Once again looking back at the rough road

We saw many volcanic rocks in the desert and more unique plants and animals.

Eric's first flat

Lucille:

April 27 - Sunday - Today was quite an experience!  I left Barstow at about 10 am.  When we were doing our research for this trip, Tom and Eric planned the
route in 70-100 mile days, and then I searched the Internet to see if their selected towns had any lodging.  The stretch from Barstow to Needles is more than 145 miles so they selected Fenner for the stop for today.  My research showed nothing in Fenner or anywhere else between Barstow and Needles, but on Route 66 about half way between Barstow and Needles a motel was listed in Amboy, a town with a population of 20 that had a gas station, motel, and cafe.  We decided that no matter how humble a place it might be, that would be our destination, because who wants to ride 145 miles or so on a bike in one day?  We thought since it was such a small place maybe we should call for a reservation, so last night and again this morning I called and got voice mail but could never reach anyone to talk to.  We decided that even if they had no room for us, Roy's Motel in Amboy would be our meeting place.  I drove on Interstate 40 for 50 miles to Ludlow and then got on Route 66 for the 28 miles to Amboy.  The size of the town was expected, but I could not believe my eyes and ears when I arrived.  There were well over 100 motorcyclists there, and the sound of loud amplified rock music and motorcycle motors filled the air. I went to a spot that might be the office to the motel, and it turned out to be the gift shop.  A lovely young woman named Deborah (pronounced with the accent on the or) waited on me and seemed somewhat surprised that I was looking for a room.  She suggested that I go to where drinks and hamburgers were being sold and ask for Walt.  He could tell me if we could stay tonight.  He said no, they had no vacancies and he was very sorry.  I was so disappointed because I knew our only alternative was to drive 80 miles to Needles after the guys arrived, and since Tom wants to bike every mile of the way across the country, I knew we'd probably have to drive the 80 miles back to Amboy tomorrow.  I had arrived at about 11:45 and had a 3 1/2 hour wait for Tom and Eric.  During this time the loud music and motorcycle sounds continued. Cyclists continued to arrive, and others continued on their way.  The music did not stop until 3:10.  I ate the lunch I had packed and did a little bit of reading, but most of all I people-watched. Everyone was having such fun--laughing, eating hamburgers, drinking  beer or soft drinks, taking pictures of each other.  One attraction that caught everyone's attention was Mistress Crystal.  She was a pretty, voluptuous blond, dressed in a black lownecked top and tight jeans.  She teased the men by prancing and dancing to the music waving a black leather whip.  An interested guy would bend over a stool that was near her, and she would hit him on the bottom a number of times with the whip as the crowd cheered.  Then she would prance around some more with the money that she got from the men.  In front of Roy's is parked an old Mercury black and white police car.  Also parked there are an old rusty fire truck and old bus that had round tables and seating inside.  Occasionally someone from Roy's would get in the police car and drive around with the siren going.  After talking to some folks, I learned that this was the last day of the Harley Davidson River Ride, and all of these cyclists were on their way home from Laughlin, Nevada.  Just as Tom and Eric rode into Amboy, Deborah came up to me and said that Walt had said to her about me, "Oh my God, she's still here."  I had told both him and Deborah about our bike trip and why I was so disappointed about not being able to stay there.  Deborah told me that the reason Walt said there was no vacancy was because they had been so busy and the rooms were not cleaned.  Did we really need a place to stay?  I said, "If you give me clean linens, I'll make up the beds, and we really want to stay."  She said that Walt said that we could stay in the cottage that had the key in the door, and she would go try to find some clean sheets and towels.  She gathered up the dirty towels that were in the room and came back a few minutes later with the only clean linens she could find.  They had some stains from much use but had been washed, we decided.  They charged us $50 for the room and we were thrilled with our good fortune of getting to stay here after all and not having to go to Needles today.   We stripped the beds.  The fitted sheets were for smaller than the queen beds, so we used the flat sheets as the bottom sheets and just threw the fitted sheets loosely over the beds as the top sheet.  The other thing Deborah was concerned about was that they had no food to serve us while we were here.  We had some food in our cooler, so we told her we'd be ok.  She then explained to us about Amboy. The town is pretty much open for this one week only all year - the week of the River Ride.  There are 2 men who are co-owners of the whole town, Walt being one of them.  The other owner is a man named Tim who lives in New York.  Several of his friends, Deborah and Mistress Crystal being two of them, come out from New York each year to help Walt and Tim open up the town during this one week of the year. Today was the last day.  Tomorrow they were heading back to New York, and the town would be pretty much empty the rest of the year.  We ate in the room stuff from our cooler and were getting settled for the evening when there was a knock at the door.  A man introduced himself as Mac and said that he and his friends had barbecued some chicken and hamburgers and they would like us to join them.  We told them we had eaten, and he invited us to come and socialize with them anyway--so we did, and we had so much fun.  We ended up eating some more. The BBQ chicken was delicious. Several of the group that ran the town this week had left earlier, and these folks having the barbecue were the last ones around. They told us interesting stories about their experiences in the town and how much fun they had as friends and invited us to watch a movie about Amboy that had been made by a friend of  the group.  We sat outside of Mac's trailer home on old discarded couches that they had found here and there and watched the movie about the town. In the movie they interviewed most of the people we were sitting with, and they were hilarious.  The message that came through though was about the love that these people had for each other and how special the Amboy experience was for all of them when they could just get together with a very diverse group of very good friends and get away from the pressures of their everyday lives for a short time.  I had a wonderful time today, and I ended today thinking that if you have an open mind and don't jump to conclusions about a person's appearance, you can meet some of the most interesting and good people.  Some of these folks I saw today looked like pretty tough characters, but the more I observed and listened, the more I saw the love that these folks have for each other, for motorcycles, for the desert, and for meeting people from diverse backgrounds.        ​ ​

