Oatman - Barstow
As we ate our breakfast the street outside began to fill up with tourists (notably, a large group of Frenchmen on Harleys) and wild burros. After eating we bought some alfafa horse food, and fed a couple of burros like the good tourists we are.
We kept some food behind in the hope of finding some burros on the road away from Oatman - but we didn't see any.
On the way out, we saw evidence of what the locals must do for kicks: this information board in the middle of the desert was riddled with bullet holes - some neatly punching straight through the metal frame.
At last we got to see a patch of desert that was all sand and no plants.
[NB: scribbling this diary, I discovered the digital camera has a screensaver in preview mode!]
We took a detour from Route 66 to visit Lake Hasavu City, where London Bridge has been moved to. It's bizarre -- they have an "English Village". It's like a home away from home... except baking hot.
Back on 66, we hit Needles, and stopped briefly to see if it was as hot as it's said to be. It was.
Between Needles and Barstow there's a long, long stretch of the old route away from the Interstate.
For 20 miles or so, the side of the road was lined with graffiti formed in pebbles on the sand. We left our own, although in the heat I could barely muster "Leam" from the intended "Leamington". I hadn't even considered "Royal Leamington Spa"...
We saw quite a few roadside businesses with cool signs etc. - some long dead, some still open, some still open but not today...
We were quite hungry when we reached Roy's Motel and Cafe, but it was closed for the day.
We passed through Baghdad, the setting for the book and film Baghdad cafe. There's nothing there. Nothing. This tree used to be in the middle of the main street.
In places along this route, especially around Amboy, there's a lot of volcanic lava. It looks like broken up tarmac from a distance. We picked up a small piece as a souvenir.
In Newberry Sprins we saw the Baghdad Cafe. This is the building used in the film, set in Baghdad several miles up the road. Newberry Springs is much closer to the Interstate, which must been appealing to the filmmakers.
We ended up in Barstow (where the drugs started to kick in in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas -- but they were driving East) in an Economy Inn which hasn't been finished. Everything's fine and in working order - but the doors are bare aluminium, and there's bare plasterboard on the outside.
We had a swim in the pool, which was very refreshing in the heat. Drying off in the motel room, there was an advert on TV for an ISP, featuring the sign from Roy's Motel and Cafe.
Barstow is a metropolis! It has two cinemas, one of which is a drive-in. Scared of biters after our last drive-in experience, we went to see The Cell in the normal indoor cinema. Easily the most imaginative film to come out for years -- but we're both now deeply disturbed individuals and we're scared of leaving the motel room for fear of what we'll do. Still, I'm hungry and they sell tacos out there. Time to go.