RV Trip on Route 66--California to Arizona (Day 1)
Claremont, California to Laughlin, Nevada October 5, 2020
It has been over a month that we took a short trip to the coastal towns of Pismo Beach and Morro Bay. We were ready to explore other parts of the country as we continued our stay-at-home routine. We just wanted to get out in a safe and secure manner, hopefully, without having to deal with the crowd or getting too close to others.
We have been thinking about a trip along the old Route 66 which we have not done all these years. Yes, we do live near a part of Hwy 66 that runs through the foothill towns that is mainly Foothill Boulevard in the San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire. Almost 50 years ago, when I first arrived in Los Angeles I was on Hwy 66 the first day because it was where my college is located. The address of our campus was Highway 66 at Citrus Avenue. Even though I have lived near Route 66 most of my life, I have never traveled along this historic highway that runs between Chicago and Los Angeles. This would be a good opportunity for us to see at least part of the Mother Road before things disappeared.
This is going to be a 10-day trip in our motorhome. As I've said before, having the motorhome is like taking the house with us. It should be as safe as staying inside our home. We plan on staying away from crowds, protect ourselves with masks and sanitize as much as possible. Hopefully, we will come back in one piece.
Our route will be from the L.A. to Flagstaff, Arizona. A small section of the Mother Road.
For the first day, our route should only take about three and a half hour, but since we will be stopping along the way, it will be a couple of hours longer than planned.
As we drove near Barstow, we stopped at the Lenwood Outlet for a quick lunch.
This outlet mall used to have busloads of visitors coming everyday but now, it looks like it's out od business. Really sad indeed.
With the huge parking lot, it's a good spot to stop and take a break.
After our lunch, we continued the drive north on Fwy 15 until we had to change to Fwy 40 going east, which is basically going parallel with the old Route 66. Soon enough, we reached Newberry Springs where we got off in order to get to the Bagdad Cafe, our first scenic stop.
It almost looked deserted with nobody around. This became a world famous restaurant because of the movie "Bagdad Cafe" which was shot on location here. Many foreign visitors came here before the pandemic but now it's all empty.
Entrance to the cafe.
Yep, we were the only ones there. It says "Open 7 Days" on the sign, but we did not check.
There were a couple of discarded Airstreams in the back.
Fwy 40 and the railroad tracks can be seen in the background.
It looked like somebody was living in that motorhome back there.
I suppose there used to be a motel here next door in that vacant lot.
Getting back on the 40, we drove down the freeway until we see the sign for Amboy. Amboy is not close to the freeway as with Bagdad Cafe. We had to take a long detour off the freeway and back on Route 66 which is getting farther and farther away from the freeway.
Finally arrived at the Roy's Cafe and Motel in Amboy. I read that this is actually the most photographed building along the whole Route 66.
Sign painted on the road.
A familiar sign in the desert.
A couple of the motel rooms were opened for people to see.
Really nothing much left other than some tattered old furniture.
Across from the cafe/motel is Amboy Post Office with a sign telling people that whoever works there was inside the cafe.
They did a good job keeping this place up though.
Must-have photo.
After Amboy, it took us a while to get back on the 40 Fwy because they have closed a section of Hwy 66 for construction. At least we did not have to turn around in order to get back on the freeway. We decided to go through Needles and then head north to Bullhead City before arriving Laughlin, Nevada. The plan was to get gas at the gas station where we used to patronized. To our surprise, that gas station near the airport was no longer there. Together with the airport, that whole area is now a huge shopping area. Good thing we had enough gas until the next day.
Checked into our spot at the Riverside RV Park.
This is a huge campground that can hold hundreds of RVs. Our site was up on the very top in section 8 where we could see the town of Laughlin.
Very spacious sites but we were quite far from the main street being up at the top.
Fortunately, they run a courtesy shuttle service taking guests down to the casino.
Inside the shuttle with a very friendly driver.
We have not had meals out for several months by now and a good prime rib dinner sounds wonderful. The Prime Rib Room at the Riverside Casino/Hotel was serving prime rib dinners for $20 per person, and that was what we wanted. It was definitely risky eating 'inside' a restaurant, but we were ready to try. They were taking all the necessary precaution as far as service and sanitizing goes. The only problem was, we did not make reservation and they were only taking certain percentage of guests in at any specific hour. We were told that it would be 8:00 in order to have a table so we just walked around and visited the antique car collection upstairs. Only $2.00 per person for the visit.
Mr. Don Laughlin, the founder and owner of Riverside Casino/Hotel. He was also the founder of the city of Laughlin.
Some really neat cars in the showroom.
A good place to spend our time waiting since we don't gamble.
Finally got inside the restaurant. See what $20 got us.
A seafood salad or a shrimp cocktail. Definitely order the shrimp cocktail. This seafood salad was just a cup of fake crab meat.
The meal also came with choice of drinks.
See the disposable dinnerware being used.
Making it less fancy, but health and hygiene is more important nowadays.
This is a choice of salad.
Choice of sides.
I suppose this used to be a buffet type of meal but it's being served by the wait staff now.
A huge portion of a delicious piece of prime rib. This must be a 12 oz.
And we ended the meal with a choice of dessert.
What a treat this was! We definitely had enough food for two days!
A good start on our journey. We were a little worried about being inside with other people but it seemed like everybody was cautious, with their masks on and staying a safe distance. Let's see how the next few days will be.
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"You know when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar." -- Psalms 139:2
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