Our journey today took us approx. 122 miles from Barstow to Pasadena, home of Caltech, the world renowned institution for the study of Science & Technology. Unfortunately our time for sightseeing was rather limited as we had been lucky enough to secure two tickets for the 2pm tour of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena before we left the UK (these tickets can be really hard to come by so order early if you ever want to go).

The Route took us across the infamous San Andreas Fault (the cause of the Californian earthquakes) at Blue Cut. Not a lot to see as it looks pretty much the same as the rest of the countryside around there. Nevertheless its always better to pass through the USA’s nature hotspots quietly rather than be in the news as you were unfortunate to be there when something blows up (we were fortunate to miss the Oklahoma tornado as it passed through almost on our heels).

We also passed through San Bernardino home of the world’s first McDonalds – but as that had long gone we decided not to stop to have a look for the space it used to occupy.

So then it was onto the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The JPL is unique within NASA in that it grew out of rocket experiments being carried out by a group of Caltech Students (who by the way launched the USAs first satellite Explorer 1 in January 1958 sponsored by the US Army). It became part of NASA later that year but is still managed and staffed by Caltech employees.

When NASA took the JPL under its wing it changed its mission from development of rockets to the development of robotic payloads and the management of all unmanned space missions. Despite this change of mission the JPL name was retained.

During our tour, we stood in the mission control center where currently the JPL controls 21 spacecraft and 9 instruments conducting active missions (including the Mars mission – Curiosity) and saw the preparation of one of the new scientific experiments in the clean room that will be sent into space in the near future.
The JPL may not have the high profile of the Kennedy Space Centre but it is the area where most of the USA’s space flights will be focused for the foreseeable future. It is well worth a visit if your visiting California.

Well that’s it for today. Tomorrow sadly we make the last leg of our Route 66 Road Trip.

Today we returned to Arizona to make the trip between Oatman and Kingman that we bypassed yesterday.

Oatman is a small western town that hasn’t changed much in the last 100 or so years – well that is true if you can overlook the fact that most of the original buildings house the usual assortment of tourist junk , or souvenirs as the locals prefer to call it. That said if you take a step back from the windows you can get a good feel of what the town was really like when the west was being won. The main attractions now are the wild burros that wander freely around town looking for food from the tourists. Unfortunately we were a bit early for them as it appears that they don’t come into town until noon! Nevertheless we were pleased to be able to wander around before the streets got busy with tourists.

After our stop in Oatman we made our way over to Kingman using the road we bypassed yesterday. We were fortunate that being so early there was little traffic on the road so we had the opportunity to take is easy and to enjoy the view without much of the worry about how we were going to squeeze past oncoming traffic. The road is very tight in places with pretty steep drops so it is definitely not a place you want to meet a Winnebago. Luckily for us the only traffic we met in any of those really tight areas were Harleys.

This time round we didn’t stop in Kingman but headed straight back to the Interstate as we had decided to take a detour from Route 66 to see an old London landmark. Yes we headed off to Lake Havasu to take in London Bridge.

The bridge was bought as an attraction for a retirement town that was being built in the middle of the dessert. Despite the folklore that suggests the bridge was purchased in the belief that it was in fact Tower Bridge (mainly due to the line in the song “London Bridge is falling down”) the Americans insist that it is just that – folklore. Whatever is true, it has proved its worth and the retirement town took off and has expanded rapidly into a popular holiday destination. It was good to see the bridge in this desert setting but almost surreal to find the bridge surrounded by flocks of pigeons and house martins!

As we made our way to our final destination today – Barstow – we stopped off in the dessert to see the Bagdad Café that was made famous by the movies of the same name. It was fairly busy both outside and inside mainly with French tourists. Well to say it was something else to see would be overstating the obvious but not as you would imagine it. The French love it, if their reviews on TripAdvisor are to be believed, for the rest of us though it is a dump, the place was filthy, the cook and waitresses were grubby and dirty – in all not a place you would want to eat, just take a quick picture and move on.

Well that was it for the day, tomorrow we arrive at the penultimate stop of our Route 66 journey.

Woke early to catch the spectacular sunrise over the desert and behind the mesas, from our balcony. (Dawn had looked out during the night too, to see a field of stars; so many that she couldn’t recognise any constellations.) We possibly started watching a little too early (at 5.30) but when the sun finally burst over the distant horizon, it was so special, and a very different start to Bill’s 61st birthday.

Unfortunately, a breakdown of the hotel’s broadband meant that we didn’t see the other greetings he’d been sent on Facebook or by email until somewhat later in the day. Anyway we got up and breakfasted, then went for an hour and a half’s drive around a somewhat bumpy drive around the mesas. Again spectacular, and won’t be conveyed in photographs.

Then on the road again. We made our way, mostly down the interstate as there isn’t much of the original Route 66 left in these parts, until turning off for a trip through the Painted Desert and onto the Petrified Forest. Once more, spectacular scenery thanks to the geology of the area, although the forest was a little bit of a let down, as we had anticipated more than just some broken remnants of petrified tree trunks where most of the semi precious stones had already been removed.

Bill was suffering from caffeine withdrawal symptoms by now. So we made our way to Holbrook. Where we are staying in a wigwam (actually it is really a tepee albeit a concrete one). All the more authentic for the ’50s cars parked outside them all! Enjoyed a fried apple burrito (delicious) and coffee and a stroll and drive around town spotting the ‘remnants’ of the old Route 66.

Finally dinner at a popular Mexican café in town. Dawn chickened out from having anything with chili in it (a wise decision!) but Bill enjoyed a chicken chimichanga topped with a red chili sauce. Tomorrow we plan to stand on a corner!

