Hysteric Route 66 - Sunday 6/22/2008

If we had turned around right here, we would have saved ourselves about an hour and a half.

If we had really looked at the map, we would have known that we didn't want to go through Oro Grande again to get home.

[This photo was actually taken yesterday, when I was in the passenger seat, but it's just the right illustration for today.]

Well, we saw a lot more of Historic Route 66 than we planned to! Isn’t that great? Yeah!

We merrily headed out of Victorville, CA at 10 o’clock this morning, feeling like we were getting away with something. We’d gone out for breakfast and packed up and I was excited about pulling the trailer. This is a step up from my usual mildly-frightened-but-determined attitude.

I guess we got cocky and didn’t check the map. It was a crummy map with gaps in crucial places, but it would have helped. We’d driven about 40 miles in the wrong direction before we figured it out. Even the abandoned gas stations had thinned out when I pulled over and we checked the few listed landmarks.

We had passed Silver Lakes (ha!), Helendale and Hodge [< Honestly, click on the map to fully appreciate!] before Hydra mentioned that we should really be seeing the San Gabriel mountains by now. He was so right.

Instead of turning around, we went on in the direction we were headed, which ended up adding almost 100 miles to our trip home! (Going to Victorville from Acton on Friday was only about 60!) This is about 37 miles further than if we'd turned around, but like I said we were working from truly crummy partial Google maps.

It did cross my mind that I was taking the lives of my dear spouse, our whole flock and myself in my hands as I turned off of old 66 onto lonely Hinkly Road to cut across to the 58. It was 107 on the Tahoe’s external thermometer and we were pulling a 27 foot trailer, to boot!

Everything worked out fine, but this is a vista I would just as well have missed. I love a new road, but I was kind of over it by the time Hydra took over.

But you know, we did put a positive spin on it, reminding ourselves that we wouldn’t have seen this if we hadn’t come this way, and that we’d gotten an early start.

Getting all bent out of shape over stuff like this is really more exhausting than it’s worth.


Another thing we wouldn't have seen if we hadn't been entering Mojave on the west bound 58 for the first time ever: this cool airplane graveyard. Which maybe made the whole detour worthwhile for a certain aircraft enthusiast in the car. [Hint: Not me; not Dodger.]

And yet: Number One on To Do list before next trip there: Get a decent map of San Bernardino County!