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motozen66 · 10 years ago

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Day 33 - 10/17/14

I woke up in Barstow and went to a local Mexican place for breakfast. This is definitely the most Mexican food I've eaten in my entire life. I was never a huge Mexican food fan before and I'm not sure if I am anymore after this trip, but when in the southwest...

After breakfast, I decided to go back to Newberry Springs to see the Bagdad Cafe since it was closed last night.

The main street in Barstow was 66 but I wasn't sure if it went all the way back to Newberry Springs. I looked on Google Maps and it appeared that it may. So I started to follow the road east out of town. I was leaving the Barstow limits and entering an industrial section. I made one left turn and ended up at the check point gates of a U.S. Marine facility.

There was a cop at the gate. I pulled up to him and said "Hello." He was cordial and asked me where I was going. I explained I was following 66. He said this is a military facility and he can't let me pass. He also said, I had to take off my GoPro camera and put it away since I can't film military installations.

So I had to take off my gloves, turn the bike off, open the side case and slide the GoPro off my helmet. He also had to check my ID. He then told me to go back on the I-40 and take the next exit to get to Newberry Springs. I could make a U-turn past the gate but he was keeping my ID until I was on the exit side of the gate. I swung around and he gave my ID back and gave me directions onto 40.

So after a few miles on 40 east, I took the exit and got on a rideable stretch of 66. It's a good thing I didn't attempt to ride into Barstow on 66 last night since I probably would've ran into the other side of the Marine base and had to be turned away back to 40. And with me being tired and hungry last night, I probably would've been more grumpy with the cop at the gate than this morning.

It was about 15 miles on 66 from the I40 exit to the Bagdad Cafe in Newberry Springs. I only know of the Bagdad Cafe from the movie and truth be told, I've never even seen the movie. But I figure any sort of cafe/bar out here deserves a stop.

There isn't much on this stretch of 66. It's hard to believe this is in California.

About 20 minutes later, I see the cafe. It has a weird Polynesian look to the building, at least to my eyes.

It's a full functioning cafe. There were a few locals inside having lunch. And a tourist couple from Belgium. The owner asked me if I wanted something to drink. I wasn't hungry enough to order lunch so I glanced at the menu on the board and asked if they had anything besides soda or beer. He offered up lemonade. It was watery but at least I bought something from them. He said "feel free to take photos."

This place is clearly a tourist destination.

And tourists from all over the world.

I had a chat with the couple from Belgium. Their English was pretty decent. They said this place is quite famous. I asked if it was from the movie and the guy said, he has never seen the movie. Actually, he wasn't sure why it was famous but many Europeans know the Bagdad Cafe. They were quite surprised when I told them that most Americans have never heard of the Bagdad Cafe.

After my watery lemonade, it was time to get back on 66 and head back to Barstow to see a few sites. The one major 66 attraction in Barstow is the Mother Road Museum.

It is indeed another museum dedicated to the history of 66. But what makes this one special is the building it's in. It's in a former Harvey House. Imagine the old days when you stepped off the train and you walked into this building for a meal and a night's stay.

There's also a train museum around the back of the Harvey House. I didn't go in but you can still see all the trains outside.

There's another place that I wanted to visit before leaving Barstow -Tom's Certified Welding and Machine Shop.

While not technically a Route 66 stop, it was the next town over and while the online guide app didn't show any photos, it said it was worth a stop. I rode a few local roads across a small bridge into a weird part of town that was a bit industrial and also residential. The road curved around bend and after I went around the bend, I could see why Tom's was worth a stop.

If you love old signs like I do, this is a pilgrimage.

I decided to stay overnight at another Wig Wam Motel in San Bernardino. Even though I already had a Wig Wam experience back in Holbrook, AZ, I thought another stay may be a bit repetitive. But then I came to my senses, staying in a concrete Wig Wam twice in my life would not be repetitive but twice the fun.

So San Bernardino was about 95 miles away. Not too far but there were a few stops in between so I would probably get there by sun down.

Route 66 in CA is also known as the National Trails Highway. So I followed the Trails Highway west about 30 miles just past Helendale to this amazing gem of a place:

Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch.

One day, Elmer Long took his dad's bottle collection from decades ago and started to make these trees from them. Most of the trees have some sort of decoration on top.

My favorite:

You can hear the story straight from the man himself - (not my video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYvTjbR-eBI

While the Bottle Ranch is on private property, when I arrived, the gate was opened and a sign said welcome. I called out "Hello" a few times but got no reply. There was some weird generator looking machine running via an extension cord that led inside the house in the back of the property (I wish I had taken a photo of that little machine). So basically, they just open the up to the public with no admission fee. I did find a donation box and I was happy to give them $20 to keep this place going.

The Bottle Ranch is just another amazing place to see along this wacky Route 66.

After twenty minutes of walking around the Bottle Ranch, I hopped back on my bike and headed west to Victorville.

Victorville was about 15 miles west of the Bottle Ranch. It was a small non-descript town, one of those that you would pass right by and wouldn't even bother to stop. But for me, there was another 66 museum in Victorville.

There was an older gentleman who volunteers inside the museum and we had a few chats about his family moving to California from Oklahoma. A real Okie migration story. Interesting to note the other visitors were a group of three young Aussies.

The museum wasn't very big and I didn't spend too long here. After 30 minutes or so, I was back on the road.

Here's where I had the most troubling staying on 66. I left the museum and promptly lost track of 66. I know that I wanted to take the Cajon Pass thru the mountains into San Bernardino. So I just headed into that general direction. Somehow I ended up on the highway via some detour that went around a mountain. I found an exit that said 66 and somehow ended up pretty close to the Cajon Pass.

I did have one dumb moment where made a left instead of a right and went up a pretty steep dirt path, realized that wasn't the right way and then stopped on a 45 degree incline. Even with my front brake squeezed tight, I was slowly sliding backwards down the dirt road. I gently eased off the front brake and slid myself down and turned the handlebars gently so I was able to turn myself around and go down the hill forward.

I got myself back on the right direction was voila! The Cajon Pass. It was around 4:30 and everyone was taking the pass towards to highway to go home and I was the only one heading into opposite direction into the mountains.

While the Cajon Pass wasn't the highest elevation or the most scenic, it was still very beautiful and fun. It was also very challenging due to some very tight turns on narrow residential streets at 40 mph limit. After a few turns and curves in an residential area, I saw a horse crossing sign and though here? Lo and behold, around the next block was a dude riding his horse on the side of the street.

There was one straightaway at 40mph then I saw a15 mph sign up ahead with two 90 degree turns, one right and one left, within ten feet of each other.

I think the Cajon Pass is around 20 miles. At the end of it, I went thru some industrial looking areas on my way to the Wig Wam Motel in San Bernardino. About fifteen miles after the Cajon, I arrived at the Wig Wam. It was interesting to compare it with the one in Arizona. These Wig Wams had air conditioners while the ones in Arizona had heaters.

Wig Wams and palm trees!

I had one more stop to make to finish the day. I was going to have dinner at a Juan Pollo - the chicken joint. If you remember from Amboy, the owner of the town, Albert Okura is also the owner of the Juan Pollo chain. There was one store just seven miles away and I figured it was worth a stop to patronize a patron of Route 66.

I got their half chicken plate and brought it back to my wig wam. Here's something I learned on this trip - if you pack your side case properly, you can fit a cup of soda even with a flimsy lid in it and ride it back to your wig wam without spilling a drop. By the way, the chicken was good.

#barstow #bagdadcafe #newberrysprings #harveyhouse #motherroadmuseum #toms #bottletreeranch #victorville #cajonpass #juanpollo #66 #/chrono

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