2006 November Trip to Southern California Day      

     Once again my sister-in-law had to work today but my brother took today off and my sister from Palmdale spent the night so we could have a nice drive this morning. Today we decided to take the Torrent out so I could do the driving which didn’t seem to bother my brother any.

      Our goal today was to drive old Route 66 from Victorville to Barstow and then drive over to the Calico Ghost Town. Since we all got up early this morning we got on the road by 8:00am. Once we past Interstate 15 we started down new road although I had taken this way many years ago.

Old Route 66

       The first sign of civilization once you leave Victorville on old 66 is the small town of Oro Grande. Oro Grande is the location of a cement plant that is a favorite among railfans because they have their own locomotives. Next is the town of Bryman which is just a speck on the map and then you come into Helendale. While Helendale does not look much just across the Mojave River is the Silver Lake are which is a new suburban area out here in the middle of nowhere but at is one of the few places where you can find inexpensive Real Estate in Southern California.

       Here and there you will encounter a few old buildings from the Route 66 era including a few old gas stations and those kinds of buildings. There were a few times I saw something worthwhile to stop and take some Black and White photos of. Just pastJohnston’s Corner before you hit the main section of Barstow there was some old signs and a few old buildings that are worth taking a look at.

       Just before you pass under California Highway 58 you see what made Barstow and that is trains. We encountered five BNSF trains between Johnston’s Corner and California 58 and from there you could see several trains waiting to depart for either the bay area or Los Angeles. Old Route 66 becomes Main Street in Barstow but around California 58 it looks very suburban. However, soon you hit the downtown area of Barstow and most of the buildings are from the Route 66 era but many of them are pretty run down.

       There is several old motels from the Route 66 ear some of them look pretty seedy but there is a couple of them that you can tell have been taken care of. We stopped at a convenience store to fill up the car with gas and to get some soft drinks for our journey up to Calico. Once we drove through downtown Barstow we jumped on Interstate 15 and got off at the Calico exit. From there it’s about a five or so mile drive up into the mountains and the town of Calico.

Calico

       Despite driving by this area dozens of times in my life I never have actually been to Calico. We paid our admission and headed into the park. It was still pretty early in the morning (9:30AM) so the park was pretty quite at this point but it wouldn’t be for long. We walked up the main path and took a few pictures including with “the sheriff” and then went over to the train station and bought tickets for the train ride. The guy that took is tickets were not friendly and it turned out he would be our “engineer”.

       The train ride was short but was nice. As you go around the loop that makes up the railroad the engineer gives you an explanation of the town and its history, the geography of the area, and some other tidbits of information about the characters of the town. After the train trip we took a trip through the underground mine. I was not sure how my wife would do since she can get claustrophobic but she had no problems going through the mine.

      You exit the mine above Calico and it gives you a nice view of the area. By this time the place was starting to get very busy. We continued to look through the various buildings in the area and we also saw some of the less threatening wildlife. It was obvious that several buses of Asian tourist had showed up by the number of them walking around. As we exited the main Calico area there was seven tour buses in the parking area so that explained the number of people now in the park. The cemetery is just outside the parking lot area so we drove over and took some pictures of it.

       After leaving Calico we took a drive to Barstow so we could have some lunch. We passed a Del Taco which turned out to be the first Del Taco ever. My brother suggested a restaurant his friends took him to which is on old highway 58 so we headed over there.

Lunch in Barstow

       The Crossroads is a nice classic restaurant. The interior is all logs and gives it a very homey feeling. The waitress was extremely friendly and had a great personality. The menu was very typical meat and potatoes so I ordered a cheeseburger and fries. The food was excellent making the whole experience a pleasure.

      After leaving the restaurant we stopped at the old train station which is now a museum. We walked around the building taking some pictures then took some pictures of static displays of the train equipment. There was an old Santa Fe FP45 on display that was actually opened for cleaning so I showed my wife the interiors of a big locomotive.

Return to Apple Valley and Dinner

      We took old Route 66 back to Victorville. My brother’s step daughter had a game tonight so after seeing my sister off my wife and I headed over to a Chinese buffet for dinner. The place was called the Chinese Star and is located in a strip center in the heart of Apple Valley. There is very few Chinese Buffet’s that I do not like but this was one of them. The quality of the food was not that good, there were some scary people in the place, and the employees were not that friendly. All in all not a good experience. After dinner we headed back to my brother’s and spent some time with them when they got back since we would be off to my Anaheim tomorrow.