Thursday, May 13th - Victorville CA to Santa Monica CA - FINIS!
Our final day of our Route 66 adventure dawned as beautifully as all of those in the last two weeks. We've been blessed by great weather. When you make your Route 66 trip we heartily recommend this time of year.
Since we planned to meet other Corvette friends during this last day, we got up early and packed the cars in order to leave the hotel at 8:00a:
While loading the cars, our first "tag-along" friend arrived: Ray Barbour. He lives hundreds of miles north and west of Victorville but was in the hotel parking lot by 8:00a. Amazing!
(Some people will do anything for a dash plaque)
The plan was to meet Janet and her gang at an I-15 exit between 8:30a and 9:00a
Most were there when we got there and the others arrived shortly. We ended up with nine more Corvettes following along for much of our final day of adventure.
We headed out at 8:45a. It was only a little more challenging with an eleven-car caravan than with a two-car one -- but a lot more impressive for the passers-by.
First stop was in San Bernardino (pronounced: "Sanberdino" by just about everyone) at the California Theater. This is a restored 1715 seat theater in the rococo style we love. We parked nearby:
.. and were lucky enough to tour the theater (it's not normally open but the gentleman in charge happened to be there).
(Photography lessson #1: You cannot fix photos where there just wasn't enough light)
This theater was once a Fox theater; they were all built in the 30s in a similar style.
Our next spot (we walked to this one) was a wall in a downtown plaza commemorating the Route 66 Rendezvous Cruisin' Hall of Fame.
We wondered why we weren't on it but I guess they just didn't know about us yet. Yeah. That's it...
They vote four new members in each year. Here are a couple of familiar ones:
Across the plaza was the Route 66 Rendezvous Cruisin' Hall of Fame offices -- at least that's what we thought. The building is empty with just posters and such on the windows:
We added our dash plaque (why not? It's not graffiti if it just sticks there. Is it?)
On the walk back to the cars we spotted this mural:
Can any music majors out there decode the tune?
Our next stop was in Rialto at the Wigwam Motel. Yes, there's another one -- in fact there were seven originally. This one is being restored by Manoj Patel and his family:
I had corresponded with Manoj on the Route 66 Yahoo group but unfortunately he was away when we visited. We did give a dash plaque to his mother:
She was kind enough to give the group a tour of some of the units.
As we were leaving the Wigwam Motel, Ralph Snow asked if we wanted to run by the California Speedway; it's only a mile or two off Route 66. We readily agreed and he led us there. This is a HUGE NASCAR facility that the Route 66 Twins had never visited before:
Ralph spoke to the security guard at the gate, she got on the walkie-talkie and a few minutes later Jeff Mead who handles security for the track showed up in his pickup:
.. and asked if we'd like a tour. Hmmmmmm. Let me think......
I joked that we only had time for ten hot laps as we were on a tight schedule. He laughed (as I expected)... and then led us through the tunnel onto the track:
.. and then served as the pace truck for a hot lap of the track! Awesome!!!!
Talk about your unexpected thrill! It was enough to be led inside the track compound to see it all -- but to be allowed on the track at speed, well....
And this sort of thing never happens -- not without substantial prior planning. You just can't drive up to a NASCAR track, uninvited, and just drive around the track at speed. No way! But we did...
After the lap, we posed the cars at the start/finish line. Those who are counting will notice that we now have ten cars; one dropped out at the Wigwam Motel and, when they see this, I'm guessing that they'll be soooooo disappointed:
(These are fourteen very happy Corvette folks!)
Here are the Route 66 Twins with our new best friend, Jeff Mead:
Here's Jeff with his dash plaque; thanks, Jeff!
The track turned out to be nearly the last Route 66 event; from there we made our way along the Mother Road to Beverly Hills. All the cars dropped out (after the track) except Ray Barbour and Harry and Donna Burke. We stopped for lunch at a Jack-in-the-Box and, after lunch, Ray had to leave.
Our mini-caravan was now three cars heading for Jack & Marsha Revel's home in Beverly Hills. We passed the "Madonna of the Trail":
There was confusion as to route but we all eventually made it to Jack and Marsha's home about 2:15p.
Here's Jack's superclean '59 (alongside his Black C5):
We had a bathroom break and some snacks, did some re-arranging of luggage to permit putting the tops down:
.. and then headed (four cars now, with Jack) to the pier in Santa Monica. There are other "End of Route 66" places but we'd always planned to end our trip at the pier.
As we neared the pier, friend Winston from Atlanta turned up snapping photographs; what a surprise!
WE MADE IT!!!!
(Left to right: Donna, Harry, Jack, Gael, Chaz, Jackie and Buzz)
After a half-hour of "we made it!" celebration we checked into our hotel (just down Ocean Blvd from the Pier):
.. and semi-crashed until leaving again for Jack's to caravan (four cars again) to dinner at RJ's. Here's our dinner party (save Winston who is at the camera controls here):
(Front row: Marsha, Allan, Chaz; Second row: Donna, Gael, Jackie
Third row: Harry, Buzz, Jack)
We walked into the restaurant and all eyes were glued to the television. You could have heard a pin drop; for a moment I thought the restaurant and bar were full of mannikins. And then -- the Lakers won and the room exploded!
After a lovely dinner with the Burkes, the Nielsens, the Revels, Winston and Allan Grossman:
.. we headed home and to bed. As you might have seen, I was just too exhausted to put up the page last night.
And, so, it's over. Seventeen days on the road and a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. The cars (and the people) performed without flaw -- it was a great trip -- and a great memory.
In a few days we'll put up a link to a summary page for those who contemplate making the same journey.
Thanks for tagging along!
Now we have to drive home... :(
If you find typos or other errors on these pages, please click to
. I can't always respond to the emails promptly (being on the road all day) but I do receive, read and act on them.
Come back often, I'll be adding more photos, text and a summary soon.
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