Life as an Empty Nested Widow: Route 66 Needles, CA to Barstow, CA

Route 66 Adventure

Day 6 Part 1

Needles, CA to Barstow, CA

We were up early and headed out. 1^st I wanted to see more of the Needles murals. We had spotted them the night before but it was too dark to really see them or take pictures. If you haven't gathered it before I love murals on building and walls.

Next we headed West out across the Mojave Desert. The view of the mountains was beautiful.

Every so often we would see some desert flowers. Beautiful in the midst of sand.

It seemed like the road would go on forever.

Somewhere between Essex and Amboy we viewed 2 white Chinese type statues. I have encountered an article about these statues. The article actually uses the above video. How cool is that. Click to read the article HERE

This was in front of the statue.

Also between Essex and Amboy is the “Route 66 Public Art Corridor”. Hundreds of travelers have written their names with rocks, bottles and other various items on the dirt berm along the north side of 66. The one to the right says my granddaughter's name Kyleigh. Pretty cool.

More lovely mountains as we headed West.

I really wanted to see Bagdad Cafe. We tried 2 different roads trying to get to Bagdad but

both roads were closed. Since my son Jay was in Bagdad the very beginning of the war in Iraq I wanted to see the cafe to take a picture of it. Unbeknownst to us, the cafe had been moved to Ludlow and I was able to get my picture and text it to Jay.

Saw a few old run down places along the way.One motel pictured here.

Headed into Barstow, CA where we planned to eventually stop for lunch.

We spotted Roy's Cafe which our book said was in Amboy. What we found out was Juan Pollo Restaurants owns, operates and is in the process of restoring the historic town of Amboy. But at the moment the Cafe in located in Barstow. For more information about Roy’s Café, Amboy, Juan Pollo, and Route 66 visit the Juan Pollo Website.