Ludlow

The next stop, just down 66, was Ludlow. One of the guys taking pix at Amboy said it was a neat place to check out old buildings and it was on the way back to 40 so... We decided to have lunch there at this great old cafe, the Ludlow Cafe (in its second incarnation I believe) and listened to this guy go on about how those nosy Anglenoes are keeping him from smoking when and where he wants. He was very upset and wanted everyone know who to blame. He was pretty rough around the edges with a gold cross dandling from one ear and a bluetooth phone in the other (Really? Who's he talking to? Is he plotting revenge against the Jewish cabal on the coast responsible for keeping him and his Salems apart during the lunch hour?) and a kind of gross looking bandage on the back of his neck with something weeping through. It wasn't pretty but I've got to give the best description I can in case someone sees him hiding in there bushes blowing a butt and muttering about those damn angelenoes. The woman working the counter wore what may have been the oldest waitress uniform in the western desert and I think the guy working the counter with her was in a gang, and the mens room smelled like meat but they got an A so were were in. I thought it was a good patty melt so there you go. Afterward we backtracked a little to check out the old buildings, took some pictures and were were off again.

Once the repair shop.


I think this was the original Ludlow Cafe. There was a pic in its current location, where we ate.


The old gas station.


No idea what this is but I like the star on the sign. Jess pointed that out, I'd missed it. Ludlow used to be a railyard of some sort. Maintenance or something. Maybe it was part of that or an inn. Who knows? It's nothing now.


After we got back on the road we just put it on autopilot and let it go. In Travels with Charley (which I read on this trip) John Steinbeck writes about the point where a trip is over. About how everything falls away but the getting home and how every ounce of your attention is focused on that goal. That's the point we both found ourselves. We were so close to home that nothing else mattered. So there you go.

Amboy

There was a little article on Amboy California in the LA times right before we left. It's right along Route 66 at a spot that was bypassed by the 40 when they built that and it's all but dead. But it has this great example of Googie and some restauranteur has bought it to renovate. So it seemed fun since we were in the vicinity to stop and check it out. So we took an 11 mile detour to 66, which is really pretty right there. You drive down into a valley and it's really isolated. It's hard to imagine what it was like to drive through that stretch during the depression looking for a new life. Anyway as we pulled up to Roy's (the little hotel, and about all that's there) another car stopped and two guys got out with fancy Nikons and started doing the same thing I was. Then as we left another car stopped and a young couple got out and hoisted a big camera bag onto their hood and started hauling out lenses and bodies. I guess it's a bit of a photo mecca.

This is one of the bungalows at the motel. They looked to be fairly stripped but for the window treatments. All of the tiles were gone but the bathroom fixtures were there and a couple had some furniture, though not of the period. They were small so I could see the entire interiors. I should have tried a door though.


Here's the sign. I think it's pretty famous, it looks familiar anyway. This may be my favorite picture from the whole trip. It's so clean.


This is the main building. I can't tell but it looks like a lobby and offices in back. Thee was a cactus inside and it was really pretty clean.


The Amboy Crater. I'd never heard a thing about this but it's right there down the road from Amboy. Apparently it's a volcano and there is a dirt road leading to it though it was a little out of the ole Honda's league. The surrounding area is covered with black volcanic rock (Igneous?) resulting in a pretty wild landscape. We saw one other crater and much more of the lava flows. That's when I began to wonder what it would be like driving past as the Joad family. It's a far cry from Oklahoma.

Last day out

We got home today. Not a very long drive from Kingman, got home by 3. We even took a couple little detours.Couldn't have asked for a better day to travel. Not a cloud in the sky and 60ish degrees. Always a bit bittersweet coming home. We're both excited to sleep in our own bed tonight and lounge amongst our own things. It also means back to real life though and I think I was hoping to put that off a little. I like being on the road. All in all we had a very nice trip though.

Meteor Crater! Experience the Impact!!

