Day 15: Barstow, CA to Santa Monica, CA

So our final leg today started in Barstow, CA.

Barstow being a bigger city and still located in the desert, we were able to find lots and lots of motels along the main 4-lane road through the city.

The Cactus Motel in Barstow, CA

The Village Hotel and Cafe downtown Barstow, CA

It has been really amazing to find the abundance of motels in the larger cities in Arizona and California. It really shows the importance of their presence back when Route 66 was THE road to travel on.

Mural on one of the buildings in downtown Barstow, CA

Private residence of someone that bought an old
gas station and made it his house - near Helendale, CA

After we left Barstow, we hit up several smaller towns with very few relics available. In one of the towns though, we found a house which was obviously an old gas station at one point. As we started taking pictures, the owner came out - this is when we found out this was actually a private residence.

Route 66 near Cajun Summit. The old road still curves the
mountain hill.

The guy bought it for $22,000 about 30 years ago with only the walls standing at that point. He improved it from there but kept the original walls as much as possible. He got so into it that next to his house, he built a make believe western scene with a saloon and everything. He mentioned that he got offered a lot of money for his house but he just didn't want to sell. It was pretty amazing to see what he did to that house.

Bottle Ranch near Helendale, CA

A little further, we found a guy that has a bottle ranch - basically, a piece of land where he made sculptures from empty bottles. Some were pretty basic but others where really cool looking.

Sign above the old town of Victorville, CA

Next we got to Victorville - a town that had some really nice signs and murals posted all over their old historic district. Some of the murals were really amazing and displayed the items you would encounter on the road.

Mural on one of the buildings downtown Victorville, CA - depicting the eight states Route 66 travels through

Foothill Blvd on the way to Los Angeles 

From there, we hit San Bernardino and the main boulevard, Foothill Blvd, through many towns towards the coast. It is about 50 miles from here towards the end of the route and hitting a stop light every quarter mile doesn't make for the most fun drive by any means.

The Wigwam Motel in Rialto, CA

These towns being the suburbs of Los Angeles make them obviously very populated and finding old relics from the old days is like looking for a needle in a haystack. There are some left, nevertheless, even though many have lost their neon signs and colors over the years.

Marker on Foothill Blvd towards
Santa Monica

Some towns really make you know that you are driving the Mother Road through their town, others you wouldn't have a clue.

I didn't take that many pictures along this stretch of the road - partly because there weren't that many and also because traffic gets really busy and there aren't that many places to pull over for a bit.

The Will Rogers Highway marker at the end
of Route 66

We eventually got to Pasadena, and from there around downtown Los Angeles, through West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and into Santa Monica. As we approached the end of the road, we could feel the temperature drop down to the mid seventies - a sign we were getting near the ocean. We parked the car and walked the final yards to the end marker and a view of the Pacific Ocean.

Santa Monica pier. WE MADE IT!!!!

I still can't believe we made it after all these years, but yet here we are. I got to be honest - it has been a lot of driving and so I'm glad the end is here. It has been an amazing trip though and I will have memories for years to come.

Miles driven today: 165
Time driven today: 6hrs 20min

Total miles driven: 2,113
Total time driven: 66hrs 25min