Route 66 - Day 2

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At 2:30 in the morning, we discovered how they kept the grass so nice and clean as the KOA sprinklers gave Da Bean a bath!

For Breakfast, we met up with Great (in so many ways) Aunt Terri at the local airport cafe Norms Hanger Coffee Shop. Good food, nice views, good company... I am led to understand that pilots actually fly in just to eat at Norms. The name is misleading.. they are way more than a coffee shop.

Before we left Pamona KOA, Michelle went swimming and Tony "fixed" the bike rack. His previous fix to keep it from wobbling involved shoving some plastic wrap in as a shim. LA traffic thwarted that fix, so this time, Tony experimented with Duct tape... see below for results.

Given yesterday's experience with LA traffic and lack of interesting things in the city portions of Route 66, we decided to skip over the ACTUAL route 66 until we were past suberbia. We then got a call from Aunt Debbie Underwood who is with her family on their way back from their own epic 2 week SouthWest RV trip. We met up in Victorville, celebrated Uncle Paul's birthday, and then headed out on Route 66 from there.

In Victorville, we decided to visit the Route 66 museum. It is actually really good. Lots of old Route 66 related displays... a working vintage jukebox, knowledgable and friendly volunteers and a swell gift shop where we picked up some Route 66 SWAG and a new guidebook.

On the subject of guidebooks... it is important a) to check the print date of the book you are buying b) realize that 2 books might focus on different things and to compare/contrast and c) It is best to read ahead and plan ahead instead of doing real-time planning.

Also in Victorville, on the way out of town, we stopped at a little diner. It was like stepping back in time. We had great sandwiches while sitting at the bar of a vintage diner with vintagely friendly staff. If you ever go in there, pay close attention to the clocks and signs on the wall!

After an excellent meal, our true adventure started. We took in some sights around Victorville (cement plants, closed gas stations, nice scenery, etc). Then we found the Bottle tree display. This is precisely the type of thing that we wanted to come on this trip to do. it was about 1/4 acre of fenced yard with dozens of artistic tree-like structures covered with various types of ceramics and bottles. Kind of surreal, very quirky... very Route 66!!!!

We continued down Route66, not finding anything else worth mentioning (this part of the route is pretty barren and run down... probably worth skipping most of it. Basically, once you get to Newberry Springs going East, get on the freeway until you get to Needles... Seriously... don't waste your time just to drive on the pavement of history... way more important things to do with your time.

So, we didn't heed the above advice, and continued down route 66 for a bit. Everything seemed to be going well... no traffic, nice road, pleasant scenery. then shortly after we passed Newberry springs, the road changed drastically from good to TERRIBLE. rough, eroded pavement with lots of potholes and some patches, and that was the better part. I took a picture and it got much worse than that. We kept going for a while thinking that it can't possibly be like this for very long.. people live out here (there were some houses)... but 12 miles later, when we reached a freeway exit, it was still terrible. The worst part was that we passed a rest stop on the freeway not more than 300 yards away, but couldn't get there... we were stuck going 10 miles an hour. The road paralleld I-40 for at least 25 more miles, and it was bad all the way... I hope there is not much more of that along our route.

Well, the rough, bouncy, bone shattering vibration of the terrible road did in with the duct tape bike rack fix. Tony will have to come up with something else in the morning.

After getting off the road, and realizing we wasted more than an hour getting our insides shaken apart (luckly, the only mechanical problem was the bike rack... everything else in the trailer is fine, we think).... we decided to book it for Needles. We arrived shortly before 8PM, got setup quickly and went swimming. It was 105 when we arrived... as I type this, it is currently 101.

Tommorrow we are up at 6, gone by 8 and on to Tony's most anticipated portion of the trip (Grand Canyon Caverns and high desert mountains near flagstaff).



Michelle's Musings: Don't stay up watching a movie until very late when you are on a road trip.
Tony's Trailering Tips: Even Duct Tape can't survive a road that hasn't been paved in decades!
Anne's Anecdotes: Tony's desire to drive the ACTUAL route 66 path is inversely proportional to the quality of the road

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Photos

Breakfast with Terri
Should have used a flash, but the scenery was great.

Michelle
Waiting for the food

Victorville
Neat Route 66 sign. Unfortunately, the street just past, while probably very happening in it's time... was all boarded up and run-down

With Flowers in You Hair
Going to Chicago..... just doesn't have the same ring... Peace and Love everyone.

Burma Shave
Fantastic Advertising for it's time. People are too much about instant information and instant gratification these days to really appreciate these signs.

Museum
Us in front of the museum

Back in Time
If you want a Pepsi son, you are going to have to pay for it!

Bottles
Is that what it looks like.. Yes, Yes it is.... a WHOLE BUNCH of bottles.

Bottles
Art with Bottles

Bottles
Lots of art with Bottles

Tall Bottle
More cool bottle art... this one needed a ladder, or anti-gravity boots.

Bottles
Ah... Art

Wee
One of the guidebooks calls this the Wee part of the road... lots of dips, some severe, but all FUN (until the road went to hell).

Bad Road - no Biscuit
Oh, it got worse.. much worse, but even this was way too bad... This was about 11 miles in when we stopped to check on the bikes I could see swinging wildly of the back of the trailer.

Decal?
I am not entirely sure that the temperature gauge on my Toyota Sienna is not actually a decal. It never varies from where you see it here, even pulling a 3500 lb trailer uphill in 105 degree heat!!!!