Another Car Show, another Epic Road Trip. We got our kicks on Route 66--to Beautiful Downtown Amboy--what there is of it. For the few of you who don't know, Amboy is a wide spot in the road, about halfway between Barstow and Needles. It's pretty famous amongst Road Trippers, home of Roy's Cafe and Motel and an (dare I say it?) ICONIC bit of Rte. 66.
Yeah, you've all seen the famous sign. Well, they don't serve food, and the motel doesn't take guests, but the guy who bought the town--yep, the WHOLE town has been upgrading and repairing stuff and has plans to make it fully functional. We hope.
For more on Amboy, here's a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amboy,_California
And here's a link to the YouTube video:
Oh, and just to toot my own trumpet, one of my shoot 'em up spy thrillers has the denouement in Amboy, ca 1976. And yes, here's where you can get a copy:Bicentennial Spy Club
But first, a bit of backstory:
Once upon a time, there was a Citroen dealer who, when Citroen bailed on the US market (long, sordid story) moved his entire shop, parts, tools, car inventory out to his desert property. You guessed it, Amboy. Well, actually PAST Amboy on old 66. About 10 miles beyond Amboy. Then, as customers' cars began to break or become unwanted, he'd buy them and stash them out on his property. Citroenistas dubbed the hoard "Area 52." If you needed obscure parts, this was THE place to go.
Fast forward to about 15 years ago, and the poor guy died. Enter the Late, Great Wally. A dyed-in-the-wool Citroen Dude. Even more so than Chuck! Wally worked for him and knew the family well, and the widow had Wally dispose of all that stuff.
He'd been trying to tease me into a Citroen for years, and so, since we were doing Art Fairs and the trusty old PT Cruiser that we'd haul stuff around in was becoming less then trusty, I jokingly asked him if there was a decent DS Wagon out there. Sure enough, there was and for two grand, we DROVE it up, onto the trailer, then DROVE it off at home! And there it sat.
Anyway, back to the main story:
Like our banzai trip to Paso Robles before Xmas, we were up a some ungodly hour to Hit the Road. BTW, did you know Amboy is closer to Monrovia than Paso Robles? Somehow, it just SEEMS further!
Cajon Pass was a bit nasty, as the cloud cover was REALLY low, so fog and drizzle made life interesting around the summit.
We dove off the I-15 at D Street in Victorville for gas and a pee and, why not, took Old 66 to Barstow. We even videoed it, and I'll insert a link to my YouTube page when I make the video.
In Barstow, we jumped on the I-40 to Ludlow. Why? Well, except for Dagget and Newberry Springs (home of the Bagdad Cafe of Movie Fame) Old 66 runs exactly parallel to the interstate. Honestly, there's no point unless you just want to say you've done it. Personally, been there, done that.
Off at Ludlow (and DO NOT BUY GAS THERE! $6.80/gallon? SHEEEIT!) we hit 66 again. This is where the Santa Fe Railroad took a longer route to Needles, keeping to the easiest gradient. Naturally, when 66 was built, they followed the railroad. IF you're a bit of a railfan (like me) you get to do a lot of trainspotting. It's a veritable parade of LONG BNSF trains going both ways. Great stuff. Until about a mile from Amboy, we had to cross and sure enough, not one, but TWO mile-long choochoos chugged by. Took long enough that the kid driving the Dodge in front of us got out and took a pee (later at the show, I spotted him and told him "Hey buddy, did you know your car was leaking fluid?)
Finally we got to Roy's for their Inaugural Car Show (and yes, they properly called it the Inaugural, NOT the First Annual). Parking was the usual chaos. It seems that Car Guys, getting parked at a car show lose 50 IQ points. Anyway, we got a pretty cool spot, RIGHT UNDER the Roy's Sign!
The day went well, the usual hoard of people had all the usual questions, and for once, most knew exactly where the Yellow Submarine came from! Interestingly, we had a number of people from France ask us about the car and, one guy who'd seen us at other events. Ah, Fame! There were over 200 cars there and loads of spectators as well. I think the organizers were a bit stunned, and, of course happy. Overall, things went smoothly.
After the Awards (ahem, look here!),
we could have stayed for the Extra Activities (an After Party, Lighting the Roy's Sign, and, after dark, showing Hot Rod Movies!) but we were, as you'd expect, "just a bit tired" and headed home. To accomplish that, we politely moved a few unoccupied chairs and squeezed our way out and headed for the barn.
We hit an In-n-Out (of course) for dinner and got home just after 7PM. Not a bad day, not a bad drive, and LOTS of pretty interesting cars. As Chuck in wont to say, "All car shows are local." True to this dictum, almost everyone was from 29 Palms, Joshua Tree, and many from Arizona. So, lots of stuff we hadn't seen before, which is what makes taking a trek to a far off car show is a lot of fun.
So, here's the pix of the coolest we spotted:
