Day 29 -- April 29, 2003 -- Tuesday

Armed with a special set of Route 66 maps for each Route 66 state, a regular map of each state, two books about Route 66, and the master notebook that I prepared of my research, Bozzie had her work cut out for her. Some long unbroken stretches of the Route still remain, but the Ghost Town Press map put it this way: "Route 66 today is essentially a discontinuous by-way, a wild mix of original roadbed, overlapping upgrades, Interstate service roads, and abandoned remnants. It has been chopped up, re-configured, and paved over in so many places so many times that trying to find it can often involve more work than fun."

Despite this, Bozzie was ready for duty, and we had a lot of material available. Unfortunately, all the books and maps go from east to west, so she had to read the extremely detailed directions backwards -- one sentence at a time. Signs would sure help, but we repeatedly saw empty brackets on poles where we knew a Route 66 sign used to be. In some places, "Historic Route 66" is painted on the road, but this didn't help with navigation. Boz did a great job, as we got lost only twice today.

Each morning usually began with a question from Boz about when I was going to stop wearing the beads. Today was no different.

The sights on our list in Pasadena were the majestic old Colorado Bridge and the Rose Bowl. As we rolled on to the east, we didn't see much more that was old. The greater Los Angeles area just knocked down the old to make way for the new. We got lost just after the Rose Bowl. Mike the surveyor had no idea where he or we were, but the Colorado Bridge managed to find us, and then we were on our way.

We didn't see much of anything that was old for quite a ways. We did see a lot of patriotism in Duarte -- flags lined the streets.

Seeing what we were told was the original McDonald's in Azusa was something we both wanted to do. From our books, we knew right where it was supposed to be, but it was the parking lot at a university. We pulled into the first new McDonald's that we saw, and Eddie at the drive-thru told us he thought it had been torn down. We couldn't believe that, so we asked a local policeman in line, and he confirmed it is now part of the university parking lot. We were shocked that a huge corporation would let that happen, though we later obtained conflicting information that indicated the original is in San Bernardino. Unfortunately, we were so caught up in trying to follow the complicated directions in San Bernardino that we forgot to look for what may be the original McDonald's there.

We did find the Foothill Drive-In movie theater in Azusa. Something old. It looked great.

San Dimas was a pretty town -- exceptionally clean with pretty mountains. It continued to be noteworthy that we have been impressed to see how clean America is!

Claremont is the home of six small colleges; we passed by several of them.

In Upland, we saw the Madonna of the Trail, a memorial to pioneer women of the covered wagon days. We understand it is one of 12 Madonnas on Route 66.

Rancho Cucamonga had the first Route 66-oriented business that we noted -- the Route 66 Antique Shop. We planned lunch at Bono's Restaurant, a landmark on Route 66 since the 1940's. It was owned by cousins of Sonny Bono of Sonny and Cher. Bono's also has a great orange juice stand in the shape of a big orange. We pulled into the parking lot to find it closed with a "For Rent" sign. This was an experience to be repeated several times today; the books can't keep up with the ins and outs along Route 66.

The Hell's Angels were founded in Fontana. We didn't see a single motorcycle there, much less a Hell's Angel. Not even a biker bar to photograph.

Rialto had a great old bowling alley sign, but we pulled in to find a church. We hope the zoning there will require the church to maintain this great sign.

San Bernardino is home to one of the few tee pee motels -- Wigwam Motel. The restored teepees were a wonderful sight to see.

In Devore, we stopped at what turned out to be Peek's Cafe, formerly the landmark Pik's Cafe. Trucks and cars lined the highway, so we knew it had to be good. The outside was pretty sad looking, and there was no real sign. We walked in, and we were the only people there. We started to leave, but we decided to give it a try. It wasn't bad; it just wasn't very good. We've been amazingly lucky with the places we have chosen to eat; this is one of the few misses so far.

At Devore, we had to drive on the Interstate up and over Cajon Pass (4,259 feet). It was pretty, but there were trucks everywhere, and many of them had trouble with the steep grades. It is much more relaxing to drive on the two-lanes with relatively little traffic and virtually no trucks.

