Road Runner’s Retreat on Route 66: A Light to Remember
Chambless, California, located about ten miles east of Amboy, is a ghost town now. But…
Road Runner’s Retreat on Route 66: A Light to Remember
Chambless, California, located about ten miles east of Amboy, is a ghost town now. But travel a mere mile and a half west of where the settlement used to be, and you would have found the Road Runner’s Retreat, a true desert landmark on Route 66. Dominating the landscape was a massive 30-foot-wide sign, its…
Recollections From a Desert Highwayman
Now, if you’re thinking this might be a story about the storied ‘Highwaymen’ of years long passed, you might want to read on and become elucidated a bit on southwest lore. Because this, dear friends, is a story about those desert dwellers who built and maintained the roads between Needles, California, and all points west…
My Achy Breaky Hart
During the Panic of 1907, a financial crash that began with a severe drop on the New York Stock Exchange, James Hart and the brothers Bert and Clark Hitt, discovered pockets of rich gold ore in rhyolite on a steep slope in the Castle Mountains, approximately 4 miles south of the 23-miles long Barnwell &…
Slowjamastan: No Crocs Shall Pass
Where does one go when they have a yearning for foreign adventure and new unexplored territory? We have always been fans of international travel and seeing the world. To be candid, we have never traveled outside the United States nor do we currently have passports. Alas, the best laid plans of mice and men. We…
Murray’s Ranch: The Only Black Dude Ranch in the World
At the northwest corner of Waalew Road and Dale Evans Parkway in Apple Valley, just across the road from the Los Ranchos Mobile Home Park, is a vacant piece of desert with a few cement foundations and a smattering of trees near Bell Mountain. Next time you drive by there you might want to know…
A Desert Legacy So Far
While this may appear to be a stock photo of the Beverly Hillbillies visiting Joshua Tree National Monument in 1965, it is, in fact, my father driving his creation, a heavily chopped and modified 1950 Ford with a flathead V8 and 3 on the tree. One of the earlier varieties of soon-to-be popular sand and…
A Remembrance of Cucamonga
Not quite the desert, but Cucamonga was on the border. At the end of the 1960s and early 1970s, Route 66 was still the way to or from the great Mojave, from where I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley. I remember many trips to Cucamonga to explore the abandoned stone houses of early…
Niland, California and Its Hollywood Connection
When we see an old building, we have to stop and explore. We were traveling through Niland on our way to Westmorland for date shakes when a diamond in the rough beguiled us on Main Street. We were instantly captivated by its charming architecture and decided to delve into why this painted lady was down…
Happy Birthday, Gem of the Desert
While we have been known to move around a lot in the style of a comedic witness protection program, this is the first time we have actually written about our current hometown. That says something about La Quinta, California. Located in the Coachella Valley surrounded by the Colorado Desert, La Quinta was founded as a…
When the Desert Gives You Girl Scout Lemonades
As the saying goes, life gets in the way while you’re making other plans. We share with you an unexpected adventure that happened last weekend. Some may even refer to it as a cautionary tale. This one involved two boomers in a yellow 2005 Wrangler TJ. We were on the way to look at some alphabet ghost towns…
