Arriving in Temple City and Surrounding, CA

Friday, May 7 (b) or Thursday, May 6 and Friday, May 7, 2021

We departed our very nice modern hotel in Barstow, CA and again headed west on Historic Route 66. Sometimes it was easy to forget that was the whole point of this trip!

Our guidebook has what are called "giant alerts," and in this case we were looking for a giant parrot in a town called Helendale. We were looking for a sculpture/figure, so this was a bit disappointing, but it WAS large. Notice the gasoline prices, which harken back to long-ago days.

Also in Helendale, right along the route, is a home residence that was once the Sage Brush Inn. The former owner, Sagebrush Annie, ran a roadhouse that reportedly raised eyebrows as well as rumors.

A place we did not stop for, and probably should have, was the "Bottle Tree Ranch" which had a large number of countless bottles arranged as trees. Picture below taken from the Internet, Google Images.

We weren't looking for adult beverages, but we really did like the mural. The next two pictures were in Ora Grande, which seemed to be a cement factory town, complete with white dust all over the place. They did line the other side of the tracks from the factory with store fronts.

All too common, especially in Cali, were museums and points of interest that might have survived COVID if they were allowed to open, which they are not. This was supposed to be a very interesting museum, but it is "COVID-closed" as Randy calls it, and they may not survive to open again. In the town of Victorville, which we had passed through going north to Barstow a day or two ago.

A couple views from the road. As you can see, the weather was great. The first picture is an area called Phalen.

There wasn't much to see in San Bernadino (the last town named in the song Route 66), as you can see below.

There was this curiosity, however. This is what Jerry McClannahan says might be the only section of concrete like this on the entire route -- it is from an original pouring done before there was really a Route 66 in 1926.

Back in their heyday, there were seven of these Wigwam Motels. We stayed in one in Arizona, as you may remember, and we came upon this one in Rialto, CA. As you can see in the next two pictures, this one is very nicely kept up, much nicer than it's counterpart where we stayed in AZ.

As we entered the town called Fontana, we went looking for Bono's Historic Orange, purported to be the last of the Giant Orange Stands that once lined California roads. As you can see from my opening picture, and the picture below, it is no longer operating, and probably has not for some time. Sad.

In Rancho Cucamonga we found the Sycamore Inn, which dates back to 1848, originally a stagecoach stop,

We passed at least one of these elsewhere, a "Madonna of the Trail" statue, supposedly one of twelve across the country, dedicated to the rugged pioneer women who made that trek across country.

Glendora had this nicely done sign upon entering ...

but the best place was Flappy Jack's Pancake House, where we stopped for lunch. I claim it was the best meal we had on this trip. Outstanding.

In Monrovia, on Foothill Drive (Route 66) we found the 1925 Aztec Hotel, designed, as Jerry says, in "Aztec Ruin" style. Unfortunately, it is closed, possibly permanently, but Randy was able to get a shot of the inside through the very foggy glass.

We passed Santa Anita horse racing track. I thought, this looks like every picture you've ever seen of coming into California.

Our goal for the day was to get to the home of Randy's cousin, Janie Griffith and her husband Paul. Randy had never met Paul, and the last time she saw Janie was around 1968! Of course, I had never met either of them. We spent a bit of time getting to know each other, then Paul drove (thank goodness, get me out of that traffic!) to the home of Randy's maternal grandmother, in San Gabriel. Randy and Janie exchanged memories about the house from back in the 60's.

May 7, 2021. Paul driving again, we headed out for some sightseeing. Part of the time we were actually on Historic Route 66, part of the time 66 was under whatever highway we were on. We stopped by the Rose Bowl and viewed the surrounding area.

After more driving and viewing, we reached a goal we all had, to find the Gene Autry Museum of the American West.

The museum had recently re-opened, and there was a lot of renovation going on. Forgive us, we were disappointed, because most of what was displayed was native culture, and much of it was very modern or avant garde, and certainly not to our liking. Part of the problem was our own expectations, we were expecting information about Gene Autry himself, who was quite an interesting man. We think what information was there was part of the area closed for renovation.

We finished the afternoon by stopping by the original In - N - Out Burger restaurant. We had a good meal -- the place was hoppin'! -- and talked so long, we missed the museum and company store.

Included within the afternoon was a lot of driving around to places with familiar names, like Colorado Blvd, which is part of the route for the Tournament of Roses Parade, as well as where the Little Old Lady from Pasadena raced her brand new shiny red Super Stock Dodge!

We called it a little early, because we still had catching up to do. Randy and Janie have been doing a lot of talking about the family's past, and we have been trying to fill in some information for genealogy for that part of Randy's family.

Our goal tomorrow -- finish the quest, get to the end of Route 66!