We made it!

After 2 weeks on the road and 3,495 miles today we reached Santa Monica Pier, the end of Route 66.

But first let's go back to our last stop on Route 66, to Barstow,  CA. The day before we arrived at our hotel at around 2.30pm with plenty of time to recover from driving 200 miles through the desert in 120F. Luckily the hotel had a pool we were looking to soak in after a hard day, but only after the sun had come down and temperatures normalized. The last pool we jumped into had bathtub quality, that is, it was very warm. So we relaxed, wrote some emails, went out to dinner.

By this time the pool area was shady and we got ready for a swim. Some kids were frolicking in the pool. We jumped in and almost got freeze shocked. The water had a temperature of an Alaskan creek. We should have taken the advertisements we saw here serious. They do promise a "cool pool", instead of a heated one. So we kept the swim short and made a note about checking water temperatures before the sun goes down.

Today we had an early start at 6.30am  for our last leg to Santa Monica. After breakfast in the hotel we enjoyed the cool morning air while riding on the Interstate until Cajon Junction, CA. At that point we diverted from Route 66 again in favor for the gorgeous CA-2 which leads through the heart of the Angeles National Forest. 38 mi of curves, curves, curves combined with great views and a climb up to almost 8000 ft elevation. The air was crisp, clean and cool.

Then we descended into L.A. We rode through Hollywood, glanced at Grauman's Chinese Theatre and finally reached the goal of our 2-week journey: Santa Monica Pier. A low level fog cover was lying over the pier, thus is was pretty cool. Being in elated spirits nevertheless, we took the obligatory photo in front of the "End of the Trail"-sign.

At the Route 66-booth we also received the official certificate for having completed the "Mother Road".

We dipped our toes into the Pacific, and then took off again to head across L.A. to Santa Fe Springs where we were supposed to drop off the bikes to have them shipped back home. However, Friday afternoon rush-hour traffic in L.A. is not fun. But after watching other bikes zoom by we quickly adopted the local custom of "lane-splitting": You overtake all the cars by squeezing through between them. Here in CA this is legal, and (most of) the cars are used to it and even make extra room for the bikes. Nevertheless we had to be extremely alert. Everything went fine and we reached the shipper terminal in one piece!

There we checked in the bikes which were loaded each on its own pallet. That entire process took about 2 hours, and after that we took a cab which brought us to our hotel in Cosa Mesa right next to the Orange County Airport from which we will fly home tomorrow.

We celebrated the happy and safe completion of our great adventure by eating at a great sushi place just across the hotel.

That's it - another thing to cross off the bucket list! We thoroughly enjoyed getting to see so much of the U.S., from small towns to massive landscapes, and it's even more fun on the bikes!

A Day in the Desert

Ruth's Dad writes:

Today was another “Day in the Desert”. Since we expected the temperatures to go up into the 100's already in the morning we got up at 6am, had a quick “Kind-Bar-Breakfast” in our room and were on the road by 7am.

The Historic Route 66 led us through over the Sitgreaves Pass (3550ft). The road up the pass was extremely curvy (“Recommended for experienced drivers/riders only”!) and the views were impressive: Rugged rock formation and great vistas onto the plain desert.

We reached Oatman, AZ which is famous in the respect that it is a Ghost Town where people live: With the decline of Route 66 due to the establishment of the Interstate system and the resulting decreased traffic, the number of people living there declined too. But with the recent growing interest in the Historic Route 66, the tourist traffic has caused business to flourish again. We reached Oatman by about 8am and all the businesses (old saloons, souvenir stores, bars) were still closed. Hence we enjoyed a rather sleepy little mountain village. Even the famous free-ranging donkeys we had been told about seemed to wait for the official opening at 9am (you can buy carrots to feed them...) and so we saw only a couple of donkeys along the road and only one in town.

We left Oatman after a brief stroll and taking a few photos. By now the temperatures were in the mid-90's and descending down to only 600ft elevation into the desert they rose above 100F pretty quickly but we stayed relatively cool. The last couple of days we had been riding “California style” anyway: Helmet, bandana, long-sleeve athletic quick-dry shirts, gloves, protective pants and boots.

 That way the wind kept us reasonably cool but we had to drink a lot(!) of water in order to avoid dehydration.

We followed the old Route 66 through the desert until we reached Needles, CA but not before our otherwise trusted GPS (nicknamed “Susan”) sent us into the boonies. In Needles we had a sumptuous breakfast at the Wagon Wheel Hotel before continuing along the desert roads.

Further along unfortunately the old Route 66 road was closed due to damage done by some storms last year (We wondered how California spends all that money they collect with the outrageous tax on gas!). Hence we had to take some miles of Interstate.

Interstate riding is very exhausting. Since we went only about 60 mph (we didn’t want to kill the engines by overheating) cars and trucks were passing us all the time and their wake turbulence is not nice. Also, the cars and trucks heat up the air quite a bit so it's even warmer on the Interstate, and in 110+ weather that's not fun!

We left the Interstate after a few miles and heading into the desert again. The temperature was above 110F (the air temp sensor on my Harley pegged out at 120F!) and we took a break at Roy's Cafe in Amboy, CA. We fueled up ($4.99/gal makes you glad that the bikes average about 45 mi/gal!) and had drank a cold soda.

After those desert miles again, and finally the old Route 66 became so bad that we were afraid we were going to blow a tire so we decided to ride the remaining 30 mi to Barstow, CA on the Interstate again. We were glad to reach our Days Inn exhausted, thirsty but happy!

It's getting hotter (104F)!

In the last blog post, we were in Santa Fe. Leaving Santa Fe was our long day of 300+ miles (the longest let of our entire journey!); however, the weather cooperated and it was a beautiful cool day, making the ride very easy.  Along the way we stopped for breakfast at a classic 1950s diner in Albuquerque, decked out in turquoise, pink, and stainless steel.

The ride itself was beautiful as well, going through these mesas of red sandstone.

Our destination that night was the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ! There are a few places you can sleep in a wigwam along Route 66 so of course we had to make sure one night was spent there. The inside didn't look much different than your average motel room (albeit smaller) but it was an experience none the less.

Monday saw us to Flagstaff.  The scenery changed quite a bit as we rode into the mountains, turning from red mesas to more alpine views with pine trees. We had been to Flagstaff about 7 years ago but we still had a good time walking around town and peeking in the stops. It is not a very big town though so when we finished in an hour, we decided to ride 30 miles south to Sedona.  Now this is a beautiful ride down a curvy road through the red sandstone formations. Although it was very hot, it was a motorcyclist's dream.

We spent two nights in Flagstaff so that we could take one day to go up to the Grand Canyon.  We had hiked half way down the Canyon 7 years ago but it is still so impressive to see.

An early morning to avoid the afternoon temperatures of over 100 degrees brought us to Kingman, AZ. On the way we stopped at several historical Route 66 location including the Hackberry General Store.

There we ran again into a group of Australians on motorcycles which we already had met back in Oklahoma and we caught up to each other again here.

Santa Fe

It's “Dad Blog Writing Time” again.

Yesterday, we diverted from the historic Route 66 in favour for a more scenic road: From Tucumcari we took NM-104 north-west towards Las Vegas, NM which led us through the impressive scenery of the high mesa. We climbed up to about 7000 ft! The plateau had fantastic views to offer, and the road was nice and curvy, a dream for every motorcyclist!

The weather couldn't decide if it wanted to rain or stay dry, so we donned our rain gear several times only to take it off again a few miles later. Fortunately the temperatures remained in the mid-60s and so  we stayed cool even with the rain gear on. A welcome change from the 100+ degree weather from the days before!

We had lunch in Las Vegas and then briefly stopped by the Montezuma Castle which is now used by United World College before riding to Santa Fe. Who would have thought there would be a castle in New Mexico?

The historic Santa Fe Trail which we had followed from Las Vega leads through Santa Fe's town center with its historical Plaza.

It was a great experience to ride through those roads with the beautiful adobe houses before reaching our motel (this time a very mundane Motel 6) just 1 mi from historic Plaza.

A nice evening stroll over the Plaza gave as a first impression of this beautiful town. We spend some time in the New Mexico History Museum where we learned a lot about the Spanish colonization of what was later to become “New Mexico”, the American annexation, the Civil War and modern history.

At dinner Ruth had a special experience: We wanted to order 3 beers and of course Ruth got “carded”. Although she had reached “legal drinking age” earlier this year, they would not sell her beer because she still has the junior-style “vertical” drivers license because New Mexico law stipulates that you can buy and drink alcohol only with an “adult” license. Go figure! If she had brought her passport it wouldn't have been a problem....

We started today with going to a laundry and washing our clothes. While the washing machine did its job we had breakfast.

Then we walked into town again (only 1 mile) and for the rest of the day canvassed uncounted art galleries and traditional jewelery stores. Initially the weather was rainy with some serious downpours. Hence being in the galleries had the advantage of staying dry! Later it cleared up so that we spent more time outside also visiting the local Art Festival which took place this weekend on the Plaza.

At the Basilica of St. Frances we witnessed the end of a wedding, and later in the afternoon we attended mass there.

We returned to our hotel relatively early because tomorrow will be another long day with about 300 mi to ride.

Officially Half-way!

Today we officially crossed the half-way point of Route 66, in Adrian, TX.

There is a little cafe called Midpoint Cafe that we wanted to go to but unfortunately it was closed by the time we got there. Instead we went next door and met the lady who was the inspiration for the character Flo in Cars. We didn't realize this before the trip, but the story of Cars was created from Route 66. All of the characters are real people that the creators met along way, as are trucks and cafes. It seems as if each little town we visit has some connection. Rock Cafe in Stroud, OK was another inspiration for a cafe and the owner for the a character Sally Carrera. The trucks came from Gallena, KS.

But backing up a little. After melting our way to Tulsa, OK, we continued to melt our way to Clinton, OK.  Breakfast was at a cute little mom-and-pop diner, complete with red leather seats. We had oatmeal pie at the Rock Cafe in Stroud.

We chose to circumvent Oklahoma City because it would have involved stop-and-go traffic which is no fun in 100 degree weather wearing motorcycle gear.  That was a good decision because it brought is to Clinton earlier.  We wanted enough time to look at the Rt 66 Museum that they have there.

They have some great exhibitions describing the creation, and then fall of Route 66 as the first continuous paved road from Chicago to Los Angeles.  As cars became more prevalent in the beginning of the 20th century, people could drive farther and faster, increasing the need for continuous roads that were paved, as opposed to dirt roads. Route 66 was created to fulfill this purpose, connecting existing pieces and passing through lots of small towns, giving it the nickname "Main Street of America." With more people traveling farther, more gas stations and motels were needed as well. Many have been kept up over the years and you can stay in the motels even now. We have tried to stay in original ones when we can. However, with the creation of the Interstate system to make everything even faster, a new highway was built pretty much parallel to Rt 66, but bypasses all of the small towns. This hurt the economy of the towns because they did not have nearly as many travelers passing through.  Now many organizations are in place dedicated to restoring the Route to closer to what it was. People still live in these small towns, and they love to share their story with the travelers (like us) coming through. Every single one of them has been so incredibly nice and friendly.


Thursday was a long day of riding (304 miles), from Clinton, OK to Tucumcari, NM, passing straight through Texas. In Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico, Route 66 follows I-40 pretty closely. As we continue west, the landscape gets flatter and the roads get straighter. We were able to go many miles without making any turns.  Some interesting points from today include a Redneck Castle, Bug Ranch, Cadillac Ranch, and the Blue Swallow Motel.

The owner of this Redneck Castle was quite a character. We pulled up to a house with tons of signs outside and this older man wearing overalls comes out and invites us inside. It is filled with signs, guitars, old artifacts, anything. He calls himself a packrat, not a collector. We talked to him for a little bit, and then he sang us his version of "Get Your Kicks on Route 66."

We had lucked out with the weather so far in terms of no rain, but today we got caught in a little shower. It was almost over before we could even get out our rain gear. As we were filling up on gas for the last little part until Tucumcari, it started sprinkling again but we waited that one out for a few minutes. We could see it raining in the direction we were headed but lucky avoided getting wet.  As soon as we checked into the motel and put the motorcycles in the garage, went into the room and closed the door, it started downpouring-the kind you can hear on the roof. We were very lucky not to have been caught out in that. We finished off the evening at the Lizard Lounge, enjoying their signature Blue Swallow Margherita.

The owner of the Blue Swallow Motel took a photo of us and posted it on Facebook!