The last few times I've made the drive across Arizona I've considered taking the time to check out the big meteor crater. I thought it would have a cool name or be buried deep in some national park so I never really looked into it. Imagine how excited I was to find out that not only does it have a very straight forward name (Meteor Crater) but that it's right of I-40. And since if figured so heavily in the finale to Starman I knew I had to go check it out. So, with that in mind I woke up bright and early and we hit the road. The weather turned kind of bad right around the AZ border which is a bummer because we went right through the painted desert and skirted monument valley but missed a lot of scenery because of some snow and low, kind of ominous clouds. And it got cold again. The crater trip was looking kind of like a long shot. We seemed to clear the storm though and as we passed through the other side it got really pretty. We were in a clear spot but all around were big storms and as we came through the passes we'd be able look into the valleys and see the rain coming down on the horizon. Pretty dramatic stuff for someone used to 360 days of sunshine a year. Good news is we finally made it to the crater. Pretty overpriced at $15.00 each but we figured we're never going to make it back so... The museum was fairly informative. Interestingly we were listening to Bill Bryson's A Short History of Almost Everything (Thanks again to Arthur and Liza, I loved In a Sunburned Country) in which he discusses the crater in a portion about extinctions and the part cosmic impacts play in them. As an aside, I really liked this book to. It makes you feel very lucky to be alive. It was cold and windy so they cancelled all of the walking tours of the rim and closed the topmost observation deck which was kind of a bummer. With the tour I think it would have been worth the bucks. If you want to see more check out their website: www.meteorcrater.com . It's a big hole in the earth to say the least. After that we got back on the road and drove into Kingman. Also a very pretty drive through some forests and hills. This will be our last night on the road since we plan to make it back to LA tomorrow evening.

In case you don't know where to take your picture from. This was at an "Indian" trading post along the freeway. As you get into AZ there are many more and they just get more elaborate with teepees and wildcats outside. By the time we saw those though it was snowing. Big lumps of snow that blew around.


Pic through the windshield. I took a lot of these and they never turn out as good as the view. But you keep trying.


The courtyard of the crater museum had this big window overlook of the valley. Kind of goofy but it was a great view.


Jessica and the other freezing tourist family.


And finally, Meteor Crater!

Albuquerque

Took 54 until we hit the 40 and got on that to head west. It's less picturesque, the same fast food and truck stops along it's length. But it's faster and provides more bathroom stops so there is that. Got to Albuquerque early so we checked out the Old Town which is just a tourist trap (at least it seemed that way, we didn't stop) so we moved on to Nob Hill which is along what used to be Route 66. It was more fun and we got out to walk around and ate some pizza. They've done a great job restoring / repurposing the old structures and the strip has a lot going on. All kinds of galleries, cafes, restaurants and roughly 22 tattoo parlors. Make of that what you will. And the sunsets are really pretty as well.

My reaction to Route 40...


Roadside stop, nice sunset...


Sign along Central in Nob HIll. It's hard to tell sometimes if the signs are old or new to look old.


Tonights swank digs. Our room has a back door that opens to the pool. It's kind of funny but it's the Four Seasons compared to last night.


Tomorrow we're off to AZ and plan to land back in LA on Saturday.

Grain Elevators

Can't swing a dead cat in Kansas without hitting a grain elevator. You can see them coming for miles and when you pass them by they reside in your rear view for miles. This is only a couple of them, you just can't stop for them all or we'd still be on the road.





Step our our door in Liberal and turn to the right and this was what was there. You just can't get away from them.

Buildings: abandoned or not

Jess and I both got a kick out of the buildings along the side of the road. It' s you wonder who lived or worked there and what possessed them to walk away leaving everything inside. The small main streets or roadside diners in the tiny towns that dot the countryside always offered a lot to look at.

Liberal

We got into Liberal kind of late, 9ish and were both too beat to be really upset about where we stayed. It was a little spooky but basically clean and really our only option other than to drive on for another 4 hours or so, so we took it. This pic is under the light of day and the front of the building. The back, where we actually stayed, was next to the truck parking and was slightly bleaker. And of course the whole place smelled like a cattle car, which didn't help. We were up and out by 8:45 and didn't even look back until we got to Texas.

We also didn't swim...



The woman working the front desk saw me taking the pool pic and came out with a look on her face that said she didn't approve to say the least. Has she a broom in her hand I would have run but as it was I grinned and told her I was just documenting the places we stayed. And then ran.

