Day 1 (3rd Feb 2001)

Start at Ocean and Santa Monica.

Emily and CK at the trailhead. We did not realize the street signs are so reflecting. However, you can still vaguely see the street names here.

Also at the trailhead. Route 66 is also known as the Will Rogers Freeway. (For non-western movie fans: Will Rogers is a famous movie star.)

Starting from Santa Monica, Route 66 follows Santa Monica Avenue through Beverly Hills and Howllywood, then Sunset Blvd southwards towards LA downtown. Near downtown we are supposed to turn into Figueroa Street, which we could not find. We ended up taking the Pasadena Highway (Hwy-110), and took the Figueroa exit. Figueroa took us to the Colorado Blvd bridge to Pasadena.

Pasadena (Colorado and Allen)

CK was living in Pasadena, near Allen and Foothill (2 blocks from Colorado Blvd). Naturally we spent the night there.
The next morning was spent on packing. We resume the trip after having lunch.

Gas: 8.3 G x $1.7 / G = $14.16 Route 66 transversed the Foothill area, following Colorado Blvd into Huntington Dr and Foothill Blvd into San Bernardino.

San Bernardino

Entering I-15

Exiting I-15 at Kenwood.

On the small Cajon Blvd, we found these huge Route 66 signs painted on the road.

Rejoining I-15 after 5 miles, exiting again at 7th Street, Route 66 follows the National Trails Highway northwards through the Mojave Desert to Barstow.

Barstow

Route 66 runs next to I-40 through the small towns of Daggett, Newberry Springs, and Ludlow. These small towns are really small. Abandoned by its inhabitants (who moved to more prosperous and livable places), these tiny towns are the leftovers of history. Typically, their total architecture consist of one or two gas stations, a cafe/convenience store and maybe a motel.

After Ludlow, Route 66 enters the segment usually known as the "Old Route 66 Loop", where it deviates from I-40 and follows the railroad tracks through a line of even smaller towns. Of course, historically what happened is just the opposite: these towns blossomed along the railroad and Route 66, but after I-40 was built along a straighter path and bypassing these towns, they lost the traffic and withered due to the lack of business. Today most towns on the Old Route 66 Loop are ghost towns (population=0), while the most significant stop is ...

Amboy

With total population = 2, Amboy is famous for the Roy's Cafe, "the most photographed site in the Mojave Desert". Unfortunately, it was dark when we reach Amboy, with both the cafe and the gas station closed. It did not prevent us from taking some pictures, however.

Essex

Dinner Break
Gas: 6.9 G x $2.6 / G = $17.91. Is this the most expensive gas in the nation?

Resume trip at Essex

After Essex, Route 66 continued along the railroad tracks through Fenner and Goffs to US-95 South, which rejoins I-40 ten miles west of Needles, the last big city on the west side of the Colorado river.

Rejoin I-40

Entering Arizona (and swtiching to Mountain Time)

In our excitement of entering Arizona, we have forgotten to take the first exit after crossing the Colorado River, which would have taken us to "one of the most demanding, desolate, and awesomely satisfying stretches" (according to the tour book) of Route 66, climbing through the desert along the River. In retrospect it may not be that much of a loss; in the night we would probably miss all the desolate and awesomely satisfying views, so this 50-mile stretch will probably be simply demanding. In any case we simply took I-40 to ...

Kingman

where we spent the night. We were originally planning to stay in the Quality Inn, which has one of the largest collection of Route 66 memorabilia. Unfortunately is was fully booked (some function seemed to be taking place). We ended up stying in the Hill top Motel ($35) a block down the route.