Route 66 has few cars since Hwy. 40 was built.

Barstow, CA to Amboy, CA 80 miles. This day starts at 2147 feet and through rolling hills and descends to 629 feet.

ERIC:

Day 6 - (4/27/03) What a day!  Last night after reviewing our maps we decided to break the next two days into three days.  Instead of stopping in Fenner (which we can't seem to find a place to stay) we are going to take a different route and spend the night in Amboy and Needles.  I am very happy about the change.  I decided I like to ride about 5 hours per day.  After 5 hours the fun seems to go away.  Today was the worst road day we have had.  We started out in Barstow and missed our turn onto National Trails Hwy. (Route 66).  We noticed within a block so we turned around right away.  As we left Barstow we ran into Marine Logistics Center.  We were greeted by a guard who told us we were unable to ride through.  We had to go down a dirt road for a few miles to bypass.  The dirt road ended up being one of the smoothest rides all day.  We traveled all day on old Route 66.  It has since been replaced by Interstate 40.  It is a dying Highway in dire need of repairs.  The cracks in the road made the riding difficult.  Today I got my first flat tire.  It was easier to change than Dad's.  Along Route 66 there were many old motels, cafes and gas stations that were no longer in business and falling apart.  The 50's area signs are very interesting, but unfortunately they are fading away.  The scenery in the desert in wonderful.   I love the wide open spaces.  We passed along parts that had a lot of volcanic rocks.  These were some of my favorites.  The road was mostly downhill which means tomorrow we will be going back uphill.  For some strange reason the song that kept going though my head today while riding was 'Get your kicks on Route 66'.  Tonight Mom found this wonderful stop in Amboy at Roy's.  It is quite.....interesting.  Make sure to read her journal.  There is no phone line tonight so we will be unable to upload the pages tonight.

Read Lucille's journal about the day at Roy's.

The desolate road

Day Six - 4/27/2003

TOM:

This plan was modified to stop at  Amboy.  This trip was 80 miles long.
Today's trip started out with an encounter with a person two blocks from the motel. We were stopped for the stop light and the person was walking across the street toward us.  He stopped to yell at the person in a car that had stopped his car slightly into the pedestrian lane. He then went to the driver's side and hit the window with his hand. As he approached us I decided to say good morning with a simle to try to make his day a little better.  He yelled at me, "Don't talk to me, biker, get on down the street".  I wondered for a while why someone would be so angry and upset with everyone. In about two hours an answer started to form for me.  As we travelled down Highway 66 it became very rough. It reminded me of  a wash board that was used to wash clothes. My grandmother used one since they had no electricity at their house.  The road really pounded your whole body and made you wonder if the fillings in your teath would fall out. After a couple of hours of this treatment I started to think that if this type of physical abuse as well as mental abuse went on every day I may be angry also.  The trip today was very nice since we were on route 66 all the way with very few cars, less than 20 cars for the whole route.  For the most part the road was rough and slowed our speed down.  The average was 16 mph and I was surprised that it was as high as it was.  The desert scenery was beautiful again today.  We were in the center of the valley with the train track on one side and Highway 40 on the other side for the most part. We could see the mountains and valley all around and not many signs of people  We saw many motorcycles today and did not know why, but later learned that they were part of the river run in Laughlin, NV.  Lucille will tell you the story of Amboy.  In contrast to the anger that we observed at the start, at the end of the day we saw hospitality and love when Max knocked on our door and invited us to their barabeque. This was another great day