2014 – 08 – 20: Day 29 – Road Trip Across the USA – route 66 from Needles to Victorville - experiencing the Mojave Desert

From Needles California 

To Victorville California   

Distance traveled:    174 interstate miles  +  ?? route 66 byways.

The skies were bright and clear after last night’s rain.  As I left Needles I looked for ways that I could explore more of the Colorado River Valley.  Driving on the old Needles Highway it is a learning experience for me to see green on the river side of the road – and desert on the side away from the river.  

irrigation makes the desert green 

 The river itself is not visible and so I decided to try “River Road” to explore.  I saw many fields of irrigated crops but after a couple of miles I was no closer to the river so I turned around and made my way back to Needles Highway.

rain water in the "dip"

The dips in the road, showed evidence of last night's rain where the “washes”  collected water and it raced downhill to the Colorado. 

Because of yesterday’s rain I encountered my first road closure by the Avi golf course / Casino.  Road closed due to flooding.  And so my exploration of the Colorado River Valley was at an end and it was time to back track several miles to get back to the interstate. 

route 66 to Goffs closed due to flooding

A try to get onto old route 66 towards Goffs also failed due to flooding and once again it was time to head back to the interstate.  I got to watch a big truck making a U-turn because of the closure, and then saw a pickup truck inch around the barrier.  I am assuming this was a local driver who figured that his truck could navigate the flooded dips.

A short drive on the interstate and another exit for the national historic road and this time I met with success and no road closures.

As I was driving the desert through barely remembered downs like Essex and Chambles to Ludlow, I tried to imagine the conditions covering these distances in a covered wagon as part of a wagon train.

“By wagon train going cattle speed (Under normal conditions a wagon train pulled by mules could make from 15-25 miles a day. Horses and mules went about 3-4 mph. They required more rest and forage than oxen. If they were pulled by the reliable oxen they made 1-2 miles per hour. Oxen were cheaper …Oxen were also less likely to be stolen by Native Americans. I mean, what self-respecting Plains Indian would ride an oxen? They didn't stray and could be used as farm animals when the destination was reached.”

At 55 miles per hour in 2 hours that is approximately 110 miles that I covered in the comfort of my car. So with oxen pulling the wagon for 12 hours per day you cover about 20 miles.  So what I covered in 2 hours would take approximately 11 days by wagon!

What would this journey feel like at that pace…taking days covering what I did in a matter of hours?

What would be on their minds and in their emotions knowing that in all that vastness there are few sources of life sustaining water?  What does is feel like to know that the food stores that you have packed and brought with you are all the sustenance you have until you reach your destination?   And Ludlow is not the end of the journey…the desert goes on!

Lettering in the desert

After passing Essex I started noticing letters formed out of rocks along the low embankment to my right.  I wondered who put them there and why.  

Later when I had internet access I looked for information and this is what I found:

Names in Rocks – 1942-72 Mojave Desert between Essex and Ludlow …With World War II over, civilian travelers learned that route 66 in the Mojave Desert was a dangerous place.  The eighteen-foot bridges that crossed the washes were too narrow for two speeding cars to pas safely in opposite directions. One care would hit another or worse, impale itself, and sometimes the driver, on the wooden guardrail.  Every wrecker had a litany of horror stories.  But vapor locked gas lines and overheated radiators stopped more cars than did guardrails. Folks sat on the roadside, their radiators boiling, waiting for a wrecker to tow them to the nearest garage.  Bored, they collected small stones and laid them on the roadside berms in the shape of big letters spelling out their names. What was the purpose of the low berms?  These were levees.  When it rains in the desert, it floods.  The berms that lined the north side of the highway funneled floodwater away from the road and into the washes. from the book Along Route 66 by Quinta Scott.

All alone  on the deserted road in the desert 

Driving across this desert I found myself taking lots of pictures of this road in the desert, and mountains in the distance. I am trying to preserve in my photos the feeling of driving miles and miles and miles and seeing hardly any signs of human activity.  I wanted to capture the feeling of expansive wide open spaces so inhospitable to people.  My goal is to create a photographic journal that reflects the emotional experiences of this journey.

for a moment I don't feel so all alone as I watch the train
on the distant tracks passing by 

Most of the time I was the only vehicle on the road.  Highlights of the lonely drive were glimpses of the interstate far off in the distance, or a train passing by.  

Sometimes as I stopped to take a picture of a route 66 relic I would be joined by one other lone tourist.  Some of the isolated homes showed signs of life with a current vehicle parked in the yard.  I tried to imagine living here!   I can’t even begin to fathom what life would be like so far from any urban centre. 

In Ludlow I stopped at a gas station to top up the gas tank and then because route 66 past Ludlow is not maintained, I took the Interstate to Barstow.

Sandstorm in the distance 

While on Interstate 40 I observed a sandstorm off to the left.  There were swirling clouds of dust obscuring a few ranch homes at the base of the mountain. 

As soon as I saw the exit sign for route 66 I was once again away from the traffic and in near isolation I drove across

lonely left over from a bygone era 

more of the desert towards Barstow.  Scattered remains are a legacy of the past when this was the only highway across this desert.   

Those towns bypassed by the interstate became isolated and the abandoned.  Cars travel faster and farther on a single tank of fuel and so service areas become the focal points along the interstate.  We live in different times, where speed and efficiency have won out over the experience of the road itself.  A quick snack at a modern chain restaurant is the norm and the small owner operated coffee shops and lunch stops have become a nostalgia item rather than the norm.

Barstow and eclectic mix of old and the new

Barstow is one of those communities that survived the transition from old route to interstate town.  It has all the new and modern chain stores and yet the old motels still survive here. 

Barstow Harvey House 

While in Barstow I stopped to see the Railway Museum. I loved the architecture of the  “Barstow Harvey House”, the hotel at the railway station, it is a real beauty! 

Unfortunately the railway museum is only open on the weekends so I was out of luck for the opportunity to explore that bit of history. 

Storm clouds gathering 

For the next stretch of the journey I followed the old route 66 to Victorville.  The sky got progressively darker as storm clouds gathered.  

Landmark in the desert - Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch

There is dry desert everywhere I look, with the occasional point of interest like Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch and the Iron Hog Restaurant and Saloon. 

I passed through Oro Grande, looking like a relic from a bygone era, and then suddenly there is this modern town built Victorville growing up out of the desert! 

Victorville nostalgia and modern living side by side 

 Here there is once again that mixture of old and new, the historic district and the modern shopping area all grown together on the edge of the interstate.

I stopped at McD’s to check my email messages.  I was hopeful of having a message from one of my FB friend that lives nearby, but sadly that meeting was not meant to be. 

The sky continued to darken, the clouds were almost black and then saw it start to rain...yes once again I am followed by rain, I know it is the monsoon season and yet these torrential rains in the desert come as a surprise to me.  

I did some shopping for groceries and because of the rain I chose the Mojave Motel over the Mojave Campgrounds.  A quiet evening of notes and picture editing and then sleep are just what this road weary traveler needs tonight. 

Renate Dundys Marrello 

2014 – 08 – 20

Picture Link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10154666409155341.1073741930.709160340&type=1&l=fb2a2c33cc