Old US66 (California Mojave Desert)

[pocketcthulhu]

I am jealous I would Love to hit R66 at somepoint, Thanks for all the pic's and little bits of history.

[RayYork]

Very cool! I'll be making the trip from Santa Monica to Amarillo in about a month with my daughter. My buddy and his daughter are coming along as well. Us in my 2SS/RS and them in his 392Challenger. We are going to consume a lot of dinosaurs....

[Dznts]

nice pics. thanks for sharing

[upflying]

A couple of great movies shot on Rt 66 are "Grapes of Wrath" and "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World".

[Scalded Dog]

Gotta share my own Route 66 tale. About a month ago, surfing the 'net, stumbled across info about a jet fighter crash from almost exactly 30 years ago, in the desert south of Rte 66, near the Pisgah Crater (you drove past it, Tom, a few miles west of the Amboy Crater). The thing I found online included GPS coordinates. So, we hit the road... the closest we could get was about one mile from the pinpoint of the wreckage, so we parked and lit out on foot, handheld GPS pointing the way.

That one mile was intense... very rugged lava beds. The beds are dangerous, because there are huge caverns and crevices, some only covered with a 1/4 inch shell of lava rock that one can break through by stepping on. The lava is sharp (my son, who had gotten new shoes the day before, was left with ragged, beaten footwear that had to be replaced the FOLLOWING day, after the two-mile roundtrip!). One cool thing was that, unlike the rest of the desert, there is no litter on the lava beds... nobody goes out there. Nobody parties, nobody target shoots, nobody dumps TVs or refrigerators. No vehicles can access this moonscape. Nobody leaves debris.

Took an hour an half to get to the wreckage... the military, of course, had long ago removed weapons and sensitive equipment from the site, but wings, fuel tanks, tail, and millions of little pieces litter the crater where the A4 Skyhawk crashed.

We got a few pics (I'll try to post them later), then headed back... for our return trek, we took a different route, and, unbelievably, about 1/2 mile from the crash site, we stumbled across the ejected ****pit window! Not the whole thing, but a large piece about 20 inches X 30 inches... very cool. (We had read that the pilot successfully ejected before the crash... he is alive and well today). Brought that piece home, and would like to do something cool with it.... not sure what, though. Moonroof for the Camaro?!?!?

Very intense hike (and that's coming from a fairly experienced hiker), but highly rewarding.

Rte. 66 has given me many adventures over the years... but this one ranks pretty high on the list!

[RayYork]

Subscribed

[Ivas]

En unas de las fotografías, hay una sombra. ¿Puede ser una alma perdida del pueblo fantasma?

[67motorcat]

Love the route 66 pics...brings back memories,when we lived in California we used to take the "long" route to Vegas..

To the guy above... I don't think the shadows in the pics are ghosts!
well maybe.....

[hotrodsally]

I would like to nominate Tom as C5's South Western US Resident Historian for his continuing efforts to educate and promote awareness of our Desert Southwest Americana.

Thank you.

[TOMS1SS]

Originally Posted by hotrodsally

I would like to nominate Tom as C5's South Western US Resident Historian for his continuing efforts to educate and promote awareness of our Desert Southwest Americana.

Thank you.

The great irony being that I'm not even originally from the desert or the Southwest. But then again, isn't that just part of the story for this part of the country?

[TOMS1SS]

Originally Posted by Ivas

En unas de las fotografías, hay una sombra. ¿Puede ser una alma perdida del pueblo fantasma?

Eso sería sólo yo. No hay fantasmas o almas perdidas detectado, pero ni entonces ni una vez más la gente.

[TOMS1SS]

Originally Posted by 67motorcat

Love the route 66 pics...brings back memories,when we lived in California we used to take the "long" route to Vegas..

To the guy above... I don't think the shadows in the pics are ghosts!
well maybe.....

Not unless I'm a ghost. Didn't see much in the way of people either outside of Fenner and Ludlow off I40.

[TOMS1SS]

Originally Posted by Scalded Dog

Gotta share my own Route 66 tale. About a month ago, surfing the 'net, stumbled across info about a jet fighter crash from almost exactly 30 years ago, in the desert south of Rte 66, near the Pisgah Crater (you drove past it, Tom, a few miles west of the Amboy Crater). The thing I found online included GPS coordinates. So, we hit the road... the closest we could get was about one mile from the pinpoint of the wreckage, so we parked and lit out on foot, handheld GPS pointing the way.

That one mile was intense... very rugged lava beds. The beds are dangerous, because there are huge caverns and crevices, some only covered with a 1/4 inch shell of lava rock that one can break through by stepping on. The lava is sharp (my son, who had gotten new shoes the day before, was left with ragged, beaten footwear that had to be replaced the FOLLOWING day, after the two-mile roundtrip!). One cool thing was that, unlike the rest of the desert, there is no litter on the lava beds... nobody goes out there. Nobody parties, nobody target shoots, nobody dumps TVs or refrigerators. No vehicles can access this moonscape. Nobody leaves debris.

Took an hour an half to get to the wreckage... the military, of course, had long ago removed weapons and sensitive equipment from the site, but wings, fuel tanks, tail, and millions of little pieces litter the crater where the A4 Skyhawk crashed.

We got a few pics (I'll try to post them later), then headed back... for our return trek, we took a different route, and, unbelievably, about 1/2 mile from the crash site, we stumbled across the ejected ****pit window! Not the whole thing, but a large piece about 20 inches X 30 inches... very cool. (We had read that the pilot successfully ejected before the crash... he is alive and well today). Brought that piece home, and would like to do something cool with it.... not sure what, though. Moonroof for the Camaro?!?!?

Very intense hike (and that's coming from a fairly experienced hiker), but highly rewarding.

Rte. 66 has given me many adventures over the years... but this one ranks pretty high on the list!

That's pretty cool I had no idea that was even there. That must have been a hardcore hike though that jagged lava field. They say it takes 2-3 hours to hike the trail at the Amboy Crater, I don't doubt it.

[Ivas]

Yo también creo que no hay nadie cuando estoy "solo", y entonces, del cielo, una bruja sobre su escoba me da asco con sus mamadas. ¡Es mi maldita suegra!:(