We probably spent a half hour in the small town of Victorville trying to find the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum. It wasn't on Route 66, but we drove up and down Roy Rogers Boulevard, and we just didn't see it. We saw an old fort in the middle of a large gravel area, and we finally drove up to it to find the stone pedestal that held Trigger in a photo in one of our books. The museum had closed and was moved to Branson. We really did want to see it; perhaps in Branson. If anyone out there is interested in a 30,000 square foot fort in the middle of a big gravel field in Victorville, we know where you can find one.

The California Route 66 Museum in Victorville is still operating, but we pulled up to find it is only open Thursday through Sunday. We did get a photo of the New Corral Motel sign with its animated bucking bronco. 200 western movies were filmed in and around Victorville.

We saw a lot of trains today. Most carry truck trailers on flatbeds.

Helendale is home to Exotic World, a museum dedicated to exotic dancers. It would have been interesting to see, but a visit required a call to the former striptease artist who owns it for directions and an appointment, and we were afraid we'd get stuck spending more time than we could afford.

While planning the route several months ago, I noticed the town of Hinkley, California just 20 miles or so off Route 66. This is the town where so many people had serious health problems in the Erin Brokovich movie. The movie was a true story. So we detoured off Route 66 to Hinkley.

Hinkley is in a flat, dusty area with little more than scrubby desert plants. It looked sad before we ever reached the town to see abandoned and boarded-up homes. We did meet a sweet man there as I was taking a photo of the first landmark we saw -- the Hinkley Post Office. Bill Stovall was his name. When I handed him our card and told him we were writing a book, he perked up. He told us that the movie was absolutely true and that Erin Brokovich is indeed a big hero there as she enabled the families to win a $340 million judgment against PG&E. Bill said many families were affected, but he and his family lived on the other side of town, and they had no problems at all. Bill noted that he has some relatives who have lived to be over 100. He did note that two dairies closed after a calf was born with two heads. I started to say goodbye and drive off when Bill asked if I wanted some family background. He then told us: "My grandfather came to the US from England and married a Cherokee Indian princess. I have 57 different kinds of stuff in me." We were very happy to have bumped into Bill so we could hear his story.

It was an interesting coincidence that we saw Erin Brokovich's name on the front page of USA Today as we glanced at it as we were checking out of our motel. She is working on another big case involving cancer.

We began to see some old stuff when we hit Barstow where we photographed several old motels. Daggett has the Calico Ghost Town amusement park; Ryan and I visited there in 1981. We drove by the Solar One Power Plant -- a failed experiment that attempted to create a significant amount of solar power.

In Newberry Springs, we photographed the Bagdad Cafe. The real Bagdad Cafe was further east. We had never seen the movie, but we rented it after the trip ended. We saw some old abandoned gas stations and buildings in Ludlow.

At this point, Route 66 is a terrible road -- a washboard with giant pot holes. We could drive no faster than 15 miles an hour part of the way. It was 55 miles and almost two hours before we saw another car. The sun was setting, and there was no town for 100 miles, but I was determined to visit the former town of Bagdad, California. As the sun set at 7:20 pm, we were there. All that was left was a tree and some gravel where the cafe used to be -- not even a sign to commemorate the place.

We were in the Mojave Desert. Rather than risk breaking down on those horrible roads, we backtracked and took the Interstate the rest of the way to Needles. Needles is usually the hottest spot in the country in the summer. It was in the low 50's near Bagdad, but the temperature kept climbing as we approached Needles. The 71 degrees when we reached Needles was the warmest it had been all day for us.

We pulled into the Royal Garden Restaurant at 9 pm where two delightful ladies, Winnie and Gwenny, served us. The Chinese food was very good, but they were even better.

It wasn't the most exciting of days. Not even much to joke about. After being so enthusiastic about the Route 66 part of the trip, I was disappointed with today. No McDonald's; no Bono's Restaurant; no orange juice from the giant orange; no Hell's Angels; no Roy Rogers; no Dale Evans; no Trigger; no California Route 66 Museum; nothing left in Bagdad. I hope for a much more interesting day tomorrow.

Boz and I agreed that sometimes looking at the past can be sad.

Random Comments:

Week #5 begins. 35,887 on the odometer. Blue sky and sun shining, but 57 degrees. We were surprised to find it so cool here in Pasadena, California.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we've been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we've seen and done as well as about life in general.

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this web site. Other pages of interest include the running report of "vital statistics" on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you'd like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest and the full itinerary is shown.