Final day of Route 66

August 28^th, 2026

Lake Forest, California

Woke at normal time today and got ready.

Went down to the office to have breakfast, but not much there, just had a bagel with some cream cheese.

Back to the room to finish packing and load up the bike.

Do not have far to ride today, so need to try and leave late enough so that I do not arrive too early at my next hotel stop.

We got going sometime after 10am, but did not really pay attention.

I road the old route through the middle of Barstow, still a few neat old buildings around, some restored, many not.

I was looking for a fuel stop, though still had plenty of fuel, usually like to fill up first thing anyway.

Nothing on the route till near the edge of town, and they were either on wrong side of road (and annoying to try getting back across busy road) or some odd gas I had never heard of, so not going to risk it.

I had enough to get all the way into San Bernadino if I was careful.

Continued on the highway out of town and heading generally south.

Not much out here, some small towns, ranches, the railroad and lots of abandoned buildings along the road.

After about 20 minutes I saw a fuel stop I could use and pulled in to fill the tank.  Then went inside to buy a few cold drinks.

Drank part of one outside, then put them in the backpack and got back on the road.

Short distance past there we reached the only stop I had planned for the day.

Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch.

This unique feature was created by a local after he was left with a huge collection of bottles and misc stuff that he and his father had collected over 50 years of wandering around the local desert.

He constructed metal tree stands that hold the bottles and place them and many other things around a 2 acre spot on his property to share with people passing by on the old Route 66.  The site came about sometime around the year 2000, so was not part of the original Route, but has since become a well-known stop for those making the drive.

The creator has sadly passed in 2019, but his family has done what they can to keep the site open and accessible and are working to increase its relevance to the local region.

I pulled up to the side of the road and got off the bike to do a few photos with the bike and bottle forest behind it.

I then went inside to wander around a bit checking out the bottles and some of the other cool stuff just lying around in various spots.

I only stayed about 5 minutes as it was already over 100 degrees and just too hot to be outside for long without a good wind blowing.

Back on the bike we continued down the route till it curved over and went into Victorville.

I followed the route into the center of town and down the main street.  Not much here, but some cool buildings still.

I was hungry, and had not really seen anything unique for food, so just stopped at Del Taco for lunch.

Ordered my food, sat and ate, and just as I was getting ready to leave, started a conversation with a guy a next table who was also a rider, and wanted to do some longer rides.

Finally went out, got on the bike and headed down the road.

But had to pull over after a while as the Google Maps was off its meds again and acting stupid.  I had accidentally closed the app on the phone, and when you bring it back up again, it just freaks out.  The app is so damn stupid, I cannot figure out you are at point 4 on the route and just wont work because you are no longer at point 1.

I had tried to fix it, but the interface on the phone is so flaky and poorly designed, it usually just screws things up even more.

But since the active map was going to end soon and I would change over to a new map (Google only lets you put in about 10 stop points on a map, so been using 3-6 different maps to follow a custom route that is not just the fucking Interstate.  Another brain-dead design feature….one that never existed 15+ years back.

But the new map was giving me headaches too, and cannot work on it while riding, so pulled over into a parking lot and got things working, sort of.

For some reason when you edit a route, it breaks the Maps ability to actually know where you are in relation to the map itself.

So, the map moves in the directions you are going, but is showing you the map 1-2 miles away from where you actually are.  This only happens if you have the map setup to always show the road in front of you.

Now, if I lock the map to always have North at the top, then it shows the route, but you have to make the mental notes to know what direction you are turning and such.

So, back on the road, we soon got onto the Interstate as it lays over the original road for much of this section, or has cut the original alignment into small, mostly undrivable sections.

Not far down the freeway and traffic grinds to a stop.   California freeways, more like parking lots on a good day.

Finally got past the slow down (an accident on side of road, all lanes were open, so while slowing down some was expected, the average retarded driver has to slow way down and stare, causing a 10 mile traffic slow down).

Eventually reached the Cajon pass (and finally got the map working in the better mode again).

Here there are many old alignments still visible, some you can drive, but they are all gravel and mostly dead end sections.

But about half way down the pass, you can exit off and run on one of the alignments all the way to the bottom of the canyon.

Once I reached the bottom, you pass under the freeway on a newer road, and then pick up Cajon Blvd which is the old alignment, well the main one.  Another older alignment runs parallel a few blocks over after the split at a Y.

This segment takes you through a mostly empty zone of warehouses and industrial buildings, then some not so great parts of town, finally reaching the old center of San Bernadino, also not a very nice part of town.

I had really been needing a bathroom, but nothing presented itself.  I pulled into a McDonalds, but it was just packed with people, and few groups standing outside and I was not going to leave the bike with all the gear on it sitting there while I fought a crowd inside to use the bathroom.

Once I reached the part of town where the road turns west again toward the coast, I bid my farewell to Route 66.  Spending another 3 hours fighting local street traffic to get to Santa Monica, then fighting it again to get out of there was not going to happen. 

I am tired, over heated, and frankly over Route 66.  Nothing I would care to see along the remaining route, most of it has been rebuilt anyway, so this is where the trip ends.

I turned the opposite direction and went over a few blocks to get back on the freeway.

At this point I will not head down to the south side of Los Angeles Metro to visit a friend.

It will still take a few hours, but will be all freeway till the end.  Which means a lot of slow driving and sitting still as it was now 1:00pm on a Friday and things go from ugly to fugly.

Ran down I-215 to Riverside, with pretty much non stop traffic jam that way.

Then picked up highway 91 which had several slow downs, but some nice open sections as well.

Then I had to ignore the GPS again, another case of it wanting to change my route, but thankfully this time I knew what highway I needed, and it was not the toll road it wanted me to take.

Grabbed highway 55 south and then picked up I-5 to continue south.

55 ran smoothly, and I-5 started well, but had several slow downs as well.

Pulled off the freeway in the community of Lake Forest and found my hotel just off the Interstate.

I was an hour early, so stopped at the gas station next door to use restroom finally, and buy a cold drink.

I then rode next door and checked to see if I could get the room early.  Thankfully they were able to allow that, so checked in, grabbed a luggage cart and unloaded the bike (which I had just parked in the road under the front overhang.

Once unloaded, I moved the bike over to an empty spot in front of the building and went up to the room.

Unloaded the cart and then sat and tried to cool down as I was just dripping sweat and body was hot to touch.

Finally changed into street clothes, took the cart back down, and walked next door to buy some water, and a few more cold drinks.

Back in the hotel I made contact with my friend and he chose a restaurant to meet me at, but a bit later in the evening, about 9:00pm.

It was a 25 minute ride over to the place, so in the mean time I did some work online, then took a 2 hour nap as I was exhausted.

When the time came, we skipped the boots and pants, just taking the jacket and helmet to ride over since we would only be on side streets, no highways.

Got over without issue and found the place.  It was basically dark out already, so did not see much along the way, but was mostly nice, higher end residential and commercial places.

I parked and walked over to the restaurant, and a quick text let me know he was a few minutes away still.

Once he arrived, we went inside and got our table (he had made reservation to make sure we could get a place).

We talked, ate, and had a good laugh about old times.

We actually closed the place down, leaving at 11:00pm.

We then talked for another 30+ minutes in the parking lot before we both left to head back to our respective homes.

In my case, that was a return to the hotel, which was another 25 minute ride.

Arrived, found a parking spot and secured the bike, then went inside and up to the room.

Was not tired yet, so did a few things online, but did not do any important work, just goofed off.

Finally, time to turn it all off though and go to bed, have another long hot ride tomorrow.

Catch ya down the road.

Todays Route: