Well, back on Route 66 we travelled down the road to Barstow via an old mining town of Oatman, where donkeys roam the streets and will hunt for any food that you have on you> Cute place but does rather smell of donkey sh***. Gold mining was huge here up until the 1930's. The town was named after Olive Oatman who was abducted by the Mojave indians and lived with them for several years. We had lunch at the old Oatman Hotel where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard came for their honeymoon. The walls are covred with dollar bills where people have signed their names and then stuck them to the wall. Their best estimate is that there are 100.000 One dollar bills on the walls !!!

There was then a simulated gunfight between two elderly actors in the main street which has raised over $74000 for charity over the years.

On into California over the Colorado river.

We passed through many small communities all trying to keep the history and magic of route 66 alive. In Amboy we pulled into Roys Cafe and we think this is where our car developed a slow puncture as we found out when we got to Ludlow. So we overinflated the tyre and headed for Barstow and fortunately arrived with the tyre still inflated. It went flat in about a half hour after we arrived, so phoned Alamo Car rentals who arranged a changeover car which arrived 6 or so hours later around 1/2 past midnight.

Very fortunate we weren't stuck on the road across the Mojave Desert (where we had been) So now we have a Chevrolet Malibu with 200 miles on the clock.

Today we drove out to Mojave airport to look at all the aircraft that are mothballed on the tarmac. Included 10 Jumbo Jets from an airline called Southern Air and many many others, There was also an air show on at the time.

After driving back via Barstow we saw the Harvey House Hotel built at Barstow railway station which in its day was a grand and gracious hotel. Now a museum. On our way to San Bernadino at Oro Grande there is Elmer Long's bottle tree farm where he has created over 200 metal poles with many spikes welded to them supporting thousands of empty bottles

From then we drove via Victorville and yet another Route 66 Museum, over the Cagon Pass and through some stunning scenery to San Bernadino wher we are for the night.

So, no World's Largest for today

Tomorrow about 65 miles to Santa Monica Pier and the end of the "Mother Road"