The (Very) Long Road Home

This is about all we've seen for the last couple of days. We left Kansas City on Wednesday afternoon and cut diagonally south west on highway 54 almost to the border. We'd planned to stay in Dodge City ( which I was really excited about) but were thwarted when we couldn't find accommodations and had to go on to Liberal KS instead. It was a bit of a haul almost to the border. The highway was smaller than the big interstates so it was more sparsely populated and took us through really empty farmland. Just one grain elevator after another with clusters of diners and abandoned buildings surrounding. We both thought it was great and would stop to look at old signs or try to find out what things were. That was a kick.

Skyline from the Museum

These are from the top floor of the museum (which I'm told is a remnant of the Colombian Exposition of 18??, which I think is kind of neat). I didn't get out the camera too much outside because I was constantly running from one place to another to keep warm. I guess you acclimate to it but we never did. So all my pix of the city are from inside or a car. Oh well.

A bit of the lake...



Sears Tower...



I think this is a planetarium, though I can't remember the name.

Chicago and the Field Museum

We're back in Kansas and about to start our drive home. Chicago was fun. It was cold so we mostly stayed inside but got out a little and visited the Field Museum and got to see a little bit of downtown and the lake shore. The museum was huge and we were a little worn out from the longest wait for a table at a cafe in recorded history. The food was good if overpriced and the service was kind substandard to say the least so it was a bit like home in that way. Only it was 5 below outside while we waited.

I liked the birds.




The baboons are dangerous...

Chicago

Tomorrow it's off to Chicago. We're going light, without even the computer. It's even colder there. I'll post some pix when we get back to KS. We'll be here another day and then it's back on the road.

Kansas, the state not the band.

It's cold here. Really cold. Wichita, where we spent our first night after driving across the Oklahoma waste, was as cold and colorless as a corpse. Our arrival corresponded with that of a winter storm and the highway the next day was strewn with cars left where they stopped skidding through barbed wire and cow pasture. It's a good thing we stopped where we did. The next day wasn't really that bad. The worst of the storm had moved east and north of where we were and we headed up to Manhattan to visit K state where Jess spent a couple of years. The little apple they call it. Heading up we hit some snow and it was a little hairy for a bit. Hard to see but not too slippery. Had lunch there and got a tour from some of her old professors then headed out to Kansas City. The drive was uneventful after that.

I've got to say, my little Honday has been a trooper. Underneath the crust of salt and dirt and whatever else, she's held her own against elements little seen in her hometown. The oil is still clean and the tires still inflated and running like a clock.

On the road again...

We're officially on our way out of Texas and on to the great midwest. It occurred to me the other day we're doing a cowtown tour of the country with Abilene, Ft. Worth and tonight (probably) Witchita and Kansas City. I wish I'd made the association earlier, though I'm not sure anything would have changed.

Anyway, it's raining now and will probably continue up to KS so we're moving slowly. Might get some pix later but I've nothing right now.

Ft. Worth

We haven't taken many pix the last few days. Here's the Montgomery Plaza which was their home base I guess and is now lofts and retail.



And here are two pix of a sculpture in front of the Meadows gallery at SMU in Dallas. It moves and we made a movie of it but but I don't know how to post it.





That's it for now. Tomorrow we're off to KC.

Finally Fort Worth

Mostly we have pictures of rest areas along the freeway. Here's Sweetwater:



The Wind Power Capital of West Texas


Oops! I have no idea what a Texas Bumper is but $249 seems a little steep.


And finally, Fort Worth.


That brings us up to today pretty much. Just had a good hotdog and a Shiner Bock and now we're free to roam the city. The weather turned cold last night (a norther came through) but hopefully we'll be able to get out and about a little before we head off to KC.

Odessa Tx: It's a long way from everywhere.

The Best Western Garden Oasis is very aptly named. It has a pool:



And a Sauna:



And a leak in the sink of room 216 where we stayed. The First Lady's Suite was booked.

Monahans State Sandune Park (or something)

West of Odessa in the middle of nowhere is a state park that consists of a bunch of sandunes. My mom is always saying how much she loves it and actually took us camping there once long, long ago. So we stopped at the end of the day to check it out. Kind of cool.







I think they've slated Lawrence of Arabia 2 (or LoAr 2: Revenge of the Rebublican Guard for those in the know) to begin shooting here in May.