April 26, 2015

Today we got to actually start our trip on Route 66. We are starting in a little convoluted route. We start in Victorville and head west to Santa Monica with a stop at Carla’s brother and his wife Glenn and Carolyn’s in Corona. Then we will head east and go end-to-end.

We headed to downtown Victorville on Ave D and 7th Street where there is a great sign spanning the street.

Welcome to Victorville, California

Unfortunately Emma Jean’s Hollandburger was closed because it was Sunday so we didn’t get to stop there for breakfast. You can get an idea of it’s attraction by checking this old blog post. So we stopped somewhere else.

We then headed over to the old train station to look for trains traveling along the BNSF Transcon (one of the big parts of this vacation as you’ll see). No sooner did we get trackside than a freight train was heading south from Barstow to San Bernadino.

BNSF freight at Victorville, California

Just north of Victorville we stopped at the Outpost Cafe and the Highway Trading Post. The store manager was a hoot to talk to and I got a nice little model of an old time gas pump for my office.

Highway Trading Company in Hesperia, California

Souvenirs at the Highway Trading Company in Hesperia, California – north of Victorville

Then it was time to head over Cajon Pass and into San Bernadino. We pulled off the freeway and found a great place to watch trains heading over the summit. We found a good stop just at the end of a big curve

BNSF container training traversing Cajon Pass

We also saw a nice rock structure showing the power of the San Andreas Fault. Instead of being horizontal these rock formations are at a steep angle.

Rock structure showing the San Andreas Fault in Cajon Pass.

After a couple of missed turns we worked our way along Cajon Boulevard and Foothill Boulevard in San Bernadino, Rialto and Fontana. Have you slept in a Wigwam lately? We haven’t but will in Holbrook Arizona in a week or two. We saw its twin in Rialto. This looks bigger and has nicer grounds than the one in Arizona.

Wigwam Motel in Rialto, California

In Fontana we had a Giant Alert – an old orange stand near the abandoned-but-soon-to-be-reopened Bono’s Cafe. This area was all citrus groves back in the day and you could top at these stands to get a bag of oranges or other citrus.

An old orange stand in Fontana, California

From Fontana we headed off Route 66 to Corona to visit Glenn and Carolyn who moved here last winter. They have an awesome home and entertained us well. They live at the base of a range of mountains south of town and we headed up for a hike in the Cleveland National Forest. The path is a continuous moderate grade that we hiked up for about 45 minutes when we got a great vista of what is known as the Inland Empire – the area east of Los Angeles.

Beautiful. We got a few pictures of the happy hikers on the way back.

Glenn and Carolyn hiking in the mountains of the Inland Empire

Carla and Howard enjoying the hike

Glenn, Carolyn, Carla, and Howard on a hike in the Cleveland National Forest south of the Inland Empire.

When we got back Carolyn fixed some margaritas while Glenn grilled some chicken and brats. A great end to a great day. We look forward to staying with them again on our trips south