CALIFORNIA MOVING ON TO THE MOTHER ROAD 'S TERMINUS
Now you are in Needles, on the edge of California's Mojave Desert, where the 1908 Neo-classical-style El Garces Hotel, also a former train station, is being restored.
Divert south off I-40 on to the original Route 66 and you come to Amboy, a 1920s mining and railroad boom town that deteriorated after I-40 bypassed it in 1973. Among its surviving buildings is Roy's Motel and Cafe, built in 1928 and crowned by a majestic sign exhibiting the Googie-style futuristic asymmetrical design to be found in buildings throughout California.
To your left as you continue along the road is the Amboy Crater, the remains of an ancient, volcano, and after you rejoin I-40 at the ghost town of Ludlow, you come to Newberry Springs and the renowned Bagdad Cafe, renamed from the Sidewinder Cafe so it could be used as the site of the namesake 1988 film starring Jack Palance. You also might want to swing by Calico Ghost Town, just off I-40, as it has become a major tourist attraction featuring original and restored buildings, a vintage train and colourful events.
At Barstow, the star attraction is the majestic 1911 Casa del Desierto, one of the 84 original Harvey House hotels built between Chicago and Los Angeles and now the home of the Route 66 Mother Road Museum.
Rejoining Route 66 again, you head south to Helendale's delightfully-quirky Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch, actually a roadside jungle of scrap metal 'trees' festooned with glass bottles, toys and other items. And at Victorville, where you link up with Interstate-15, there's the California Route 66 Museum.
The next stop, San Bernardino, has a wealth of accommodation, including the Mother Road's other Wigwam Motel. It's also home to the Unofficial McDonalds Museum, set on the site where the globe-spanning fast-food chain was launched in 1940. Now on Route 10 headed west, you come to Rancho Cucamonga, site of one of California's oldest wineries and of the sunshine yellow 1915 Historic Route 66 Service Station.
HEAD SOUTH TO HELENDALE'S DELIGHTFULLY-QUIRKY ELMER'S BOTTLE TREE RANCH, ACTUALLY A ROADSIDE JUNGLE OF SCRAP METAL 'TREES' FESTOONED WITH GLASS BOTTLES, TOYS AND OTHER ITEMS.
The next major stop is Pasadena, home of the impressive Norton
Simon Museum, the spectacular themed botanical gardens around the Huntington Library, the Arts & Crafts style Gamble House (Doc Brown's home in Back to the Future), and the renowned 1925 Pasadena Playhouse. You might want to drop by the Fair Oaks Pharmacy, serving yummy ice cream and milk shakes at its soda fountain since 1915, and/or overnight in the grand 1914 Langham Huntington hotel, set in 23 lovely acres and featuring an outdoor saline swimming pool, a spa and gourmet restaurants.
Soon you are on the outskirts of huge, sprawling Los Angeles, where there are such overnight options along Route 66 as the 1926 Figueroa Hotel, founded by women for women in 1926 and now restored to its original splendour, and Beverly Hills' 1912 namesake hotel, a favourite with Hollywood stars.
And then, of course, there are such sites of note as Highland Park's
GET A PERSONALISED OFFICIAL ROUTE 66 COMPLETION CERTIFICATE FROM MEL'S DRIVE-IN AT THE INTERSECTION OF LINCOLN AND OLYMPIC BOULEVARDS, THE OFFICIAL END OF THE MOTHER ROAD, OR ABOUT SIX BLOCKS FARTHER, AT THE VISITOR CENTER KIOSK ON OCEAN AVENUE.
weirdly wonderful rooftop Chicken Boy Muffler Man (once an advert for a chicken restaurant), Downtown's picturesque Angels Flight funicular railway and Hollywood Boulevard's flamboyant, landmark TSL Chinese Theatre.
Now you are in ocean-side Santa Monica, where you can get a personalised Official Route 66 completion certificate from Mel's Drive-In at the intersection of Lincoln and Olympic Boulevards, the official end of the Mother Road, or about six blocks farther, at the Visitor Center Kiosk on Ocean Avenue, not far from the more popular, symbolic terminus – at the city's landmark pier, where a large Route 66 sign announces this is ‘The End of the Trail'.
Then you can opt to stroll along the historic pier, admiring its old carousel (where Robert Redford and Paul Newman hung out in 1973's The Sting) and the solar-powered Ferris Wheel to reach the pier's end, gaze over the Pacific Ocean and reminisce about your epic journey.