Day 6 - Las Vegas to The Pacific!

I think it was the excitement that got me up early, well early for having been up till 3 or so.  9 am and I was ready to go.  Problem is I wasnt quite ready to leave.  I had to see this shark tank pool deal.

Worlds Largest Thermometer

Pools in Vegas have become hot spots during the day.

 Rehab and all have spawned a whole new way for Casino Owners to draw in folks.  The Golden Nugget had a DJ out spinning at 10 AM.  Carrie and I couldnt have cared less about the music and bodies, it was all about the water slide and shark tank. I will do my best to paint the picture.  Imagine a pool, a really big one.  now imagine that smack dab in the middle is a HUGE aquarium made of glass.  

Inside are sharks, coral, fish and rays, swiming around freely.  It is freaky as hell to see a shark coming right at you, glass or no glass, while you are swimming in a pool.  Now imagine a water slide that goes right through the shark tank and spits you out at the bottom.  Pretty sweet, right??  We were the only people on the slide, and must have ridden it down 12 times each.  Did I mention that there was an elevator to get up to the top of the slide??  ooh I didnt, well, there was an elevator to get up to the top of the slide.  We later found out it was for the employees to deliver food and drink from the upper area where the bars were to the pool deck.  By later I mean on our last trip down when we were asked why we were in the elevator at all.  I thought the soaking wet floor was answer enough, but suffice it to say that was our que to get back up to the room and hit the road.  

There was a stop that I knew we were not going to be able to make, well two actually.  They were places I had almost driven out to while in college just to do, but thought the better of.  Area 51 and Roswell New Mexico.  It was Fox Mulder who got me interested.  Well - honestly the aliens thing was interesting to me way before that, but I think I got really intrested when X-Files came around.  I used to watch it every week, and then even the re-runs that they showed late at night.  I was slightly saddened that I wouldnt be able to get down to the crash site at Roswell, or the base at Area 51.  I was disappointed to read that the government had closed off the two most common area 51 viewing areas.  I just couldnt fathom driving 8 hours to see a black mailbox.

Didnt see anyone arguing with her!!

Say what you will, but there is something rather intriguing about an area closed off so tightly, and with a security perimeter 10 miles out.  Not to mention the unmarked aircraft that fly back and forth from Vegas Daily shuttling the workers to and from work each day.  There is just too much strange not to think that if there were something, somewhere, that it might as well be there.  

Alas the closest we would come on our journey is this alien jerky stand - which was awesomely decorated I might add.  We stopped in and got some alien jerky and browsed the store. 

Calico Ghost Town

This was to be our last stop before hitting California, and the Mojave Desert.  The desert was beautiful and I remember thinking that it would be a neat place to take a short hike, just to say you had done it.  It was strange to be on the freeway through the desert, so we bounced off it and decided to take some of the old road through - which we had apparently joined back up with .  We saw the worlds largest thermometer, another check on our seemingly ever growing list of "worlds largest" things. 

Calico Ghost town I looked like a neat stop, and we decided to get off and check it out.  An old abandoned gold rush town, seemed like a neat stop as that was what drove folks west in the first place. 

We hopped back on the old road on our trek to LA. 

The route 66 books I had read said numerous times, that if you were in doubt of if you were on route 66 or not, look for the railroad tracks and the old telephone lines.  I couldnt help but think that the picture below was about as good a proof as I would imagine you could possibly get. 

Route 66 - right next to the tracks in California

The Old Road throuch California

Not a beer can dinosaur, but a beer can forest!!

We were heading west, and it wouldnt be long before our date with destiny.  We had already covered around 3000 miles and at this point I was starting to be ready to be out of the car. 
Apparently there were still a few neat stops to be made.  We happened across this beer bottle forest somewhere out near Victorville California.  I decided to grab a few shots of it before heading back on our way.  Apparently this goes for art out on the open road, and let me tell you, there wasnt much to see, so I cant say that I dont agree. 

Worlds first McDonalds

It was rather ironic I thought that we started our journey near Des Plaines Illinois, and were about to end it near San Bernadino California.  The interesting thing is that these are the respective homes of the McDonalds empire that we know today.  It was not all that long ago that the McDonalds Family had this one location in California.  A Milkshake salesman took the idea and franchised the store in Illinois, known as store #1.  The ironic thing is that the chain food establishments and big box stores are primarily responsible for the demise of so many a Route 66 ventures.  They book end the road.  It was strange to be in the store, it was nothing like the places that exist now.  it looked like a museum, a crappy one at that.  But then it made you realize that it was just a regular place.  It didnt start as the big evil empire it is today.    

