Day 2 - Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of you Dads out there!  I lost my Dad back in 1999.  I miss him terribly and wish he were still around to watch his grandchildren grow, he would have enjoyed their sweet spirits so much.  I know he watches over us but, it's just not the same.  My children lost their Dad in 2005 when they were very young.  We talk about their father, Mike a lot....especially when we are with that side of our family.  "Do I have Dad's toes?" one may ask.  "What about my hair...is it like Dad's?", the other says.  Yes, we talk about all the physical likenesses but more importantly about what a kind, loving, spiritual man he was.  He was bigger than life and it makes me sad that my children didn't get the chance to know him.  He too watches over us, I know, but as I previously stated; unfortunately.....it's just not the same.  

Despite the loss of these two wonderful men, I have two fabulous Father-in-Laws who I love and am thankful for every day for accepting me into their families.  I also have a loving, supportive, creative, intelligent and might I say handsome; husband. He has taken the roll as Father to my children and loves them as if they were his own and they in turn adore him.  Shale, you are a great man and we love you very much.  I hope your day today was groovy baby!


Day 2 was pretty interesting and HOT.....geeeez it was hot!   Usually when we are in the middle of the Mohave Desert we are on our boat or camping lake-side, not sight-seeing.  This was a whole different kind of hot!

Sleeping in was in order this morning due to sheer exhaustion from our 12 hour Day 1.  Not to mention it is Father's Day and well, Shale likes to get his beauty sleep whenever he can (I know you love it babe when I share these things with the world)!  Anyway, once we got up and showered, we were out the door.  We stopped to say our good-byes at the Wigwam Motel front office and rolled out - this was seriously a cool little place, if you have the chance.....go stay a night (wigwammotel.com)!  Lots of stops were made today and lots of pictures were taken so I am going to let our selection of photos guide you through our day on this post.  Enjoy!

Leaving San Bernardino, CA

First stop of the day, food.  Outpost Cafe.  I am going to have

to disagree with their motto above.  Food was dang good, the

service was great and well, I didn't try their beer - maybe I should have?

The small antique store in the top photo was located behind the cafe.  Louis 

(pronounced Low) and her husband Gene own the place, 

they are from New Zeland.  We happened to leave our ice chest back at home and well

we found one here.  A REALLY cool old metal Royal Crown Cola (RC Cola) one!

We bought it!  We love it!  Thank you Louis!

Stop 2 was in Victorville to see the California Route 66 Museum on D Street.

We met Delvin there (left photo, standing next to Shale).  What a nice man.

We didn't have a lot of time to spend here because they were closing when we

showed up but, it was a pretty great collection of old artifacts!  

www.califrt66museum.org

Next we found ourselves in awe at Bottle Tree Ranch.  Now this was awesome!

Elmer Long is the artist of this crazy creation.  If you haven't seen it in person,

you need to.  Enough said.

I am sure we weren't supposed to take bottles off the trees but come on...

It is Father's Day and the bottles were "Pop Soda"!  Don't judge.

In Barstow we visited the Route 66 Motel.  Read the sign..."Round Beds"!  What?

I love the painted road signs on the highway.  We've seen them every so often 

on our journey and I 

just couldn't help but take a photo of one.

Newberry, CA - The Bagdad Cafe.

I have only one word for The Bagdad Cafe - Strange.

Strange is apparently worthy of a few photos! 

Did you know there was a German movie made in 1987 named, wait for it....

Bagdad Cafe?  We didn't.  Now we all do!

.

Roy's Motel/Cafe/ Gas Station

.  This brings back lots of motorcycling memories for me - good

motorcycle memories.  Roy's is in Amboy, CA.  Roy's was not 

surprisingly, opened by a man named Roy back in 1927.  

It was recently bought and a few renovations

on the cafe side have occurred since my last visit here in 2004.

Our last stop of the evening before heading to Needles to set up camp was 

at the Amboy Crater - Ok...who knew THIS existed?!  Yes, just down the street from Roy's

there is a huge crater just sitting in the middle of the Mohave Desert surrounded by hundreds of acres of lava plains.  Apparently it takes 

a minimum of 3 hours to hike it round trip and as you can see by the colorful

desert sky, we didn't have that kind of time.  

Off to Needles it was to set up our tiny house on wheels for the night.  We are discussing what tomorrow may bring so I'll end here for the night.  Until tomorrow......