Today brought us to one of the highlights of the holiday but not one of the Route 66 highlights. We took the first of our detours. This one was around 150 miles off the 66 but it was so worth it – Monument Valley!!

Even the route that took us to the valley was also something to see – vistas changed virtually every few minutes with each one trying to outdo the other. When we finally arrived at the View Hotel on the rim of the valley it looked like we were in for a thunderstorm. We checked into our room to find the curtains closed.

On opening them – what an incredible view. The panorama of Monument Valley is just stunning!

We considered going on an organised tour but decided in favour of taking a self guided walk around the West Mitten Butte- the nearest finger to the hotel. The walk was around 3.3 miles with much of the inclines like walking up and down sand dunes. It took us about 2 hours of fairly tiring walking to complete, but was worth the effort to see the formations from the valley floor, up close and from a number of different viewpoints.

Our first stop today was for photos at the only place on Route 66 where Route 66 running south to north crosses Route 66 running from east to west.

The original route used to run from Amarillo through Albuquerque to… Santa Fe (south to north due to political pressure) then on to Gallup. A couple of years later it was realigned to cut out Santa Fe providing a straighter east west road between Amarillo and Gallup and reduce the driving time between these two points by 4 hours.

The rest of the day was spent crossing the continental divide (see photo) and driving through some really spectacular countryside that invoked memories of the great John Wayne movies. Unfortunately no words or photos can do the scenery justice so you will need to experience it for real to appreciate it.

We arrived in Gallup early this afternoon, took a wander around the old town, following a map of murals and found another muffler man!  If we haven’t mentioned this before, the Americans like their public art, and we learned yesterday that many of the States insist that a small percentage of any building project funds must be spent on public art. So there are lots of murals, both old and new around in most towns, and other pieces of public art in parks, etc.

We spotted quite a lot of Route 66 signs around the town – some new but mostly from the roads heyday. We decided that we would return that evening to take photos of the neon lights. Unfortunately very few of them were actually alight, and several of those that were were not fully operational; disappointing…

A rare day of leisure, so we took the opportunity to get up later and at a leisurely pace! We first went to the old town, the site of the original Spanish settlement in New Mexico. A bit too touristy for our tastes, with lots of gift shops, etc. However, this was also the starting point for the Albuquerque Trolley tour. This turned out to be a most informative and entertaining tour of the city, with parts of the route going into less travelled neighbourhoods of the city, giving a greater appreciation of real Albuquerque, and all delivered by two enterprising local boys.

An interesting piece of trivia. The local baseball team is called the Albuquerque Isotopes. Nothing to do with the fact that Albuquerque has the National Nuclear Museum nor due to its proximity to Los Alamos where the first atomic bombs were developed. The team’s name actually came from the TV show “The Simpsons”. For an explanation of how this happened see
http://www.adobenido.com/blog/2010/albuquerque/baseball-in-albuquerque-and-springfields-isotopes/

Second piece of trivia. Microsoft was formed in Albuquerque but didn’t achieve fame and fortune until after it moved to Seattle. However, one thing Bill Gates has been keen to play down is that he was arrested for speeding etc. – for an interesting picture google “Albuquerque + Bill Gates + mugshot”.

In the afternoon we visited the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. This museum sets out the story of the development of the atomic age from early conception through the Manhattan Project (the development of the atomic bomb) and the Cold War (with the USSR) to nuclear power stations and provides insights into the personalities and politics behind the development of nuclear weapons.

Well that’s it for our day off – tomorrow it’s up early again as we head off to Gallup

On the way out of Amarillo today we travelled along Amarillo boulevard which is a treasure trove of rusting neon lights and derelict 50s & 60s motels and businesses. While this helps understanding of the life and times of Route 66, it also leaves you with a feeling of sadness as swathes of buildings in towns lie ruined and derelict with little prospect of regeneration.

Our first stop was a real icon of the 66 – it was of course the Cadillac Ranch with its 10 half buried Caddys. We were fortunate that it was still fairly early in the morning, as we were able to take pictures without having to avoid the two buses of school kids that turned up as we were leaving! Though they had thought things through better than we had, as they were all equipped with their own cans of spray paint.

Then we were on the road again, arriving at a milestone destination just around 10.30; the MidPoint Café. Yes we were exactly 1139 miles from our start point in Chicago, with 1139 miles to go. The Café also served up a great pecan and chocolate chip pie! Oddly enough we found ourselves sitting near to a trio of bikers, from Berkshire. Their Harley Davidson motor cycles did enhance photographs of the café. We came across them again later in the day when we stopped at the Hotrod museum in Santa Rosa.

We also followed Route 66 to one of the areas where it runs into a ghost town. Glenrio consists of 17 buildings only one of which is occupied today. Definite relics of 66’s heyday before it was bypassed in 1975. Unfortunately we saw no sign of its only occupant, Roxanne (Roxanne can be seen in Billy Connolly’s Route 66 programme if you are interested). Just past the last building the 66 turned into a mere dirt track. As our car was not built to travel across this we had to turn back and join the Interstate!

The scenery varied from scrub to sparse growth of anything, with flat landscapes punctuated with mesas, to more lush growth and some trees and even through mountains.

Our stop for the next two nights was Albuquerque often referred to as ABQ in signs and other directions, again it is a well spread out city. We tried to go to the Hard Rock Café for dinner, but as it was largely focused on the casino, without a proper restaurant, we had to settle for diner at the Route 66 Diner. A real live 1950’s diner with 50’s music and pictures on the walls and waitresses in traditional outfits and bobby socks.