Regardless - there were plenty of great places to

Carrie and I going down into the mine at Calico.

eat that werent fast food.  Of course we had found our fair share.  Upon striking out in amarillo texas - we happened upon a whataburger - and as Carrie had never had one, we gave it a shot.  On our way though California, we dropped in at the first Del Taco, where you can get a side of fries with your tacos.  It was interesting enough to stop and give a shot, as we had to be motoring on.  Driving through LA was going to be a chore, and I knew it.  We had a date with the pacific, and I'll be darned if we werent going to get there before sunset.
Thats one thing I missed about living in New Buffalo, and even Fort Myers, both on the west coast.  Chicago and Southeastern Florida definitely have a lot going on, but no sunsets.  Carrie will argue that there are still sunsets, and I suppose technically she is right, but not at a beach, into the water.  That is a sunset to me, and we hadent even hit the city limits of LA yet and the sun was starting to hand a little low in the sky. 

We were heading west into los angeles, and happened across the town my grandparents used to live in when I was a kid.  Upland California.  We spend every summer vacation out there for as far back as I could remember.  The cousins would come over, we had a great time.  We used to make my Dad take us up to the top of Mt. Baldie and go hiking.  That all came to a screaching hault when my brother let it out of the bag that we came across a rattle snake.  Mom flipped out and it was back to whiffel ball in the back yard after that.

There was a neat statue that was in Upland, the westernmost edition of the Madonna of the Trail series of statues.  They extend across the country on famous trails and roadways.  This one was dedicated in 1929 and has stood on route 66 ever since, watching over the westward travelers.  We had made is safely after all,

3200 and some odd miles and we were so close we could smell it.   

We still had the bulk of Los Angeles proper to trek through.

The Route headding into Santa Monica

There is a lot said about traffic in LA.  As far as I could tell it was worse that true.  There were cars everywhere.  We got on the freeway to try and shave off a few minutes, in a last ditch attempt to get ourselves to Santa Monica before sunset.  It was past rush hour, and we were at a complete standstill.  It was traffic as if there was an accident or something anywhere else on the planet.  The difference was there was never an accident, and it didnt matter if you were comming or going to town, it was absolutely slammed every time we got on it.  Burbank, Beverly Hills, Culver City, it simply didnt matter.  I remember thinking to myself that I wondered where they filmed all those episodes of CHIPS and where the hell OJ found all that open road.  It was baffling to me.  Either way - we hopped off the highway and decided that we would be better back on the old road and thought it prudent to make the last 10 miles down the old route.

 We headed south, then west and made it to Santa Monica, with little time to spare.  The king palms flanking the street on either side.  It just felt like we were getting close.  Around a corner, through the town, the anticipation was somehow exciting and bitter at the same time.  We had come so far, 9 states, the worlds biggest fork, the grand canyon, the St. Louis Arch, Sean and Lindsays wedding.  We had crammed so much into so few days.  You couldnt help but feel a little nostalgic about the trip.
The ocean came into view and the neon from the fishing pier sign began to come into appear between the trucks in front of us. 

We made our way across the intersection and through the archway of the pier.  We drove down the pier as far as we could go and walked out over the ocean.  We had made it.  Lake Michigan to the Pacific, and actually the atlantic ocean back in Florida before we left.  It had truely been a journey.
There was a bit of a nagging feeling that I couldnt shake however.  Remember earlier when Carrie read that the real end of Route 66 wasnt the Santa Monica Pier??  Well, we had to go find it, the plaque that was placed in the park a few blocks down.  It was a little smaller than I had figured, but we had fount it.  Carrie seemed vindicated as it did indeed read that the end of the route was there.  It used to be the end of the route before it was re-routed.  Either way we had now officially made our way to both points.  I was so elated that I decided to get a

picture laying on the marker.  It was about that time that I realized that the marker acted as a sort of community bathroom for the area homeless, and boy was there quite a contingency of them.  It wreaked of unine.  I immediately removed the sweatshirt, which was one of my favorites, and it hasent been worn since.  That said it was a casualty of the trip, and if I had to do it again, I might just do it again,,,, I just would have changed first.  

About that sunset.... We got there just in time to catch it, and it was amazing. 

I am not gonna lie, it was a bit of a relief to know that we did not have to get back in the car and drive 500 miles again, we were going to stick around LA for a few days, see some friends, see some sights, and relax before heading back home.  9 states, 3200 miles, and a 1200 mile journey to the starting line.  I was left with a sense of fulfilment, and a sense that I'd love to do it again, maybe in an RV, with a family, some day.  See some of the sights that we had skipped. 

Was I insane, or had the old road sunken its claws into me??  Either way it was a great trip, and I found it hard to leave the pier for the night to head to the hotel.  The great roadtrip, quite possible the greatest roadtrip, was now in our rearview mirror.