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thehefnerSo I'm afraid my adventure on Route 66 has no great and spectacular ending. For one, I didn't see it all the way to Santa Monica, having skipped right to the hellish deathscape of the L.A. freeway system (man, there were more than a couple hellish deathscapes in this trip, weren't there?).
First, though, I woke up bright and early in the Kingman rest area to go see my next stop. I ended up getting lost in the limbo known as Lake Havasu City, but when I finally found it, I can't help but admit that it was impressive.
For there, in Lake Havasu City, Arizona... was London Bridge.
From RTUSA: It may not have stood out as the finest piece of engineering art when it spanned the Thames, but London Bridge is a marvelous sight in the middle of the Arizona desert. A replacement for a series of bridges that date back to medieval times, inspiring the children’s rhyme, “London Bridge Is Falling Down,” this version of London Bridge was constructed in the 1830s. When it was no longer able to handle the demands of London traffic, the old bridge was replaced by a modern concrete span and its stones were put up for sale in 1967.
Bought by property developer Robert McCulloch for $2.4 million, the 10,246 blocks of stone were shipped here and reassembled at a cost of another $3 million. After a channel was cut under the bridge to bring water from the Colorado River, the Lord Mayor of London flew in to attend the re-dedication ceremonies in October 1971; the bridge now stands as the centerpiece of a retirement and resort community that’s home to some 25,000 residents. There’s no admission charge to see this oddly compelling sight, its finely carved stonework standing in permanent rebuke to the tacky stucco, mock-Tudor souvenir shops lining the base of the bridge.
And here it is at a slightly different angle.
Last week,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
spacechild insisted that--to have a real adventure--I needed to not strictly follow RTUSA as a guide and just explore and use my own judgment. He's got a point, but the fact is, there is just *so* much out there, and you never know if something is going to be a gem or more likely a waste of precious time and money.
Without a guide or advance notice, there's no way of knowing whether a diner is going to have a particular specialty that blows everything else away, or if one cavern in Missouri is truly greater than any of the other thousand goddamn caverns in Missouri, just because it's got the most billboards along the highway. So for the vast majority of this trip, I stuck by RTUSA's guidance with little regret, or just drove on entirely.
But when I saw this trailer just outside of Needles, California... I knew that this was worth stopping and checking out on my own.
They sell honey, bee pollen, lip balm, etc, on the honor system, all products just sitting there unattended. I bought a few jars as housewarming presents for folks I'll be seeing along the way (including you, Laura: some honey for my... uh, hmm, what's something sweet? Syrup! You're my syrup, baby. Honey for my syrup!)
After that, it was a whole lotta driving through ghost towns along the desolate remains of Old 66.
A shoe tree:
My goal here was this place:
From RTUSA: Midway along the old road loop, Amboy (pop. 2) is synonymous with Roy’s Motel and Cafe (760/733-4263), a museum-worthy assembly of roadside architecture that has survived solely due to the willpower of its longtime lord and master, Buster Burris, who ran the place from 1938 (when he married the daughter of owner Roy Crowl) until 2000, when Buster died at the age of 92. In the late 1940s, Roy’s was the prime stop between Needles and Barstow, and as many as 90 people staffed the café, the motel, and the car repair shop, working around the clock to cater to the thousands of passing cars. Roy’s fell on hard times after the opening of I-40 in 1974, but the whole town—complete with a huge “Roy’s” sign, a classic late-1940s roadside café, a set of simple (but air-conditioned) motor court cabins, and a pair of gas pumps—hung on, and is now a photogenic reminder of the heyday of Route 66.
I didn't actually go in the cafe, as I had other lunch plans. And from there, I would see nothing but long stretches of nothing, interspersed with things like these:
Said lunch goal was to be found in the town of Newberry Springs:
The Bagdad Cafe, made semi-famous from this movie:
I ordered the CCH Pounder burger. Quite good!
Newberry Springs was to be my last stop along Old 66, so I managed to snap off a few more shots before stuff like this disappeared once I hit the expressways:
In summation for Route 66, I've gotta say that I'd love to do it all over again, maybe from the other direction, and in a more rugged (while simultaneously more fuel-efficient) vehicle. And this time, do it with somebody else along for the ride, a fresh set of eyes who can share the new experiences with me and make the old ones feel like new again.
It'd be wonderful to try years from now. My only wonder is how many of these places will still be around? The economy delivered the death blow to many of those places that survived the death of 66. I don't know what will be left to see should I ever revisit 66, to make up for all that I missed out the first time around, when I was still learning the ropes of the road and the camera.
But my adventure itself isn't over! Oh, far from it! In fact, we're barely one quarter into my ultimate journey. I've got a lot more to see and do before I return to DC mid-February, to prepare for the NYC Fringe Festival at the end of the month. My time here in L.A. is coming to a close, and Monday, I set out North to Seattle and Vancouver via coastal route 1. First stop, San Francisco (hint hint,kali921)!
But before I leave L.A., there's at least one stop I need to make in Beverly Hills. Here's hoping it pans out.
