Day 19
The rain had stopped by 6:00am when we were up and moving. Surprisingly the tent had held up well to the rain, but I still plan on sealing the seams and scotch guarding the nylon sides. Larry stopped in to have us fill out a guest registration and we got a breakfast recommendation from him. We were rolling back towards Winslow by 7:30 with hopes of a shower at the city pool and a yummy crepe for breakfast.
One out of two isn’t bad. The city swim team was starting practice, and we found out general public has to wait until 9:00am to enjoy the pool. Disappointed, we headed to the Sip City for breakfast. Along the way we passed a corner park created to resemble “Standing at the corner in Winslow, Arizona.” line in the “Take it Easy” song by The Eagles. We made a mental note to go do selfies after breakfast.
Sip City did deliver on a good breakfast crepe. We shared a savory ham, cheese, and veggie crepe, and a Nutella, banana and whipped cream crepe, finishing up with a cup of creamy potato bacon soup.
After so many days in a row of getting a shower, we felt dirtier than we really were for not having one in the morning. Plus, both of us wanted to change into clothes that were cooler. After we had gotten our “Standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona” selfie, we tried two city parks before we found restrooms that were open. It wasn’t the cleanest one I’ve been in and I had to get a cricket out of sink, but I got my hair good and wet. A quick scrub with my towel, and I was feeling better and had shorts on again as we headed back to I-40 for the twenty five minute drive to Meteor Crater.
The entrance fee is $18 each, but its worth it. The price gets you the option of joining a guided tour that will walk you up to quarter mile observation area, a 10 minute scientific movie about the impact, and the impressive museum area crammed with great information and hands on opportunities. We chose to skip the guided tour part, for the sake of time, but still felt very satisfied with the experience.
10:30 found us back on the freeway with the mutual decision of home being the goal. The possibility of joining Shar’s sister’s family who were camping near Lassen was briefly discussed, but discarded due to the six hour out of the way round trip.
We filled up the car outside of Flagstaff with dark clouds on the horizon in front of us. It would be nearly 100 miles before we were through some of the heaviest rain I’ve ever had the experience of driving through. We were going 30 MPH at one point with the wipers on high trying to see the road ahead us. Its not an adventures I would care to repeat anytime soon.
I finished getting us through most of the weather and Shar took over driving at the 250 miles driven mark. Thunderstorm cells could be clearly seen to either side of us at times, but I-40 seemed determined to worm its way around them. Barstow kept creeping closer, and with it our exit from Route 66. Shar and I both agreed we were tired of being dirty, itchy, and hot.
We paused in Barstow to stretch our legs and take one last selfie on Route 66. We had never planned on taking the Route all the way to Santa Monica, and figured Highway 58 to Bakersfield was a good cutoff path to I-5. Our destination was Lost Hills, and a Motel 6 near the freeway.
We said goodbye to Route 66 and headed northwest through the Mojave Desert, the Tehachpian Mountains, and into the San Joaquin Valley. Dinner was at The Nuestro México restaurant in Bakersfield. I had mole con pollo and Shar had some chili verde enchiladas. It was the best mole I’ve had since Queretaro in Mexico three years ago. Thirty minutes later we were driving on our last freeway, I-5, and another thirty minutes found us pulling into the Motel 6 parking lot.
$45 hotel rooms always make me nervous, it being a national brand or not, so we hadn’t made reservations online. We wanted to make sure we could get our money back if the place turned out to be a dump.
The front desk lady, I didn’t catch her name, was friendly and happened to be from the monsoon area that we had just finished slogging through hours earlier. She had interesting stories of watching the walls of water approach and having to shut off the power because of lightning strikes. Total reservation was for $48 after tax, and we drove around the building to our room.
We were pleasantly surprised. True that it wasn’t much more than a dorm room, simple furnishings, no shampoo, small tv, but everything was clean and the AC worked well. We showered off two days worth of sweat and anti itch medication, and crawled into bed. We had 700 miles to cover on Friday and anticipated a quick start in the morning.
Miles Driven: 573
Roads Travelled: I-40, Highway 58, I-5
Temperature at 10:00am: 76
Day 20
We were both up and getting ready by 6:00am. By 6:30 we had McDonald’s sandwiches in our hands, cups of coffee in the cup holders, and were flying north on I-5 at 75 MPH. I drove the first 100 miles. We stopped at a gas station that didn’t have gas, then hit the next exit for a rest area and a potty stop. Thirty miles later we had paid $4 a gallon for gas and had passed a semi trailer with its back wheels on fire. 
The miles flew by, as did California. The Welcome to Oregon sign never looked so good, though the miles of burned land that surrounded the border area of I-5 didn’t. We stopped at Wolf Creek for gas, and Grants Pass for some good Indian food. I finished the last 150 miles and we were back at the beginning…
…only took us 7,561 miles and 20 days.
Miles Driven: 666
Roads Travelled: I-5, Highway 42
Temperature at 10:00am: 75
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