This last section crams quite a lot into a relatively short distance. We had about 80 miles to cover but it was going to be a long and gruelling 80 miles. Another hot day greeted us, as we set out to our first stop, Bono's restaurant and orange stand. The restaurant is currently being renovated and should re-open shortly. The orange stand, is a giant orange, from which, oranges were sold to the passing motorists, back in the day. There are few remaining examples left, so it's good that someone has taken care of this one.
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| Bono's Historic Orange |
A gas station and a park, with and old section of the Old Trails Highway, latterly Route 66, were next up and a few hundred yards down the road, The Sycamore Inn, 1848 vintage and the Magic Lamp restaurant, about 100 years later.
A pioneer mother statue ( commemorating the women pioneers), some signage for a recently defunct drive-in (2001), now a college, an old AAA gas station and an Aztec styled theatre were next to provide a photo opportunity. These were followed by a Windmill diner and an old 11 mile milestone, from the early 1900s, before the spectacular Colorado Street Bridge. This is a lovely concrete structure, curving majestically across the valley. Probably the best stop of this particular journey, though it's hard to get a good photo. We did drive across it though.
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| Colorado Street Bridge |
Another theatre, the Rialto, now little more than a shell and we were in the home straight, passing through Beverley Hills we eventually, after some hairy, yet slow moving freeway driving, arrived at Route's end, Santa Monica. This was bitter sweet, not least because they stiff you (and motorcycles) for $12 to park!
We took to the pier, did the photos by the End of Trail sign, then went up to the gardens overlooking the beach, so Catherine could get the Will Rogers Memorial stone photo too. Then it was back to the beach for a paddle. I didn't bother this time but insisted Catherine did, as she may never see the Pacific again.
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| Catherine, in the Pacific Ocean |
By then it was time to head for the hotel. Taking to the crawling freeway again, we jumped across into the car pool lane (possibly illegally) but that didn't really move any faster! The plan was to stop outside the hotel, check in, then take the car back. Mr jobsworth out front wouldn't let us stop and directed us to the 30 minutes free car park under the hotel. OK, except to get to P6 and then back up to the lobby, took over 15 minutes. Explaining to the girl on check-in and telling her we wouldn't be paying $9 if we went over our 30 minutes, she gave us an override pass to get out again.
We dumped our stuff, jumped back in the car, fuelled her up for the last time and ran the mile up the road to drop her off. They offered a courtesy bus back to the hotel but it is less than a mile from the car drop, so we walked.
Unpacked and freshened, we went out to dinner, at a Denny's diner. Catherine was catered for, so there were no issues there.
Tomorrow is sightseeing day, when we plan on taking the metro/transit train into the city. Should be an experience.
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