First, though, I woke up bright and early in the Kingman rest area to go see my next stop. I ended up getting lost in the limbo known as Lake Havasu City, but when I finally found it, I can't help but admit that it was impressive.
For there, in Lake Havasu City, Arizona... was London Bridge.
From RTUSA: It may not have stood out as the finest piece of engineering art when it spanned the Thames, but London Bridge is a marvelous sight in the middle of the Arizona desert. A replacement for a series of bridges that date back to medieval times, inspiring the children’s rhyme, “London Bridge Is Falling Down,” this version of London Bridge was constructed in the 1830s. When it was no longer able to handle the demands of London traffic, the old bridge was replaced by a modern concrete span and its stones were put up for sale in 1967.
Bought by property developer Robert McCulloch for $2.4 million, the 10,246 blocks of stone were shipped here and reassembled at a cost of another $3 million. After a channel was cut under the bridge to bring water from the Colorado River, the Lord Mayor of London flew in to attend the re-dedication ceremonies in October 1971; the bridge now stands as the centerpiece of a retirement and resort community that’s home to some 25,000 residents. There’s no admission charge to see this oddly compelling sight, its finely carved stonework standing in permanent rebuke to the tacky stucco, mock-Tudor souvenir shops lining the base of the bridge.
And here it is at a slightly different angle.
Last week,
spacechild insisted that--to have a real adventure--I needed to not strictly follow RTUSA as a guide and just explore and use my own judgment. He's got a point, but the fact is, there is just *so* much out there, and you never know if something is going to be a gem or more likely a waste of precious time and money. Without a guide or advance notice, there's no way of knowing whether a diner is going to have a particular specialty that blows everything else away, or if one cavern in Missouri is truly greater than any of the other thousand goddamn caverns in Missouri, just because it's got the most billboards along the highway. So for the vast majority of this trip, I stuck by RTUSA's guidance with little regret, or just drove on entirely.
But when I saw this trailer just outside of Needles, California... I knew that this was worth stopping and checking out on my own.
They sell honey, bee pollen, lip balm, etc, on the honor system, all products just sitting there unattended. I bought a few jars as housewarming presents for folks I'll be seeing along the way (including you, Laura: some honey for my... uh, hmm, what's something sweet? Syrup! You're my syrup, baby. Honey for my syrup!)
After that, it was a whole lotta driving through ghost towns along the desolate remains of Old 66.
A shoe tree:
My goal here was this place:
From RTUSA: Midway along the old road loop, Amboy (pop. 2) is synonymous with Roy’s Motel and Cafe (760/733-4263), a museum-worthy assembly of roadside architecture that has survived solely due to the willpower of its longtime lord and master, Buster Burris, who ran the place from 1938 (when he married the daughter of owner Roy Crowl) until 2000, when Buster died at the age of 92. In the late 1940s, Roy’s was the prime stop between Needles and Barstow, and as many as 90 people staffed the café, the motel, and the car repair shop, working around the clock to cater to the thousands of passing cars. Roy’s fell on hard times after the opening of I-40 in 1974, but the whole town—complete with a huge “Roy’s” sign, a classic late-1940s roadside café, a set of simple (but air-conditioned) motor court cabins, and a pair of gas pumps—hung on, and is now a photogenic reminder of the heyday of Route 66.
I didn't actually go in the cafe, as I had other lunch plans. And from there, I would see nothing but long stretches of nothing, interspersed with things like these:
Said lunch goal was to be found in the town of Newberry Springs:
The Bagdad Cafe, made semi-famous from this movie:
I ordered the CCH Pounder burger. Quite good!
Newberry Springs was to be my last stop along Old 66, so I managed to snap off a few more shots before stuff like this disappeared once I hit the expressways:
In summation for Route 66, I've gotta say that I'd love to do it all over again, maybe from the other direction, and in a more rugged (while simultaneously more fuel-efficient) vehicle. And this time, do it with somebody else along for the ride, a fresh set of eyes who can share the new experiences with me and make the old ones feel like new again.
It'd be wonderful to try years from now. My only wonder is how many of these places will still be around? The economy delivered the death blow to many of those places that survived the death of 66. I don't know what will be left to see should I ever revisit 66, to make up for all that I missed out the first time around, when I was still learning the ropes of the road and the camera.
But my adventure itself isn't over! Oh, far from it! In fact, we're barely one quarter into my ultimate journey. I've got a lot more to see and do before I return to DC mid-February, to prepare for the NYC Fringe Festival at the end of the month. My time here in L.A. is coming to a close, and Monday, I set out North to Seattle and Vancouver via coastal route 1. First stop, San Francisco (hint hint,
kali921)!But before I leave L.A., there's at least one stop I need to make in Beverly Hills. Here's hoping it pans out.
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Got your kicks
Date: 2008-11-22 10:45 pm (UTC)A sidekick always helps, though. I know lack of one is one of the things that always kept me from doing more road trips.
Can't wait to hear about the Northern leg... and some of the thousand stories that LA has to offer.
Re: Got your kicks
Date: 2008-11-23 12:38 am (UTC)