Route 66 Day 16 November 6, 2019

It was easy to get up and get going this morning. There was no need to keep snuggling under the covers. The air was warm and the sun was warm. There have been days recently where the sky is blue but the air is cold, and the warmth of the sun barely makes a difference. But today was different and it was also the last day of travelling Route 66.

There was the morning debriefing, but I missed it because I was trying to find the address of my friend who I will be visiting in upstate New York. She's not a casual acquaintance. Susan and I have been friends since I was nine, and what makes her even more special is that her birthday is on the same day as mine, except that she was born a year later than me - consequently she is a year younger than me. We first met when I was living in the US in 1967. We've stayed in touch for the last 52 years - well nearly.

There was a period where we fell out of touch. She moved and I was a terrible correspondent. But I decided to try and keep our conversation going. I wrote to her at the address I had for her. The post mistress at the letter's destination knew Susan, and knew that she could be contacted through her sister who still lived locally. So, my letter was passed on to Leonie, who sent it to Susan who was living in Anchorage, Alaska. Susan wrote back to me, and I have never let her lose contact with me again!

The things is, I only had Susan's postal address. I left Australia quite unprepared for my intended reunion with her for our birthdays. I didn't even have her phone number! While Jenny and I were having breakfast at the Diner, I asked the lady who was serving us if there was such a thing as Directory Assistance in the USA. She suggested that I should use the internet to look up White Pages. When Jenny and I got back to the hotel, Jenny attended the morning brief while I paid White Pages to give me the information I was looking for. I was amazed about what $20 bought in terms of the information I could find out about Susan. Not only did it tell me what her current phone number is, but also her previous phone numbers. It also told me her address as far as the White Pages knew it (which, it turns out, wasn't correct), Susan's age, her family members and their ages and addresses; and then Susan's credit rating, any outstanding fines and her police record (of which she has nothing to report). It freaked me out. There is no such thing as privacy these days - and anyone can find out potentially embarrassing information about you! Anyone!

Apparently, I had been nominated for Dick of the Day again - twice! Once for leaving my medication behind, and once for going down the wrong track when we tried to got to Hackberry. Jenny was also nominated (hee hee) - for allowing me to go down the wrong track. I hate schemes where people are penalised for making innocent mistakes. I believe people should be praised for doing the right thing, or for a random act of kindness. That would make the world a better place.

Morning briefing over, and address and phone number found, it was time to hit the road.
 
The first stop was the Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Centre in Goffs, California on the edge of the Mojave Desert. It was a stop on Route 66 until 1931 when a more direct road opened between Needles and Essex. Goffs was also home to workers of the nearby Sante Fe Railroad.

Study the Past

The entrance to Goff is a drive through some interesting, almost artistic installments.
  

The piece de resistance

This bus was riddled with bullet holes and I was really worried that there was a sinister story connected to it. Fortunately, I was wrong. This heap of rusted metal was abandoned sometime around 1984 along the Old Mojave Road, within what was to become the Mojave National Preserve. Noone is sure how or why it was left out there. It has been shot up, rolled over and righted several times. The old school bus became a quirky roadside attraction, developing its own cut-like following of countless travellers. In 2018 it was removed from the Mojave Road by the Mojave Desert Land Trust and it sat in their parking lot in the community of Joshua Tree until April of this year. It now has a permanent home in the Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Centre in Goffs, closer to its original home.

  

A historic schoolhouse, built in 1914, became almost totally deteriorated by the early 1980's, but has since been renovated to its original plans by the Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association.  This was a real step back in time for me. I remembered sitting in seats just like these when I went to school in the US in 1967. I also loved that a piano was essential classroom equipment back in the day. The schoolhouse and grounds now house a museum primarily specialising in the area's mining history and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
   
After visiting the Acoma people, I know that the tortoise is a symbol of long life in the Native American culture. I was particularly interested in the tribute being made to the Desert Tortoise, and after checking out Wikipedia I found out some interesting information about it:

The desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii), is a species of tortoise native to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of the southwestern United States. It is distributed in western Arizona, southeastern California, southern Nevada, and southwestern Utah. The specific name agassizii is in honor of Swiss-American zoologist Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz. The desert tortoise lives about 50 to 80 years; it grows slowly and generally has a low reproductive rate. It spends most of its time in burrows, rock shelters, and pallets to regulate body temperature and reduce water loss. It is most active after seasonal rains and is inactive during most of the year. This inactivity helps reduce water loss during hot periods, whereas winter brumation (a term used to describe the hibernation like state that cold-blooded animals go into during very cold weather. On the other end of the spectrum is aestivation which provides a way for reptiles to handle extremely hot temperatures) facilitates survival during freezing temperatures and low food availability. Desert tortoises can tolerate water, salt, and energy imbalances on a daily basis, which increases their lifespans.

