Barstow, California to Kingman, Arizona

Travelling east from Barstow on Route 66, we pass through some very lonely and abandoned places. The country is arid, hot and desolate. Successive waves of migrants travelling west in covered wagons and motor cars to the promised land, would have been truly disappointed when they reached this part of California. General Patton trained his desert troops here in preparation for battle against Rommel in world war II.

Newberry Springs has an underground water supply. It was the first watering hole west of the Colorado river. Like the rest of Route 66, it struggles, barely surviving on gas and memorabilia sales. We drop into the Baghdad café. This is a quaint, little restored roadhouse which was the scene of that quirky 1990s film of the same name. We motor on and call into Roy’s Café at Amboy, billed as “The crustiest and dustiest gas stop on Route 66” Great milkshakes, nothing else.

Past Essex, we take the pre 1931 Route 66 through Goffs. Our tour book, Route 66 Travelers Guide by Tom Snyder, says that Goffs is a survivor, But when we arrive there, we find the general store had been abandoned about six months earlier. The caretaker from the local school comes down on a golf cart to chat with us. She and her husband are the now only inhabitants of the town. They are looking after the school, which has been closed for twenty years. They maintain the school grounds and building from a trust fund left by a wealthy philanthropist. She tells us that the store keeper just walked away one night and it was several days before they noticed the place was closed.

We stop at Needles, on the border of California and Arizona. The bridge across the Colorado River at Topock, a few miles south of Needles, represented the gateway to California and the New World for travellers from the east. If you have seen the movie, starring a young Marlon Brando, or read the book, “Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck, you will recognise Needles as the scene where the Californian vigilantes turned back the Oklahoma dust bowl refugees (Oakies) during the Great Depression. We check out the abandoned but once magnificent El Garces hotel at the Amtrak station, and note that it is about to be restored to its former glory at a cost of $1 million. We find the historic Route 66 and Palms motels, both still trading, but decidedly tired.

From Needles, we cross the Colorado River into Arizona at Topock and take the old pre 1937 Route 66 through the mountains to Oatman. This charming place is a true pioneering gold mining town, complete with board walks along the shop fronts on both sides of the street. Burros, left over from the 1890’s gold rush roam the streets. The Oatman Hotel, the honeymoon hideaway of Clarke Gable and Carol Lombard is completely lined with dollar notes. Every inch of wall, ceiling, and bar is covered with greenbacks. Expensive wall paper. The locals still dress as cowboys and carry (replica) six guns.

From Oatman, we drive a fairly rugged, winding old road through the mountains of Goldroad. It is often scary sitting in the passenger seat of a left hand drive vehicle. But with a five hundred feet drop off the side of the road, no safety rails or Armco, and a woman driving the Oldsmobile Allero like she trying to win the annual Pike’s Peak sprint, I finally have to complain that I cannot see the scenery with my eyes shut. Imagine doing it in a 1930’s Tin Lizzie. There are really steep sections where the locals used to reverse travellers’ vehicles up the hill, for a fee.

Once over the mountains, we head across desert again towards Kingman. But here we take a major detour and travel west to Laughlin, Nevada, north to Las Vegas and then on to Zions and Bryce Canyons in Utah. What fabulous landscapes these are. The rock formations, Hoodoos, at Bryce Canyon are fascinating. Definitely worth seeing. We stay overnight in Las Vegas on the way up. The multi million dollar classic auto museum at the Imperial Palace is very good. We stay another night in a log cabin near Red Canyon in Utah. Then we make our way through Cedar City, Mesquite and back track past Las Vegas, over the Hoover Dam, through the old silver mining town of Chloride at the western end of the Grand Canyon and finally into Kingman. After a long drive we eat dinner at the only place still open. Mr. D’s Diner, opposite the Arizona Route 66 Historical Society Museum. After a meal of burgers and root beer in the classic décor of black and white check vinyl floor and green and pink walls and furnishing. We stay at the Brunswick Hotel, built in 1922. It is very cute, very old, and located right on the spot where every fifteen minutes, another train from the Santa Fe Railroad blows its whistle.