ROUTE 66 in CALIFORNIA
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| Thanks to Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, you can feel just
like the Joads as they roared across the Colorado River on Interstate
40 at seventy miles per hour. Okay, maybe not. State officials still stop
your car and ask if you have any fruit or plants, but I don't think they
harass Oklahomans anymore. (39k) |
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| Underneath the I-40 bridge, looking north along the Colorado.
Just off the last old section of 66 in Arizona, a dirt road leads to the
riverbank. You can climb down the riverbank by ignoring the "no trespassing"
signs that line the road. I don't know what's being protected. (47k) |
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| Goffs. West of Needles, 66 leaves I-40 to run its own course
almost to Barstow. This stretch through the Mojave Desert makes Arizona
seem positively tropical. The Mojave is not the romantic desert of 50s
Westerns. It is bleak and desolate. (39k) |
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| Between Mountain Springs and Essex. In the 1930s, thousands of
people crossed this desert in decrepit cars when much of the road wasn't
even paved. As noted in the Guide Book to Highway 66 (1946), "skeletons
of abandoned cars are frequent along the roadside." (30k) |
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| Essex. The only legitimate 66 shield I've seen between Amarillo
and Los Angeles. I don't know if it's an official sign that's left from
when this road was US 66 (over twenty-five years ago). In theory, all
the official signs were removed when the highway was decommissioned. Perhaps
someone put it up later. Still, it's good enough for me. (39k) |
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