Previous Day: On To Kingman & Let's Win There
Goin' Back To Cali
We got up reasonably early and got our day started with breakfast from next door at JB's which has absolutely the best wheat toast anywhere on Earth.
It was much warmer than any previous morning of the trip but calm.
The Weather Channel on television and the National Weather Service online both warned of high winds across the Mojave Desert both in Arizona and California as well as put the area under a Red Flag Warning for high fire danger.
This might seem odd to you given we're talking about brush fire danger on a desert but given how much rain fell there earlier this past Winter along with the high winds predicted fire can propagate rapidly across a desert that has even sparse vegetation.
This was so impressively demonstrated by the Hackberry Complex in June, 2005, which burned over 70,000 acres of the Eastern Mojave Desert north of Goffs, CA, in eastern San Bernardino County.
By the time we hit the road the winds were blowing pretty good in Kingman, AZ.
After getting underway we took Route 66 out of town to the west which in Kingman is called Andy Devine Drive in honor of favorite son Andy Devine .
Heading out of the bottom of the canyon between Kingman and McConnico a large brown snake when shooting across the road in front of me.
Another such snake would pull the same stunt later in the morning in the California part of the Mojave Desert and come so close to getting run over I would be forced to take evasive maneuvers.
After getting on I-40 at McConnico we shot back into California which felt nice, especially after having accomplished so much on this trip and there being no feeling of having not accomplished much as I've sometimes felt in the past.
Over the Desert....
By the time we crossed back over the Colorado River and into California the winds were really ripping and the sky was very hazy in that Summery sort of way this area tends to have which leaves the sky looking rather brassy which seemed odd in April.
We passed through Needles on the interstate and I remembered something a high school classmate of mine who lives up the road in Bullhead City told me to wit the folks in that area refer to Needles as "Needless" to which I have to agree.
It does possess a really cool old train station though which deserves to be brought back to its former glory.
At the junction of I-40 and US-95 we jumped off the interstate as US-95 piggy-backs Route 66 which we follow as much as possible across the Mojave Desert.
A short ways up from the interstate is a roadside jerky-selling operation which has much signage in the area celebrating their "fresh jerky".
A short ways up the road from there is the location of where the late comic genius Sam Kinison met the maker he so often flippantly referred to in his stand-up act.
A bit further up and we turn off of US-95 onto National Trails Highway which is the modern name given to Route 66.
From there we took it through Goffs and Essex and Chambless and a short ways west of Chambless we began encountering some sort of bicycling endeavor with one of the riders having this double-decker bicycle contraption that had the pedals up where the bike seat would normally go and then another bike body was welded atop the bottom bike frame it appeared from what I could see going by at highway speed.
A steady stream of these people continued on the way westward towards Amboy where the event appeared to be based.
A bit further west I saw another rider on one of those double-decker bicycles and continue to wonder how they mount them and first get started going.
Several years ago somebody thought it would be cute to tie a pair of shoes to a desert tree by the south side of Route 66 east of Amboy which caused many other folks to do so filling up that tree and now other Shoe Trees have emerged in the general area of Amboy along Route 66.
On this day I noticed a new quirkily-themed tree: a bra tree.
There were all sorts of sizes and colors and styles and this tree is located on the north side of the road just east of Amboy.
Just west of Amboy and east of Amboy crater another high-speed desert lizard crossed the road in front of me.
If got to the east-bound side and froze with indecision but was safe. That little bugger was actually standing up on all fours, as opposed to crawling which seemed so unusual to me given the types of lizards I'm used to dealing with on the Central Coast.
We got back on the interstate at Ludlow so mom could use the lava bed rest area just east of Newberry Springs.
After we stopped there we got back onto Route 66 at Fort Cady Road.
I noticed that the eccentric desert rat who used to live on the north side of Route 66 just west of that intersection and sold rocks and junk is now gone and the place looks abandoned.
As I recall Huell Howser's interviewed that guy or somebody else did in another documentary on the area.
I fear he may be dead which makes me also wonder about the current condition of the other even more eccentric desert rat in that community known as "General Bob" who hangs out at the Baghdad Cafe.
By this point is was clear the winds were howling in the Barstow area to our west given all the sand and dust in the air to the west of our location.
By the time we did our usual shunpiking job around Barstow to the east and north via Route 66 to Daggett-Yermo Road to Yermo Road to I-15 at Fort Irwin Road to Old Highway 58 to Highway 58 we were in howling winds with occasional sand storms.
The pungent smell of upwind milk cow yards was rather jarring at times.
When we passed Hinkley west of Barstow it meant more this trip than ever before as now I know that this is where that Erin Brockovich story happened.
Just about every time I go through Kramer Junction I wonder when they will reroute Highway 58 around that horrible intersection.
With increasing frequency and intensity when I go by the borax quarry at Boron I feel this urge to visit their visitor center .
Lord willing one of these days I shall.
Given how bad the winds were particularly in the western half of the Mojave Desert I expected the Mojave area to be the worst as it usually is but luckily not on this day.
....And Through the Pass
Over the Tehachapi Pass the haze was not as bad but there were stringers and tendrils of smokey-looking haze or dust which led me to suspect there was a brush fire upwind but over the phone I got confirmation that was not the case so it was just weird-looking dust, perhaps ashes from burn areas.
We got off Highway 58 at Highway 223 and stopped in Arvin for a hard-earned break which was nice.
The grasses in the field next to the parking lot at the county library we were parked at are all brown now.
From there we headed on home following the usual route (223-5-58-46-41).
Heading up I-5 we encountered numerous dust storms as the winds raked newly-plowed fields.
At one point thick dust was blowing across the interstate which reminded me of that tragic incident on November 29, 1991, a bit further north along this same highway but between Coalinga and Los Banos in which folks drove too fast through similar dust storms and a series of fiery accidents ensued in which 17 people were killed, many of them burning to death and other surviving with horrible burns.
After that not much else happened of note accept for the beautiful flowers still evident even as the sun was setting as we passed through the rolling hills between Shandon and Creston along Highway 41 with lupines now dominating the poppies and fiddle necks that so dominated the landscape some weeks ago.
I was a great relief to make it home and find all was well with my cat and my household as I never take anything for granted when I drive away.
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