and Dagget before taking a side road that led to Calico Ghost Town. We spent a couple of hours wandering the streets of the small western town, founded back in 1881 and famed for its silver ore mines. We had lunch at the Old Miners Cafe, rode the Calico/Odessa Railroad and walked through Maggie's Mine, and thoroughly enjoyed our time there. Then back to Route 66 heading for Barstow. We checked into the Route 66 Motel late afternoon and had dinner at the local Sizzlers.

We awoke to our first day of grey clouds and rain since we arrived here over a month ago. The weather didn't dampen our spirits (although it did make for more interesting photos being taken through a droplet covered car windscreen!) as we left the outskirts of Barstow heading for the end of Route 66 in Santa Monica. Our day was filled with the more familiar sites of what we would call 'suburbia' as we followed the old route, with really only the occasional reminder of the historical road. We drove all the way to the end and parked at the world famous Santa Monica Pier (which unfortunately looked a little drab in its current state amongst the showers of rain and with most of the rides and attractions closed due to it now being off-season and with mainentance work being done). But it was still a buzz to walk the boards of the pier itself as well as reaching the end of the historic Route 66. Late afternoon we check into our hotel for our last night's sleep here in the US.

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