Settimo giorno, 3 giugno: da Las Vegas a Victorville

Away from Las Vegas, a city of amusements that arose practically out of nowhere in the Mojave Desert, in the direction of Victorville, not far from the mountains behind Los Angeles. As expected, we crossed, again on Historic Route 66, the Mojave Desert, with temperatures around 38 degrees, along an incredibly straight road for miles. It’s impressive to think of being in America, on a Harley Davidson, on one of the most famous roads in the world, in a boundless desert and in the middle of nothing, crossing few vehicles. Sometimes, in the helmet, I asked myself “but what am I doing here?”! Then I thought about History, the epic of the Wild West, the New Frontier, the migration during the Dust Bowl, the movies shot right there and I was happy: I was making the journey of a lifetime! The West is this, then there are the mountains and the green, but the preponderance is the desert areas. At a stop along the road I wanted to photograph the Joshua trees, but when I pointed the camera I got the notification of low battery, I also ran to the motorcycle to take the spare one but we had to start again…

Before arriving in Victorville we made three stops, the first of which was in Kelso, once a railway junction, now a ghost town. A building that used to be a train station, an unlikely, small post office, obviously closed, our motorcycles parked in a vast and empty parking lot and around nothing. What you see in the photos is just like that, a deserted place.

Back on the road we stopped at Amboy’s iconic service area, Roy’s Motel. Ritual photo on the road next to the Route 66 shield printed on the asphalt, I also photographed the vest lying on the street next to the Wheel 66 shield drawn on the asphalt. Note: in Roy’s Cafe there is a sign that warns to be careful of (rare) vehicles in circulation while taking pictures of yourself in the middle of the road.

Back on the road we continued towards the final destination, stopping just before Victorville at Helmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch: the peculiarity of this attraction is that Helmer Long has “planted” about 200 glass bottle trees in several decades! In addition to this, on the frames of the “trees” there are an infinity of other historical pieces: antique typewriters, road signs, some missiles, jeeps or other car wreckage, rifles, car headlights, bicycle frames, handicrafts created by Helmer or other artists, in short, an infinity of incredible things for a fascinating view.

In the end, we arrived in Victorville and stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn, where for dinner we ate… slices of pizza! Anyway… see the photo! For the rest this was an overnight stop, we will have arrived around 6 pm and there was nothing around the hotel.