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Barstow, CA to Santa Monica, CA

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We left Barstow at 10am and the mercury was already at 102F. The traffic through the Mojave was very heavy in both directions. This was probably because it was the Columbus Day holiday weekend.

The first part of the journey was through the desert.



There were houses and the odd diner/bar every so often but we could not imagine living in such tough surroundings.


The starkness of the landscape often with mountains as a backdrop was beautiful at times but there were many eyesores along the way also.


One of the last towns we drove through was Victorville where as was often the case, travellers were reminded that their town was proud of being part of Rte 66.


As Route 66 finishes in Santa Monica, the final section of our trip was through the sprawling city of Los Angeles. The city was framed by the majestic San Gabriel Mountains but unfortunately we don't have any photos as opportunities to pull over were almost non existent and anyway we were fully engaged in driving and map reading. Driving along Sunset Boulevard, passing Beverley Hills, seeing the famous Hollywood sign high up in the hills was somewhat surreal but the streetscape wasn't always as glamorous as many movies portrayed.

We drove down  the miles-long Santa Monica Boulevard to the Pacific Ocean and the end of a wonderful Road trip.


From start to finish Route 66 is 2,278 miles long but because of the extra places we visited, we drove 3,130 miles on our adventure.  

Comments

  1. Bernadette14 October 2015 at 02:20

    WELL DONE THERESE & SYLVIA -----and I like the last photo----a good one to have !

    Thanks for the great Blog ---it was great reading it . Enjoy San Francisco , looking forward to seeing you soon & hearing more about your great adventure .

    Bernadette xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Deirdre15 October 2015 at 16:55

    Sylvia and Therese you're a great advertisement for Route 66 !!

    Followed you plotting your way across the U.S. and delighted to see you reach Santa Monica so smoothly. Enjoy San Francisco. The blog was a great idea...... loved the photos and hoping to stay in a wigwam sometime too !

    See you in Dublin

    Deirdre and all the clan x

    ReplyDelete

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