So leaving Santa Barbara, with our new map in hand, we headed off in search of route 66, but all we found was rain, rain and more rain, in what was the worst weather we had seen so far on this trip. It was not our day as we ended up taking a few wrong turns and got pretty lost, zig zagging in and out of a rather rough area of LA. After refuelling at the highly recommended in and out burger, we arrived at the very random town of Barstow to crash for the night, but 'crashing' didn't go so well as we woke up covered in bed bug bites at our dodgy motel. So with a coffee in hand we quickly said goodbye to Barstow headed off to the Mojave desert for some exploring and proper Route 66 driving. The driving was surreal even in our Malibu (should have been a mustang L) the roads were desert barren, never-ending, interspersed with random ghost towns, quirky scenery, and a lot of noisy freight trains, even Laura loved driving it.

When we got to Mojave we plied ourselves out of the car for a few small treks, up some sand dunes and through a creepy Joshua tree forest and after being unsuccessful for hours, we finally found lunch at the visitor centre, which unfortunately was probably the worst of the trip (well mine was!). I had ordered chilli con carne thinking it was safe and easy and I am still convinced that the sloppy brown stuff was dog food or worse, and I had to eat it as the kitchen was open plan, and the chef was also the waiter (my stomach still hasn't recovered!). After a little more hiking, we were ready to head to our next nights accommodation, and were pretty excited due to our previous night's lack of sleep. Laura had arranged a 'cute' place in the middle of nowhere, which promised warm fires, a comfy bed, and a local restaurant. Our luck had not come back yet as when we got there the restaurant had been shut down, the bed was basically a single and the property sat next to a freight rail way line which ran all night and to top it all off the wifi didn't work so that was it I had enough and we checked out and headed to the next town. Laura was insistent that there was no where better but I was having none of it and when we turned up in the only town for 100 miles, which can only be described as a tacky Las Vegas, we found a casino hotel with a Denny's and McDonalds. Not the nicest place in the world but hey at least we had a good nights sleep.

Laura was up early as you can imagine, determined to not eat fast food again, so we quickly headed down some dirt roads to Mojave for one last trek through some small canyons. We then headed down route 66 for another day of exhilarating driving stopping off at yet another greasy roadside diner, Route 66 defiantly was not blessed with healthy dining options, so we were pretty excited about our next stop, a dude ranch for some good home cooked meals and plenty of R&R. As per usual we screwed up the timings and hadn't looked up the directions so all we knew was it was off the highway 44 somewhere in the desert of Arizona. Lucky for us some grease monkeys at at U Haul garage took a fancy to Laura and were more than happy to give directions; 11 miles off the motorway down a dirt track. Eventually we found it, with the bumper hanging off and were greeted by a cowboy and were immediately shown the ropes as the expression goes. 7pm and the bell rang for dinner and what a dinner it was, all homemade, fresh and tasty, topped off with an amazing homemade peanut butter pie, Laura was in heaven.

After a good night sleep in our cowboy room we were given the itinerary for the next 3 days at breakfast and soon realised that it may not be so much R&R but quite a lot of riding; 2 a day infact. 11am and we headed out on our first ride having met our horses Cherokee and Sundance. Unfortunately Cherokee and I didn't seem to get along that well and within 15 minutes of walking he had somehow managed to trip over his own feet sending me flying, not as funny as Laura seemed to think. Battered and bruised I got back on Cherokee and had a quick word in his ear and then off we went. A few hours later I realised, that I was not only bruised but I had also landed straight on my phone, which no longer exists. Even worse, the story at the ranch spread of my fall, and people were saying that it was my fault and not the horses, and laughing that it happened when the horse was only walking, I had some serious riding the next day to prove them wrong! Generally speaking though me and Cherokee never hit it off, I could not seem to get comfortable and the family jewels took a beating. Laura was in her element though and was loving every moment, well until the last ride, when we were upgraded from the beginners group to the advanced, and seeking the opportunity to go faster Sundance galloped at a seriously high speed around a corner, with a screaming Laura hanging on for dear life! We did find some time for R & R though, we read books by the fire, I kicked Laura's arse at pool on more than one occasion, and soaked our bruised muscles in the ranch's hot tub. And the food was defiantly worth the wait, banana cake, pulled pork sandwiches, stuffed chicken, and a thanksgiving meal to die for, with sweet potato pie and lots of Turkey followed by stories around the campfire. But the time did come to leave, and although we were proud we made all the horse riding, we were defiantly ready to get back in some more 'stable' transport, our good old Malibu, and take in a bit more of the Route 66. And that we did, taking in Museums, Roadside Cafes, and tacky shops, all the way to our next Arizona adventure - the Grand Canyon….