There were different species of cactus growing there - they were beautiful and prickly!

There was actually lots to see and admire, but as usual there wasn't enough time to see it all, and we had to ht the road again.

  


  
The Mojave National Preserve is vast! At 1.6 million acres, it is the third largest National Park in the USA and encloses the Providence Mountains State Recreation Area.
       
We drove past the natural features of the Kelso Dunes. I was wondering where the ocean was. The sands were that white. We also drove past the defunct railroad depot and ghost town of Kelso.
 
The ever active railway system keeps moving millions of tons of freight. Some of the trains are rellly long!
 

 

Photographic evidence of the Soccer Mums overtaking a Muscle Car

We made a little detour to Roy's Cafe and Motel in Amboy, California.  While we were there we saw a plane land on the road - something that is apparently a regular occurence.

  

Down the road a little way was an inactive volcano that was apparently 10,000 years old. I heard a story about a group of teenagers who decided to play a trick on the townsfolk One night they went down to the dead volcano and lit a big bonfire in the middle of it. The poor residents thought the volcano had come back to life, and the teenagers got a huge laugh.

  

  

  

This section was a long drive. We went past a small settlement after we crossed the railway line.

  

   

As we drove, we started to see the occasional Joshua Tree. 

  

  

  

The impressive Joshua Tree forest cover parts of the Mojave National Preserve.

  

Suddenly the Dale pulled off the road, a signal to everyone behind him to pullover too. He's seen a huge tarantula spider walking across the road. 

 

A few of the guys took turns picking it up. There's no way I would have done that!

  
  
This was real desert country, and off in the distance we could see land that had absolutely nothing growing on it.
   
And then some civilisation...
  
We were at Primm formerly known as State Line, the border between California and Nevada. It sits on Ivanpah Dry Lake, which extends to the north and south of the town which is a precursor for what we were about to see in Las Vegas. Nevada takes its name from the Spanish word meaning "snow clad". Inside the shopping centre we were visiting we had the opportunity have some lunch at the food court and shop at the outlets. The shopping Centre was actually very quiet, but there were artists busily at work

   

The 39 mile drive into Las Vegas was a hoot and scary at the same time. 

  
There was jostling for position about who was going to be the first behind Dale to drive into Las Vegas.
  
  
Lots of changing lanes, and overtaking ...
  
  
The amount of traffic on the road was increasing the closer we got to Las Vegas
   
   
We started to see some really interesting buildings too!
  
  
We'd reached our hotel for the next two nights - the Westin Hotel and Spa. We parked our cars and cleaned everything out of them. We had about 30 minutes to ourselves before the driver of each vehicle assembled for the last time to take the cars back to the rental agencies.

With a population of over two million residents, and with thousands of visitors in the city for the different shows on offer, the traffic is chaotic all day and all night. Driving back to the airport was a real test of my driving skills, but I'm pleased to report that nothing untoward happened as I crossed several lanes of traffic to be able to get off the main drag when the right time came.

Finally, I parked the car for the last time, and did one last check to make sure we'd got everything. Sure enough, there were the two John Steinbeck books we'd bought tucked away in the pocket behind the driver's seat. We only managed to read two chapters of The Grapes of Wrath because the scenery outside the car as we were driving was ever changing and breathtaking. There were no boring stretches. The books will be read, just not as we were doing Route 66 as we originally intended.

When I got back to the hotel, Jenny was ready to get out on the town. She was so excited to get down to The Strip which was only a block away from the hotel. First we needed to have a bite of dinner. Norm said he would join us. We had some Asian food - not a patch on what we get in Australia. Then we started walking on the strip ...
 
This is a shop entirely dedicated to sugar!!

Las Vegas is totally over the top ... and not necessarily in a good way. I needed a break from the frenetic pace, so I was a bit of a party pooper for Jenny, and just wanted to get back to the hotel for a rest after a big day. The hotel room was peaceful and cool, and it didn't take long to fall into a deep sleep.