Route 66 - California!

Andy and the Pacific!

The final state on the official Route 66 trek is California. Upon crossing the border, we drove through some really, really, hot, as in 114 degrees, heat. We passed through the tiny town of Barstow, which is tucked in the middle of the scariest mountains I have ever driven on since Alaska, where I took this:



And then passed by this old volcano:



That evening, we made it to the very end, in one piece, and lived to tell the tale! We reached the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Monica Pier kind of late, so we saw it quickly just to touch home base, got dinner at a great Indian restaurant a block away, and then sought lodging at the Pacific Sands Motel, which was right across the street from the pier. The decor left something to be desired, and I know for a fact it has been at least since the mid 80's that anything in that room has been replaced. How do I know this? I usually draw something on the bottoms of the drawers of the places where I spend the night to mark that I have been there, and for the first time in over a decade of doing this, I ran into another signature... Jill & Robert from May 2, 1987. Yeah. I had to share my drawer space with them. But that's okay... I wonder where they are now? I drew a picture of Andy's running shoes on my half of the drawer on July 8, 2008.

The next morning we wandered around the pier and I took these:











Then we checked out of the motel and drove up Route 1, where I took these:





We found a place to camp along the beach, which was awesome because we could walk to the ocean and then retreat to our tent.

Amy:



Andy:





Later that evening it got cold, so we lit a campfire and I got to wear my new (used) jeans and lime green pumas that I picked up at a Goodwill store near the pier. We then took lots of photos with our respective cameras. I posted a few at the beginning of my 66 posts of me by the fire, as well as of Josh and Amy. This one of Andy taken with my Holga was also from that same session.



The next morning we woke up and headed for Las Vegas, which will be the next post in this installment: Nevada!