May 27 They paved paradise put up a parking lot...

 May 27  119 miles     Barstow to Pomona    Travel is starting to become a grind as we get closer to  LA.  Staying at a Comfort Inn. 

So the day started with some very yummy donuts and coffee from a small shop a block from the hotel.  May have been the high point of our day.  We headed to the Barstow Harvey House Railroad Depot also known as the Casa Del Desierto.  Built in 1911 with an odd combination of  Spanish Renaissance,  Classical Revival and Moorish influences.   Another impressive early one of his hotel restaurants on the Santa Fe line.  Town acquired it in 1990 and spent $8 million rehabbing the building including fixing previous earthquake damage.  Sadly, it sits alone in the railyard just outside of town and isn't used at all as a hotel or restaurant.  All the sources we read said the building was open for touring as it holds the Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center as well as 2 other museums.  A Railroad Museum and a Route 66 museum.  We knew the railroad museum was closed but again had read the Route 66 museum was open.   Well, nothing was open. Nothing!!  We walked around the building , took a few pictures, peaked in a few windows and climbed on a few of the railroad cars outside then left disappointed.  

 The ride down from Barstow to Victorville on old Route 66 traveled alongside the Mojave River Basin and was scenic desert.  One interesting stop was Elmer Long's Bottle Tree  Ranch.  Elmer and his dad used to walk the desert and collect things.  His dad wound up with a big collection of bottles that Elmer ultimately inherited.  To put them to some good use he started building bottle trees and this was the result. Never used all the bottles before he passed away in 2019 but his family has kept the ranch open for curious visitors. 

Bottle Tree Ranch - one of those places where the more you look the more you keep seeing

 We made it to Victorville with a stop at the Route 66 museum there.  This is the official California Route 66 museum.   Again, all our  checking said it had reopened back in April.   Sign on the door for us - "We will reopen on May 28" !!!  Tomorrow!!.  ARGHHhh....!!!!.   Quick stop outside Victorville at Emma Jeans Holland Burger Café.   Shot a scene here from one of my favorite cult classic movies - Kill Bill: Vol 2.  It's where Uma Thurman  walks into a café covered in dust after having been buried alive and sits at the counter and asks "May I have a glass of water please?".

Emma's

The driving from there to Pomona was no fun.   Following the old route, but virtually no original roads.  Now just side streets going through industrial areas, then constant stop and go through multiple small towns that had been part of the mother road at one time as evidenced by numerous old motor courts now mostly in decay and being used for hourly/ weekly/monthly  rentals.   In the nicer towns it was just a constant line of commercial/retail  shops and fast food restaurants. At one time this was all prime California  agricultural land full of citrus trees and vineyards.   Makes one wonder about "progress"...