2023 WB Day 18 - What a Mission!

First stop on the eighteenth day on the road was the exit at Jean for fuel.

It's not the i96...

That's the number of bowsers in the huge Chevron gas station on the i15 to LA.

Not far away is the tiny settlement of Goodsprings and the 'haunted' Pioneer Hotel.

It's the oldest tavern in Nevada dating back to the late 1800s...

and the saloon bar and floor surround are all as originally built.

Our run down the i15 connected us with the fifties diner in Yermo called Peggy Sues. Curley fries and ice creams were the ticket...

... beside the 'oasis' outside, home to live tortoise and not so live dinosaurs.

There's a less used section of the original road perfect for a photo op...

..and then Barstow,

the Californian town where the old road proudly intersects the new.

The bottle trees aren't the same as in Aussie and they don't need as much water.

Some of the other landscape around them seems a little incongruous too. Still it was there to force us to stop...

and it did, so perhaps that's something to write home about.

Victorville's rail history is boosted by things Route 66...

and these folks are mighty proud of both elements of their history.

Cajun Pass was a bottleneck so the chance to jump off the interstate and rediscover how it used to be done, actually sped things up.

The tee pees were standing proud and beautifully presented in Rialto...

...although our digs for the night were bigger and more gradious.

Frank Miller's original vision for the mission he bought off his parents before the turn of the 20th century continues today.

The Mission Inn is a mixture of styles and cultures reflecting some of the influences from the people and periods it was built and modified.

It is a labyrinth of passages and corridors connecting the different levels of buildings that take up an entire block in Riverside. We are kings and queens resting just off Route 66 ready for the run to the finish line.