So we started Day 2 by driving around Needles a bit, finally landing at the Route 66 Museum. It’s near a train depot and a Harvey Hotel site. Needles is a railroad town, running more than 90 trains daily, most 2-3 miles long. We could hear several from our hotel room, but it wasn’t enough to keep us awake. As we continued on our road trip it was interesting to see trains along the road and wonder if they originated from or passed through Needles.
The plan was to take 66 all the way into Barstow, but on our way to Goffs, the road was blocked (due to a washout from flooding), and we had to backtrack to I40 via Homer which cost us about 45 minutes. The Route 66 app didn’t notify us of the road closure, but we got back on track and made it to Essex, where we saw the highest fuel prices of the entire trip. Fortunately, we’d refueled in Kingman, AZ.
We rejoined Route 66 on our way to Chambless and Amboy. Again, the road to both was partially closed for roadwork and more flood repairs, but we were allowed to pass on the one-lane road along with many other cars (presumably on the same trek). This was another closure/restriction the app didn’t notify us of, but we decided to give it a try (as it wasn’t completely closed) and made our way into Amboy and Roy’s Motel and Café. There’s really not much to the ‘town’ of Amboy except a post office, church, and Roy’s. The motel no longer offers rooms, but there is a gift shop, and a ‘café’ (they had hot dogs, food bars, cold sandwiches, and some cold drinks). The fuel pumps work, although it was expensive.
Next stop was Amboy Crater, which is visible from Roy’s, but worth the drive to the outlook. From there we drove through a series of small towns that were barely blips on the map until we stopped before Ludlow to take some photos of the Route 66 emblem on the road. Getting back on I40, we headed originally towards Barstow, but learned the museum was closed on Tuesday.
From there we traveled to Victorville, taking I15 south. Again, the plan was to visit the museum but it was closed on Tuesday, so we took a side trip to Hesperia, my original hometown. We drove through the city – which was little more than a speck when I grew up there – and navigated to my first home, near the golf course. I also drove to Hesperia Christian School, now a large campus and one of several schools in Hesperia. They even have mass transit and school buses! We drove back to Victorville and had a late lunch/early dinner, before heading into San Bernardino to see one of my favorite parts of this Route 66 trip!
The Wigwam Motel in Rialto/San Bernardino, California was one of several villages built in the 1930s. The “Cozy Cone” from the Disney movie “Cars” was inspired by the Wigwam villages.
It had been a long day and we were tired, so we made our way to the Foghorn Harbor Inn, Marina del Ray ready to rest for the night!
This is the point I realized that my VISA card had been compromised; the card declined at lunch in Victorville, but I thought it was a swipe/chip error, not fraud. When the deposit for the hotel declined as well, we put it on the debit card (we’d prepaid for the room), had dinner, got settled in and I checked the account online. Thankfully, BECU put a hold on the account after four suspect charges on the card. But that’s a story for another post…
Safe Travels and God’s blessings!
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Paige's Place 