Following yesterday's picture of the Milky Way, some of you might be wondering just what I was doing outside of Barstow at 4 in the morning in the first place. I'm glad you asked.
On Friday morning I read a story in the Washington Post about a bunch of new National Scenic Byways designated for 2021. In particular, I read this:
California Historic Route 66 Needles to Barstow Scenic Byway, California
The western leg of the Mother Road wriggles through ghost towns, dusty outposts and the Mojave Trails National Monument, which contains the most unadulterated section of Route 66. There are a few places to stop for an Americana fix and pics, such as the Baghdad Cafe, the setting for the 1988 movie, and the “Roy’s Vacancy” sign.
I had never done this, and since Friday was a dex night I figured I should give it a go. So I took off early Saturday morning in order to get out to dark skies in time for a Milky Way photo and then drove to Needles, where I turned back and took Route 66 home.
Unfortunately, I didn't read the Post description quite carefully enough. It's accurate as far as it goes, but it fails to point out that the two things it mentions are literally the only things on that stretch of 66. There are no ghost towns and no dusty outposts, unless you count the occasional run-down house or gas station—which gets uninteresting almost instantly. Route 66 between Needles and Barstow is, basically, a hundred miles of scrub desert, and that's it.
So the trip was a bust, though I did get a few miscellaneous pictures pretty much unrelated to Route 66. That's not enough to justify 12 hours of driving, but at least it's something.
I sure hope you were parked when you snapped that one...
Personally I liked the late, lamented US 666.
Ditto. And having driven it, it well deserved its number.
And, how many kg of CO2 emitted?
You should auction off "Dex Night with Kevin." I'd pay money to wander around with you at all hours of the night.
On top of that, the section from Amboy to Essex is closed.