Visiting Friends

This evening we went to visit friends (Karen & Charles Suri), had dinner at their home in Lakewood, a suburb south of LA.  Checking my map program it was only 29 miles from our hotel to their place and most of that was freeway.  I estimated 1 hour to go a bit under 30 miles – forgetting a) we would be driving between 5 and 6 p.m. and b) this is LA so doubling the time doesn’t cut it during commute or just about any other time.  Actually only took an extra 15 minutes as traffic was moving pretty good the farther we got from downtown LA.  “Pretty good” meaning we occasionally got up to the posted speed limit.

Had a nice dinner and good conversation.  It was nice catching up.

Welcome to California – LA Freeways

After walking around a bit on the Santa Monica Pier we decide it’s time to head for our hotel.  Didn’t want to take as long getting back across town so decided to take the freeway as we’d move much faster.  Took this photo, hopefully you can read the speedometer.

Welcome to California – can you say “three lane parking lot.”

End of the Route

Well we made it to the Santa Monica Pier, the western end of Route 66.  Based on the number of miles we had to travel from San Bernardino to the Santa Monica,  I figured we’d have lunch on the pier.  What I forgot is most of Route 66 runs on surface streets, so we ended up having a late lunch.  The first restaurant we came to was “Bubba Gumps” a seafood chain, but one we’d never been to, so decided to eat there – additionally they had an elevator that would get us from the parking lot level to the pier.  Food and service were good.  Here is a picture of us on the pier.

Route 66 in LA

Route 66 is not as well marked in LA as in other cities along the route, but every 3 or 4 miles there is a sign indicating you are on the Route.  We discovered that our son lives maybe a 100 yards off Route 66 as it runs along Sunset for a while before it switches to Santa Monica Boulevard.  Driving Santa Monica Boulevardis a slow process with all of the traffic and stop lights which don’t seem to be synchronized very well.  Can’t remember how many intersections I sat through a couple of green lights before we could make it across.

Did get this photo of an LA sign with a Historic Route 66 sign beneath it.

Wigwam Motel

As you head from San Bernardino towards Santa Monica on Route 66 you pass the Wigwam Motel, one of two remaining “Tepee” motels on the route.  The current owners have done a lot to refurbish the place and rooms rent for under $80.00.  We stopped and did a little souvenir shopping.

At the McDonald’s Museum we got to talking with a couple from Missioui who were also traveling this last portion of Route 66 (we had to wait for the museum to open).  He had gone to Triple A for maps but found they weren’t very detailed so wasn’t sure he would be able to follow Rt 66 to Santa Monica.  I showed him the map and book we had to give him some idea of how to get to the next stop, the Wigwam Motel.  We both ended up at the Wigwam the same time and they had copies of the book I had, so he picked himself up one.  I think I’ve mentioned before but we’ve run into a lot of nice people working their way along Route 66.

McDonald’s Museum – San Bernardino

Our first stop this morning was the McDonald’s/Route 66 Museum in San Bernardino.  This museum sits on the site of the original McDonald’s brothers hamburger stand that Ray Kroc visited and was impressed with their use of a simplified menu, but high volume.  Ray would buy the franchise rights and the rest is history.  Here is a photo, there wasn’t a lot of Route 66 stuff the connection was mainly that the restaurant was on Route 66.

Welcome to California – Smog?

 

 

This morning as we drove from Victorville to San Bernardino we got our first taste of smog, or possibly smokie haze from all the fires raging up and down the state. 

Welcome to California – We’re burning up for you.

Road Work – an observation

Not sure why, but Sandy and I got to talking about road construction as we have traveled.  Can’t think of a state where we didn’t have road construction, at least most of them actually had people working.  I say most, because although we had a lot of orange pylons and single lanes of traffic in Illinois, we never saw a worker.  While I’m still leaning towards they are crooks working a scheme to syphon off money, given the flooding problems during that time in Illinois it’s possible they had the road work crews handling other things.  However, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri had the same flooding, but they had people working on their roads which continues to make me think the guys in Illinois are working a scam.

I mentioned earlier that we’d run along a 100 or so miles of the old Route 66 Between Needles and Victorville.  Most of the road was pretty good, although there were a few stretches where you would actually want to drive the speed limit.  The posted limit is 55 mph, but found myself running along between 70-80, I didn’t pass any cars and only one truck, but was passed a couple of times.  I got the impression the speed limit isn’t as well enforced as the signs would want you to think.

Victorville California

We had planned to go to a place we’d seen on the Food Network, unfortunately like the place in Santa Fe, it is only open for breakfast and lunch, closed before we got into town.  So we went to plan B, something we’ve done a lot of today.  Plan B is my Zen approach to things - we’ll drive till a restaurant appears in front of the car that looks interesting, this sounded good to Sandy so off we went.  Turns out that as we were sitting at the stop sign to get onto the road in front of our hotel, across the street we see a steak joint called the “Steer & Stein”.  The parking lot was fairly full, so we figured it must be a pretty good place.  So our drive was probably about a 1/8 of a mile at most.  Good food, good service and a good price – looks like Sandy and I found a 10th restaurant we could both agree to add to our top 10.  As we didn’t get any photos of us at the museums today, took one in front of the restaurant.

 

 

After dinner we decided to go for a bit of a drive with the top down, partly to scout out this part of Victorville and partly to look for a gas station.  Prices are a lot cheaper in Victorville than Needles, but I’m still only going to be getting regular.

Welcome to California – Part 6: Victorville

We make it into Victorville driving Route 66 from Barstow, about 40 miles, a bit more twisty, but not a bad road.  Every once in a while we’d see a “housing development” not sure where people work who live out here or for that matter what they do.

We pull into Victorville and almost immediately find the California Route 66 Association Museum – But It’s only open Thursday – Sunday.

Welcome to California – Sorry we’re closed (also).