Today we woke up after a crazy night's sleep. We put it down to the heat. It meant we had a bit of a slow start and didn't leave our hotel until 10.30, after our last Best Western breakfast of the trip! We'll miss Best Weatern breakfasts. They are great, especially the waffles!
Today should have been an easy day - just 150 miles from Barstow to Santa Monica and the end of Route 66. I set off driving and our first stop was the Harvey house railroad depot in Barstow. This was basically a very pretty train station, but they are so few and between over here it made for an interesting stop. Back on our old faithful Route 66 and navigating using the EZ guide after 5 days off was strangely nostalgic and off we set out of Barstow. The next stop was a giant Parrot at Helendale, and just time for a few photos before continuing to Oro Grande. This was a great little town, full of beautiful antique shops and nice murals on the walls. I was tempted by the shops but knew we couldn't buy anything, especially not antique furniture, so resisted even looking.
Back on Route 66, the next stop was Emma Jean's cafe at Victorville. This was a 'must-stop' in our book so we pulled in. It was a bit early for lunch but we got two sodas and some fries to go. Whilst we were waiting for our order we got chatting to a photographer who has travelled all over the world and got some recommendations for the rest of our trip. We've met some real characters over here - it's been great. Outside, hummingbirds ate from bird feeders and we spent some time watching them before getting back in the car.
From here the journey got a little more chaotic. We were soon onto the I-15 driving across Cajon Pass. The view was beautiful with mountains in all directions, and we climbed 4010ft to Cajon Summit. The way down was a little scary - steep and very fast. My foot hovered close to the brake!!
Once off I-15 we swapped and Claire drove the rest of the way. The first part of her leg was off the interstate, on Old highway 66, and we stopped for a photo with the mountains in the background. We then re-joined the interstate but there were roadworks on the so we couldn't take the exit we were supposed to. We ended up improvising to get back to Rialto, and wigwam hotel, but added on perhaps an hour or more to our journey. We finally found the wigwam hotel - similar to the one we had seen in Arizona. It was great! The owner let us look around and go in some of the rooms. They were actually very nice and I'd happily stay in one.
From Rialto onwards, Route 66 basically curves into and through LA. It was slow progress with traffic lights every few hundred meters and it took us around 3 hours to travel 30 miles. The streets were beautiful - just as I expected with Palm trees and huge houses and I was excited for the first couple of hours but after a while the excitement wore off a little. We played a game - how many traffic lights could we get through without stopping - and the most we got to was 4!! Eventually we stopped for a Starbucks just outside Passadina. We had another 35 miles to go to Santa Monica and it we were hitting rush hour traffic, so we made the decision to drop down to Long Beach, and our hotel, on the interstate, and prolong our Route 66 adventure by finishing the last few miles in a few days time!
Being rush hour, it still took us an hour to get to our hotel but at least the traffic kept moving. We arrived here about 6pm and it is beautiful! The hotel is amazing - perhaps our favourite so far. We parked up and checked in and then relaxed in our room for a while. We treated ourselves to room service for dinner and were so excited to find a healthy menu. We both ordered grilled salmon with asparagus - Claire with quinoa and me with brown rice. This was the best food we had eaten in 2 weeks! So healthy and so tasty. Such a relief after weeks fried greasy food. Yum! We polished everything off in minutes!
After dinner we went for a walk around the harbour and to the beach. The sun was just setting and it was really pretty. We even paddled in the ocean! Long beach is great and we are so glad to be staying here rather than in LA.

Day: 17
Miles : 3066
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